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MLR Waiver Request Encouraging, Says Agents Association
Texas Association of Health Underwriters applauds phased-in approach for medical loss ratio requirements
Dallas, TX — August 4, 2011 — The Texas Association of Health Underwriters today applauded Texas Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin for requesting a phased-in approach for insurance companies in meeting the medical loss ratio requirements (MLRs) required by the federal health care reforms adopted last year by Congress.
TAHU is an association of professional health insurance and employee benefits experts across Texas.
“The one-size-fits-all-right-now-right-here approach used by the federal government for MLRs has directly resulted in more people losing their insurance in the last six months as insurance plans are taken off the market, leaving people fewer choices and higher prices,” said Joanna Antongiovanni of San Antonio, president of TAHU.
“Commissioner Geeslin made the accurate point that there are so many moving parts to the complex health insurance market that great care – and patience – must be exercised when putting in any new rule for Texans and Americans,” Antongiovanni added.
Geeslin’s letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathryn Sebelius requested that requirements be phased in over the next three years to accomplish the final goal that insurance companies spend 80 percent of each premium dollar on medical claims.
“Every time you make what looks like a small adjustment in one area of the market, it will always cause changes in the rest of the market,” Antongiovanni said. “TAHU members work with individual insurance consumers and employers every day and are seeing up close and personal how higher prices and fewer plans are causing people to drop their insurance. That’s going in the wrong direction. We can get the same desired result – making sure more of people’s health insurance premium is used for medical care costs – but slowing down how we do it gives us time to make critical adjustments along the way while assuring we accomplish that goal.”
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About the Texas Association of Health Underwriters
A state chapter of the National Association of Health Underwriters, TAHU is a professional organization of agents and insurance company representatives aiming “…to inform and protect the consumer by enhancing the professional growth of its members.” Since its founding in 1930, there are now over 200 state and local chapters of the NAHU servicing the insurance needs of millions of Americans. More information can be accessed at www.TAHU.org.
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