(Part 2) I’ve heard that I may be entitled to a rebate from my health insurance policy due to healthcare reform. What are the details?

How many policyholders will receive rebates and how much will they be? The initial estimates are that about 15 million plus members will receive rebates in the Summer of 2012 for 2011 premiums paid. This equates to about a third of all policyholders who have either individual or family health insurance policies.

Our government estimates that the average rebate for an individual/family plan should be around $164. That number is expected to be much less for those of you who are covered under group health insurance plans through your employer. Since the employer is required by law to contribute a certain percentage of the cost, the employer is allowed to keep their respective portion of the rebate.

Should I be worried if I don’t receive a rebate? If you don’t receive a rebate, that could be good news going forward. That basically sends a signal that your health insurance company did an excellent job in managing their costs to stay within the 80-85% minimum loss ratio. Since insurance carriers will impose rate increases based on the profitability or loss of the book of business that your policy is included in, a lack of a rebate shows that any rate increases may be very minimal going forward.

If you do receive a rebate in 2012, that may indicate that your health insurance company did a poor job in managing their claim risks and routine business expenses. You could expect a higher premium rate increase going forward as a result. This is not a guarantee, but you may have some idea of what to expect going forward.

Either way, you can expect rates across the country to start increasing at a faster pace than before due to the Affordable Care Act.

If you have received recent rate increases or feel that you could benefit by shopping around, please contact Selected Benefits as we work with most every major Texas health insurance company. We have the ability to place you with any number of health insurance companies that service the Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio areas. Actually, we can help you no matter what area of the State you live in.