January 2012

To get it right, Ohio should set up own health-care exchange

Submitted by clevine on Fri, 01/20/2012 - 1:00am

A goal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is to expand access to affordable health coverage for uninsured Americans. Under the law, the chief vehicle for connecting uninsured individuals and small businesses with better health-insurance choices is the exchange, a marketplace for health coverage. The exchange will include a website that will have easy-to-understand information allowing consumers to make apples-to-apples comparisons among insurance policies so they can find a plan that best meets their needs and budgets.

SB 277

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 01/06/2012 - 11:37am

We applaud Senator Michael Skindell for introducing SB 277 that would set up the Ohio HealthBenefit Exchange Program

It’s So Simple (and It’s the Law)– Why Won’t ODI Put Rate Increases Up on Its Web Site?

Submitted by kgmeiner on Tue, 01/03/2012 - 10:20am

An interesting e-mail came into my box recently from Consumers Union.  CU looked at 50 state insurance department web sites and recorded what each state is doing to alert its residents to health insurance rate increase requests, and allow consumers to have an avenue for input. This follows the finalization of a rule on September 1, 2011 requiring states to post on their websites insurance companies’ requests for rate increases of greater than 10% and provide a way for consumers to submit comments on the rate requests.