Health care changes take effect and Virginia lawsuit proceeds

Anthem Blue cross, which came under fire earlier this year for requesting insurance rate increases as high as 39 percent, has now announced a plan for smaller rate increases.  The new proposed premium hikes, which would go into effect September 1st, would average 14 percent, with a maximum increase of 20 percent.  Anthems parent company, Wellpoint, had profits of almost $900 million in the first three months of 2010.

Controversy over Anthem's proposed rate change was one of several factors which led to the passage of health care reform this past March.  The federal government's new health care website went on line today.  At Healthcare.gov, people can find information on plans, carriers, and prices for private plans, Medicaid, and children’s health insurance.  The website launch comes as some of the first pieces of the new health care reform law went into effect today- among them, new high risk pools, offering insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. But as states and consumers begin to sort out the details of how, and if, they can access affordable coverage, a legal challenge to the 'Affordable Healthcare Act' began in Virginia.  FSRN’s Jacob Fenston has more:

TRANSCRIPT:

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than one-third of people trying to buy health insurance in the past three years were turned down or charged high rates because of a pre-existing condition.

Starting July 1, those people will be able to buy into high-risk pools funded by the federal government. The health care bill provides $5 billion  to set up the pools. Twenty-one states chose to let the feds run their programs. Twenty-nine states, plus the District of Columbia, chose to run their own.

“The District already has a somewhat similar high-risk pool”, says Lashown Beman, a D.C. spokeswoman. “So as a result we thought it would just be best for us to run it ourselves.”

Beman says 1 in 3 D.C. residents is already covered by the District’s insurance programs:

“[A] little known fact is that the District actually ranks number one in the nation for providing government health insurance. We are one of the most generous states.”

But she says the new federally funded high-risk pool will bring down premiums and expand coverage.

Just south of D.C., Virginia’s governor declined to set up a high-risk pool, saying money from the federal government wouldn’t last through 2014, when the pools expire.

Virginia is on the forefront of fighting health care reform. On Thursday, the state’s Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, spent two hours in front of a federal judge in Richmond, arguing the health care bill is unconstitutional. Virginia’s lawsuit against the federal government is the first of many state challenges.

Cuccinelli says the health insurance mandate compels Virginians to buy something they don’t want:

“This is unprecedented exercise of power by the federal government. It’s never happened before that they’ve ordered Americans to buy one thing from another American or company. It’s Virginia’s position that it goes well beyond the Commerce Clause, and there’s no other clause in the constitution that can support this sort  of compulsion to Americans.”

Cuccinelli says he expects an initial decision within 30 days. But whoever wins, the case will be appealed ... and very likely end up in the Supreme Court.

Jacob Fenston, FSRN, Washington.

Photo by: Gage Skidmore

Virginia Governor McDonnell, in photo, has called the Health Care Reform Act unconstitutional.