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Obamacare...another delay in implementation.

Imnukingfutz

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Yet Another White House Obamacare Delay: Out-Of-Pocket Caps Waived Until 2015 - Forbes

A good article on the delay of the health law—its caps of out-of-pocket insurance costs—will be delayed for one more year - until 2015.

My question is, the cap goes into effect now in 2015 rather than 2013. It was set for the October 1 start of the fiscal year. Is the 2015 re-start going to be implemented on January 1, 2015 or October 1, 2015?

The new start date will tell us a lot on how politically charged and motivated the delay is.
 
These things go by plan years.


The law says:
(c) Requirements relating to cost-sharing
(1) Annual limitation on cost-sharing
(A) 2014
The cost-sharing incurred under a health plan with respect to self-only coverage or coverage other than self-only coverage for a plan year beginning in 2014 shall not exceed the dollar amounts in effect under section 223 (c)(2)(A)(ii) of title 26 [the out-of-pocket limits for high deductible plans tied to HSAs] for self-only and family coverage, respectively, for taxable years beginning in 2014.​

So any plan whose coverage begins on or after January 1, 2014 is subject to the out-of-pocket limits.

The "delay" is that employer plans with multiple plans for different benefits have one additional plan year to bring them all under a single unified out-of-pocket max; each plan will have to adhere to the new rules separately in 2014, but cumulatively that means the total out-of-pocket faced by a person can be higher for a year.

The Departments recognize that plans may utilize multiple service providers to help administer benefits (such as one third-party administrator for major medical coverage, a separate pharmacy benefit manager, and a separate managed behavioral health organization). Separate plan service providers may impose different levels of out-of-pocket limitations and may utilize different methods for crediting participants’ expenses against any out-of-pocket maximums. These processes will need to be coordinated under section 1302(c)(1), which may require new regular communications between service providers.

The Departments have determined that, only for the first plan year beginning on or after January 1, 2014, where a group health plan or group health insurance issuer utilizes more than one service provider to administer benefits that are subject to the annual limitation on out-of-pocket maximums under section 2707(a) or 2707(b), the Departments will consider the annual limitation on out-of-pocket maximums to be satisfied if both of the following conditions are satisfied:

(a) The plan complies with the requirements with respect to its major medical coverage (excluding, for example, prescription drug coverage and pediatric dental coverage); and

(b) To the extent the plan or any health insurance coverage includes an out-of-pocket maximum on coverage that does not consist solely of major medical coverage (for example, if a separate out-of-pocket maximum applies with respect to prescription drug coverage), such out-of-pocket maximum does not exceed the dollar amounts set forth in section 1302(c)(1).
 
The new start date will tell us a lot on how politically charged and motivated the delay is.

I don't think it is poltically motivated, I think the whole plan is ill thought out and poorly planned.

What I'm really suprised is that the GOP hasn't taken this delay thing by the horn and demanded that the individual mandate be delayed as well through action.
 
I don't think it is poltically motivated, I think the whole plan is ill thought out and poorly planned.

What I'm really suprised is that the GOP hasn't taken this delay thing by the horn and demanded that the individual mandate be delayed as well through action.

Counting on the GOP to do anything that would require standing up for whats right rather than just giving it lip service is a joke.

I agree that the bill as a whole was ill thought out and even a careless power grab first and foremost but I believe this delay could be very politically motivated...maybe not the direct cause but certainly a factor.

If it were implemented when the law says it is to be implemented, there would be 3 years worth of economic data, facts and figures to use in the next Presidential election cycle. Delay because of the ineptness of this administration in its implementation and delay even further to avoid negative economic data, facts and figures from this law.

Another issue that is of concern is how the President...any President actually...can, with the stroke of a pen, delay implementation of any law passed by congress that has a specified date in the law not to mention, also with the stroke of his pen, give exclusions to any person or group of persons from the mandates of the law.
 
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