LAWMAKERS and healthcare officials met last night to discuss the effects of the recent Supreme Court ruling to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) aka “Obamacare” at the legislative public hearing room in Hagåtña.
In attendance were representatives from the Department of Public Health and Social Services, Attorney General's Office, the Governor's Office, Department of Revenue and Taxation, and health insurance providers Calvo’s SelectCare, StayWell and Moylan’s NetCare.
According to Sen. Dennis Rodriguez, chairman of the health committee, the PPACA stands to broaden the extent of health coverage on Guam by mandating that health plans must accept every employer and individual that applies for coverage. The new law also prevents insurance companies from discriminating applicants based on pre-existing conditions.
Issues brought up at the hearing included the extent to which the individual mandates in the new law apply to residents of the territory, and whether the relatively small population creates problems in establishing an exchange because the health insurance market is made up of small businesses with different plans.
Establishing a health insurance exchange was also discussed.
Overall, some of the participants in the discussion said there seems to be a lack of technical guidance on the complexity of PPACA, adding that the law is very dense and expensive, requiring private insurers to meet several mandates.
Additionally, it was noted that the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands also struggles with the same issues.
Effects of ‘Obamacare’ ruling discussed
- Wednesday, 04 Jul 2012 03:30am
- BY JOY WHITE | VARIETY NEWS STAFF
- Hits: 480
Comments
“It’s amazing that people who think that we can’t afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and medication somehow think that we can afford doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.”
As I've noted several times previously, if you think medical insurance is expensive now just wait a while. All we can do is cross our fingers and hope the Kenyan Marxist/Socialist loses in November and a new Republican administration begins repeal proceedings on Obamacare. A Republican majority in the Senate would speed things along. Otherwise America, the America so many of us remember and revere, will soon be a thing of the distant past. We can always look forward to telling our disbelieving grand-children how it once was in our nation.
Not to feel bad about a lack of knowledge concerning O' bamacare.
Nancy and Harry passed it in record time and as of today , only a small handfull of scholars posess even a slight knowledge of what this 2500 page bill contains.
States and territories are on their own. The light at the end of the tunnel is this case is an oncomming freight train aka 25,000 additional IRS agents to audit our Government and assess fines.
We will find out a lot about O'bamacare as the IRS agents hand us page after page of 6-7 digit fines.
hast[censored]
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