Healthcare

https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/articles/policy-pandemic-housing-security-policies-reduce-us-covid-19-infection-rates As the impact of COVID-19 grows in the United States, the lack of vaccines or effective treatment, coupled with anticipated subsequent outbreaks, has made it necessary to adopt unprecedented policy interventions across many aspects of daily life. Now many people are facing financial challenges resulting from these interventions and are struggling to pay housing and utility...

Jefferson City — Believe it or not, generic medicines can be less expensive than co-pays, making them cheaper to buy outright than with insurance – but your pharmacist may be banned from telling you that. The cost difference doesn’t go to the pharmacist, it doesn’t go to the drug manufacturer, it goes to the middleman: the drug benefit manager. That payback is called a clawback. Clawbacks can range from $2 to $30 a prescription, boosting profits while unfairly charging consumers....

Consumers Council of Missouri has completed a formal review of proposed 2018 health insurance rates in the state of Missouri. This marks the first year the Missouri Department of Insurance has the authority to review rates and CCM is calling for the Department to deem each of the rates hikes “unreasonable.” Three companies will be offering insurance on the exchange in Missouri in 2018: Cigna, Healthy Alliance (Anthem) and Celtic (Centene, new to the MO exchange). Proposed rate increases are...

Proposed rates for the 2018 Missouri health insurance exchange were released on Friday by the Missouri Department of Insurance. While the Department and our state’s carriers both deserve credit for ensuring that all counties in MO have ACA coverage, this comes at significant cost. Requested increases average between 35 and 42% according to a review by the Department and as reported here. What makes these increases even worse is that they come with compromised transparency to the general...

Under Governor Greitens, the state has launched an initiative to increase transparency and within that framework, Consumers Council of Missouri submits a formal argument that the Department’s regulation 20 CSR § 10-2.400, on the redaction of trade secrets, should be updated to reflect what is required by law and that nothing that isn’t a trade secret should be withheld from the public.   Insurance companies routinely designate a substantial amount of information in their rate...

The annual review of health insurance rates helps to protect consumers from insurance companies unjustly increasing rates on premiums. Federal regulations specify that 2018 health insurance rates must be made public by August 1 to facilitate this review process but the Missouri Department of Insurance has postponed public access of these filings in our state to September 1, 2017. With all the activity on the national level regarding the future of subsidies and the last-minute addition of...

The MO Director of Insurance joins consumer advocates at CCM in cheering Centene for filling the ACA void in our state. While we would like to see more choice in MO, 1 choice is certainly better than no choice.

With a large part of MO at risk of having no insurer next year, Centene decides to sell Obamacare plans in MO. Read more here.