Rick Young Insurance's Blog

The Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) is one of the primary features of the health reform law. It establishes a minimum dollar value of medical payments as a percentage of premium revenue with the difference going to administrative costs and profits.

The Obama administration issued its long-awaited final rule on essential health benefits that insurers must offer consumers in the individual and small-group market beginning in 2014 under the health care reform law, says Reuters.

Under the Affordable Care Act, children up to the age of 26 years can stay on their parents' health insurance plan.

Since different provisions of ObamaCare entered the implementation phase over the past year, 34 states have decided against implementing some of the provisions necessary to create the law's health insurance exchanges.

By January 1, 2014, most states will have some form of insurance exchange as mandated by ObamaCare. The exchanges are supposed to provide more choices and greater competition.

Republicans are building consensus around an alternative to ObamaCare that will hopefully lead to the bill's revocation.

Over the next year, different pieces of the ObamaCare health care mandate will be implemented as the whole program is brought to fruition. Among the many provisions that are causing controversy is the tax on insurance plans, which could be costly for states, says The Hill.

Many provisions of the Affordable Care Act ("Obama Care") seek to expand access to health care but are not in the best interests of the states. Thirty-four states have already refused to create health care exchanges and many others are currently deciding whether to expand Medicaid coverage as envisioned by the Obama Care mandate. The Obama administration is still trying to coerce states into implementing parts of the expansion the Supreme Court viewed as optional. States should collectively veto the exchanges and Medicaid expansion, which would force Congress to reconsider or repeal the mandate, says Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute.

Wonder why you can't get a straight answer on how much a health care procedure will cost you? One big reason: State laws that allow hospitals and other providers to keep costs hidden until they send you the bill, says Kaiser Health News.

Emerging new details about the application process for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) suggest that applying for benefits will be an onerous and grueling process. The rosiest of possibilities would liken getting health insurance under the ACA to shopping at your favorite online store. New details reveal that the application process, the product of red tape and bureaucracy, will be a hassle for applicants, says the Associated Press.