NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The President's trip to Nashville put the spotlight on health care, and at the heart of it: how the industry can affect ordinary people's wallets.
“It’s not good for anybody when health care costs go up,” said the President on Wednesday.
One big fear for many Tennesseans has been the possibility of rising premiums. Tennessee's two largest insurance companies on the exchange, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Community Health Alliance, requested to raise rates by more than 30 percent next year.
The President responded to a question from a crowd member concerned about that hike
“The key for Tennessee,” Obama said, “is just making sure the Insurance Commissioner does their job and not just passively reviewing the rates.”
Commissioner Julie McPeak said she was watching the forum at the time.
“That was a little bit directed at our department and we have a number of professionals in addition to myself that take our jobs very seriously,” she said, slightly taken aback.
McPeak testified on the exact topic of premium increase before Congress. The President seemed confident about controlling price hikes:
“My expectation is they'll come in significantly lower than what’s being requested,” he said.
McPeak, whose office reviews and approves premium changes, hasn't been so sure.
“I haven't seen anything to show the companies were far off the mark,” she said.
She said Tennessee insurers have been losing money. They originally had to estimate how many people would enroll and many have been paying out more money in claims than they take in through premiums.
Several aspects of the ACA have contributed to rising costs, including popular clauses like the one that requires insurers to accept people with pre-existing conditions.
But McPeak said while many of the regulations can be beneficial for people enrolled, the controls have been turning out to be difficult for insurers. And that could mean trouble for competition in the marketplace.
“If a company can’t make a profit or at least cover their administrative expenses there’s not a lot of incentive for them to write policies in our marketplace,” she said. She also pointed out some major national insurers opted to wait and see how the marketplace panned out before writing policies on the exchange.
The President did have ideas to lower health care costs at the source, he alluded to them Wednesday.
“Let’s reimburse people for the outcomes and the quality of care that people are getting,” he said, rather than just the procedures and equipment.
But he said it will take creative thinking on the part of hospitals and providers as insurers hold on for the ride.
The Department of Commerce and Insurance has an August 25 deadline to approve any policy hikes.
The Commissioner said it's possible federal subsidies will also go up to help people with the pain of a large increase.
