Tagged: affordable care act

Health insurance exchanges, a crucial part of the federal Affordable Care Act, will have a great impact on Michigan residents.

To better explain the exchanges, we spoke with Helen Levy. A research associate professor at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Levy is well-versed in the fine points of the Affordable Care Act.

“A Health insurance exchange is a marketplace designed to bring together people who want to buy insurance and companies that want to sell it to them,” said Levy.

The sites on which the plans will be featured will follow the templates of other marketplace sites.

“It’s going to look something like Travelocity but for health insurance. You can scroll through the policies and see what the different premiums are. The exchanges are intended to include community rating. It’s a key part of making affordable insurance available to everyone,” said Levy.

In health news. . .

Officials with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan say the state Legislature must pass bills to overhaul the health insurer by the end of the year. Under the measures, Blue Cross would become a customer-owned non-profit, and would have to pay state and local taxes. The Lansing State Journal reports,

Even though it would lose its tax-exempt status, Blue Cross says the change in classification — and the lower government regulation that goes with it — is essential for it to be able to compete with other insurers under the Affordable Care Act.Under federal law, Blue Cross must have its products and rates ready by March for an online health exchange where people can compare and buy their own insurance plans, but the organization won’t make it because of the way it’s currently regulated by the state.

Meanwhile, as Rick Pluta reports, "Michigan is unlikely to meet a Friday deadline to tell the Obama administration if it will create a statewide online exchange for people to shop for health insurance. The alternative is for Michigan to become part of a federally managed exchange."

Tribe asks federal court to dismiss lawsuit to block Lansing casino

"A federal judge is being asked to dismiss a lawsuit aimed at stopping plans for a casino in downtown Lansing. The Sault Sainte Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians delivered its response this week to the lawsuit filed by Michigan’s Attorney General in September.  The lawsuit claims the casino project violates federal law as well as a gaming compact between the state and the tribe. The tribe says that’s not true. The tribe wants to resolve this legal challenge before asking the federal government to take the land around Lansing’s convention center into trust.   The land must fall into trust…before the tribe can begin construction of its casino," Steve Carmody reports.

The leader of another Michigan business is suing the federal government over provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

John Kennedy, CEO of Kentwood-based Autocam Automotive, filed a complaint in a federal court in Grand Rapids Monday. In it, he says his company shouldn’t have to provide employees with health insurance that includes contraception coverage he considers “intrinsically wrong and gravely sinful”.

A Catholic legal group says parts of President Obama’s health care law violate their clients’ religious freedom.

Representatives for the Thomas More Law Center made their arguments on behalf of business owners in a Detroit federal court Friday.

The groups charge that they shouldn’t have to provide employees with health insurance that includes contraception coverage—the so-called “HHS mandate”-- in violation of their first amendment rights.

This week on It's Just Politics it’s all about the Blues. Blue Cross Blue Shield, that is. BCBS is, by far, the state’s largest health insurance company. It’s also a state government creation; created by state law. It has its own law, separate from all other insurance companies because it is Michigan’s “insurer of last resort,” meaning that Blue Cross has to take everyone who applies. Its mission: to make sure everyone who wants or needs health insurance in Michigan can get it.

Michigan legislators are being told that it may already be too late to create an online health insurance exchange. The federal health care law requires states to submit their plans by mid-November, but exchanges require a level of complexity that might make it difficult to have a plan ready in time. 

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and his fellow Republicans could find themselves knee-deep in health care issues Wednesday when lawmakers briefly return after a five-week break.

Snyder needs to get reluctant House Republicans on board with his efforts to create an online site where individuals and small businesses can comparison shop for private health insurance.