Posts tagged Tom Coburn

Of Medical Loss Ratios and Men

30
1 year ago
by Monotreme in

Agit­prop caduceus.

My Face­book feed has been filled with gloat­ing about a Rick Ungar col­umn in Forbes: The Bomb Buried in Oba­macare Explodes Today [12/​2] — Hallelujah!

In his col­umn, Ungar argues that new med­ical loss ratios estab­lished in the Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act (PPACA, “Oba­macare”) will force pri­vate insur­ance com­pa­nies out of busi­ness, leav­ing the mar­ket open for a single-​​payer plan that Ungar and oth­ers have wanted all along (there­fore, his “hallelujah!”).

What is the med­ical loss ratio, is it really that crit­i­cal, and what are the chances it will put insur­ance com­pa­nies out of business?

The numer­a­tor of the MLR equals the insurer’s incurred claims and expen­di­tures for activ­i­ties that improve health care qual­ity, and the denom­i­na­tor equals the insurer’s pre­mium rev­enue minus fed­eral and state taxes and licens­ing and reg­u­la­tory fees. — Proskauer

That is, if an insur­ance com­pany takes in 100 dol­lars in pre­mi­ums, and spends 85 dol­lars of that money on health care, then it has a med­ical loss ratio of 85 per­cent. The PPACA sets the med­ical loss ratio at a min­i­mum of 80 per­cent for small car­ri­ers and 85 per­cent for large car­ri­ers. If the med­ical loss ratio is below that thresh­old, then the insur­ance com­pany is required to issue a rebate check to con­sumers to bring the ratio to the thresh­old. (more…)

Talking Heads July 24

23
1 year ago
by Logarchism.com in

Talk show day is upon us again. This week is, of course, debt talk. Accord­ing to Politico, here’s the lineup for this week:

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-​​Oklahoma)

Meet the Press (NBC) — White House chief of staff Bill Daley; Sen. Tom Coburn (R-​​Oklahoma), one of the Gang of Six; fresh­man Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-​​Illinois); and Newark, NJ, mayor Cory Booker; all talk bud­get and debt.

This Week (ABC) — Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Tim­o­thy Gei­th­ner, fol­lowed by for­mer Sen­ate Major­ity Lead­ers Trent Lot and Tom Daschle, to talk about debt nego­ti­a­tion. And now that New York has legal­ized gay mar­riage, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears with Jonathan Mintz and John Fein­blatt, a gay cou­ple whose mar­riage the mayor will officiate.

Face the Nation (CBS) — Daley; three other mem­bers of the Gang of Six: Sen­a­tors Dick Durbin (D-​​Illinois), Mark Warner (D-​​Virginia), and Saxby Cham­b­liss (R-​​Georgia); and Sen­ate Minor­ity Whip Jon Kyl (R-​​Arizona). All talk about the bud­get battle.

Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Tim Geithner

State of the Union (CNN) — Gei­th­ner, Sen­a­tor Dianne Fein­stein (D-​​California) and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Raul Gri­jalva (D-​​Arizona) talk debt. And for­mer Min­nesota Gov. Tim Paw­lenty, who’s hop­ing to do well in Ames, Iowa, next month, con­tin­ues to try to sell him­self as the ideal Repub­li­can Pres­i­den­tial candidate.

Fox News Sun­day — Gei­th­ner, fresh­man Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joe Walsh (R-​​Illinois), and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Donna Edwards (D-​​Maryland) will talk about…what else? The budget.

News­mak­ers (CSPAN) — Demo­c­ra­tic House Cau­cus Chair­man John Lar­son (D-​​Connecticut) for more bud­get talks.

Polit­i­cal Cap­i­tal (Bloomberg TV) — Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dave Camp (R-​​Michigan), chair­man of the tax-​​writing House Ways and Means Com­mit­tee, will also talk about the bud­get battle.

Steel Cage Match

13
1 year ago
by filistro in

In this corner…“the most pow­er­ful man in Amer­ica not sit­ting in the White House.” That’s what Lawrence O’Donnell calls him. He has a signed pledge of loy­alty from every influ­en­tial Repub­li­can politi­cian, includ­ing state gov­er­nors, Con­gress­men, pres­i­dents all the way up to (and includ­ing) George W. Bush, and every one of the currently-​​serving GOP sen­a­tors. And yet mem­bers of his own party are often crit­i­cal of, and some­times at war with him. Frank Gaffney thinks he’s a Mus­lim Broth­er­hood sleeper agent, and Tucker Carl­son, of all peo­ple, once called him a mean-​​spirited, dis­hon­est, humor­less lit­tle creep.

Who is this inter­est­ing com­bat­ant? It’s Grover Norquist, pres­i­dent of Amer­i­cans for Tax Reform, who aggres­sively lob­bies for smaller gov­ern­ment, lower tax rates, and absolutely no increases in tax­a­tion. Ever. For any rea­son at all. (more…)

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