As Obamacare inches toward full implementation in 2014, its benefits are already being felt, more and more strongly with each passing year. Yesterday, we got some news about the impacts of Obamacare’s “medical loss ratio,” which is the common-sense policy that requires insurers to pay a minimum percentage of their premiums toward actual medical care:

Today, we have a first look at how this provision has affected the industry. Health insurance companies will pay $1.3 billion in rebates for 2011, according to a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation…. [emphasis added]

Importantly, we’re not just saving money. Insurers are also spending more money on medical care, as evidenced by the fact that the 2011 rebates are less than they would have been in 2010, had the medical loss ratio been in effect last year:

Insurers aren’t squirreling away an extra $700 million somewhere. They’re doing what the federal government wants them to do: Spending that $700 million on medical costs. Obama administration officials have repeatedly emphasized that, in an ideal world, there would be no rebates, which get messy and administrative. Instead, they want to see all of that $1.3 billion put into medical costs. And, while insurers aren’t quite there yet, they do appear to be inching in that direction.

These are two of the benefits of Obamacare that conservatives want to take away from us. In its place, they want… absolutely nothing. Costs will rise, millions will lose health care, and the Federal deficit will increase. They have no ideas — so why not stick with a program that’s already proving itself?

Growth and Justice is out with a new report [PDF] studying the impact of universal health care in Minnesota. The results are phenomenal:

Total state health spending can be reduced by nearly 9% under a unified single-payer plan, as specified above, while eliminating uninsurance in the state. The savings are achieved despite covering the remaining 262,000 Minnesotans who would still be uninsured under the ACA.

…an employer payroll tax of 9.99% applied to wages over $12,000 per employee per year (an effective rate of 7.44% based on median wages) would cover the employer contribution to a health care system, retaining the federal tax preference afforded to employer-sponsored health care. …most employers would save money. Employers who currently offer insurance would save an average of $1,214 per employee per year. Firms not currently offering insurance would face increased costs as all employers would pay into a unified system as modeled in this report.

A unified system would save money for Minnesota families; the average family would save $1,240 annually on premiums and would see a small increase in income due to lower employer health care costs.

At first, the new payroll tax for employers might seem steep. Remember, though, that these employers would no longer be purchasing separate insurance, so their costs would actually be reduced overall. And though it costs less than we’re paying today, a single-payer system would insure absolutely everyone in the state.

Instead of working to turn Obamacare into a giveaway for corporations, this is what our legislature should be working on — providing affordable health care for every Minnesotan, without exception.

David Frum pointed out yesterday that even though the GOP is calling for the repeal of Obamacare, they have offered no alternative whatsoever:

If the Supreme Court doesn’t rescue them from themselves, they’ll be heading into this election season arguing, in effect, Our plan is to take away the government-mandated insurance of millions of people under age 65, and replace it with nothing. And we’re doing this so as to better protect the government-mandated insurance of people over 65—until we begin to phase out that insurance, too, for everybody now under 55.

Frum isn’t even exaggerating here. Just last night, on the Tonight Show, Mitt Romney said that the uninsured are out of luck, and we’re not going to do anything for them:

LENO: Suppose they were never insured?

ROMNEY: Well, if they’re 45 years old, and they show up, and they say, I want insurance, because I’ve got a heart disease, it’s like, `Hey guys, we can’t play the game like that. You’ve got to get insurance when you’re well, and if you get ill, then you’re going to be covered.’

First of all, this seems like a pretty good argument for the individual mandate, doesn’t it? More importantly, though, this highlights the Republicans’ lack of a plan. Their “plan” is to blame the uninsured and tell them they’re on their own.

Obamacare isn’t perfect. But it’s a definite solution to a difficult problem. If the Republicans have their way, we’ll just go back to having tens of millions of uninsured Americans.

Two years ago today, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act — affectionately known as Obamacare — into law. While many of the provisions are still being phased in, the law has already done a lot of good. Via Nancy Pelosi’s office, here are some numbers on the first two years of Obamacare:

86 million Americans, including both seniors in Medicare and Americans under age 65 in private plans, have received one or more free preventive services, such as check-ups and cancer screenings.

105 million Americans have had a lifetime limit on their coverage eliminated.

Up to 17 million children who have pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage by insurers.

2.5 million additional young adults up to age 26 now have health insurance.

5.1 million seniors in the ‘donut hole’ have received savings on their prescription drugs.

$3.2 billion is the amount that seniors in the ‘donut hole’ have saved on their prescription drugs, or an average of $635 per senior.

2.3 million seniors have taken advantage of a free Annual Wellness Visit under Medicare.

360,000 small employers have used the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit to help them afford health insurance for 2 million workers in 2011.

When you vote in November, remember that the Republicans want to repeal Obamacare and eliminate all of these gains.

As we approach the two-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, Republicans in Minnesota are working to undermine affordable health care for all. With Health Exchanges coming online in 2014, states must plan now to have their exchanges working. The MNGOP is complying with the law — but Republican legislators are working to turn the exchanges into a giveaway for private health care corporations.

I received the following release from the Minnesota SEIU:

Minnesota GOP legislators are continuing to publicly discredit the Affordable Care Act. At the same time, while 1 in 3 still lack access to affordable health care or struggle to pay the bills they have, Republicans are quietly moving forward several key pieces of legislation that would dismantle Minnesotans’ access to affordable health care.

These bills, as a whole, would create a health care framework that:

• Lacks any consumer representation on decision-making bodies;
• Funnels huge public and private resources into private health industry brokers, with almost no oversight or transparency of the use of those funds;
• Puts the Health Exchange into the hands of the private market health insurance industry;
• Would benefit corporations and insurance companies rather than consumers.

Minnesota legislators, led by David Hann, Steve Gottwalt, Chris Gerlach, and Glenn Gruenhagen, are committed to following the new health care laws to the minimum extent required. They’re working hard to turn what could be a golden opportunity for consumers into a giveaway for corporate interests.

Minnesota, if you want health care exchanges that bring you real benefits and stand up for truly affordable health care, it’s time to turn over control of the legislature to leaders who actually want the Affordable Care Act to succeed.

The right continues to complain that Obamacare is going to ruin our country, but it’s getting to be a hard argument to make. Every month, it seems there’s more news about how the Affordable Care Act is making health care more accessible and more affordable. Last month, it was shrinking the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole.” This month, it’s a drastic increase in young adults’ access to insurance:

New results from the National Health Interview Survey show that, from September 2010, when this part of the law took effect, to June 2011, the percentage of 19 to 25 year olds with health insurance coverage increased by more than 8 percentage points, from 64.4 percent to 72.7 percent.  This translates to roughly 2.5 million young adults gaining coverage.

A closer look at the NHIS data makes it clear that the Affordable Care Act is responsible for this good news.  First, the coverage gains were accounted for entirely by an increase in private insurance coverage.  There has been no statistically significant change in the percentage of 19 to 25 year olds covered by public health insurance since September 2010.  Second, as shown in the graph, the percent of young adults between the ages of 26 and 35 with health insurance coverage stayed roughly constant over the same time period. [Emphasis added]

For some sick reason, the Republicans want to repeal this program that’s already doing so much good for millions of Americans. I guess it fits in well next to their platform of ending Medicare. What exactly does the GOP have against expanding access to health care?

One of George W. Bush’s biggest giveaways to massive corporations was his Medicare Part D plan. Part D specifically prohibited Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices. Even worse, it featured the infamous “doughnut hole,” under which every plan included a massive gap in coverage.

Thankfully, Obamacare will phase out the doughnut hole by 2020, and it’s already starting to improve coverage for seniors:

The “doughnut hole,” an anxiety-inducing catch in an otherwise popular benefit, will shrink about 40 percent for those unlucky enough to land in it, according to new Medicare figures provided in response to a request from The Associated Press.

The average beneficiary who falls into the coverage gap would have spent $1,504 this year on prescriptions. But thanks to discounts and other provisions in President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law, that cost fell to $901, according to Medicare’s Office of the Actuary, which handles economic estimates. [AP, via Political Animal]

As a reminder, the Republican Party wants to repeal Obamacare. In fact, they have frequently pledged to repeal it. At the same time, they have proposed ending Medicare. And they want seniors to vote for them in 2012?

Whether the Republicans like it or not, Obamacare is coming. As much as they kick and scream, we’re going to insure all Americans, stop health care from being the largest driver of bankruptcy, and even help the poor to get preventative care. I know they hate that, but it’s true.

It’s true in Minnesota, where Republicans in the legislature have fought it tooth and nail. They have refused to work on implementing the health exchanges required in the Affordable Care Act. At the same time, they have attacked the Governor for working on his own to implement the exchanges in their absence.

Yesterday, despite the Republicans’ outrage over the prospect of affordable health care for all Minnesotans, the Governor decided to move forward to improve health care in Minnesota:

Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday issued an executive order establishing two separate health care task forces, one to work on broad health care reform initiatives and another to develop the state’s health insurance exchange.

Calling the move an effort to improve the state’s entire health care system, Dayton administration officials described the panels as a far-reaching, two-year effort. The task forces will include members from  industry, advocacy and academic interests as well as lawmakers from the Capitol.

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