Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I believe Congress should reexamine the federally mandated medical loss ratios in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Today I will outline four reasons I believe consumers will face increased costs, decreased choice, and reduced competition. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PPACA, included a provision that requires all health plans to adhere to a medical loss ratio, MLR, established in law. The MLR refers to the percentage of premium revenues for health insurance plans spent on medical claims. Thus, if a plan received $100 of premiums and spent $85 on medical claims its MLR would be 85 percent. Beginning no later than January 1, 2011, PPACA requires a health insurance issuer to provide an annual rebate to each enrollee if the ratio of the amount of premium revenue expended by the issuer on clinical claims and health quality costs, after accounting for several factors such as certain taxes and reinsurance, is less than 85 percent in the large group market and 80 percent in the small group and individual markets. Supporters of PPACA tend to herald the newly created, higher MLR requirement as providing ``better value'' for policyholders compared to a lower MLR. To the untrained ear, perhaps higher MLRs sound better since they force health insurance plans are required to spend a larger percentage of each dollar on medical claims.…”