PPACA: NAHU to Continue MLR Commission Pass-Through Fight

Officials at NAHU, Arlington, Va., looked quickly at the 308-page batch of regulations when they were released and suggested that agents and brokers might be able to live with the regulations. The regulations include a provision allowing officials to adjust the MLR rules if they appear to be disrupting a state’s individual health insurance market, especially between now and 2014, when a new, subsidized individual health insurance system is supposed to open its doors.

NAHU Chief Executive Janet Trautwein now says NAHU is disappointed with the MLR regulations.

“NAHU is concerned that this rule will lead to severe market disruption in the individual and small-group health insurance markets,” Trautwein says in a statement. “While NAHU agrees with the goal of providing consumers with greater value for health care dollars spent, medical loss ratio requirements significantly and negatively impact coverage choice and affordability.”

State insurance regulators and HHS all repeatedly acknowledged the harm the MLR calculation could do to agents and brokers, Trautwein says.

“We will continue to work with members of Congress to revise the MLR formula through the legislative process,” Trautwein says.