Blog: Burgess Statement on HHS Health Insurance Market Reforms

Statement

Dr. Burgess released the following statement after Health and Human Services issued the proposed rule to implement provisions of the Affordable Care Act related to health insurance market reforms:

"Two weeks following the 2012 election, the Obama administration has released over three hundred pages of proposed regulations in an attempt to provide further details concerning implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The proposed rules focus on insurance market reforms, including the establishment of standards for state benchmark plans, and methods of calculating the actuarial value of health insurance plans. The proposed rules are ambiguous and complicated. For example, Secretary Sebelius proposes that an essential health benefits benchmark plan must "reflect an appropriate balance among all essential health benefits categories", without further defining "appropriate'. Furthermore, the administration continues to neglect to provide a clear definition of the ten categories of essential health benefits required to be covered in a benchmark plan. Such regulations will only further burden states, small businesses, and providers with a complexity of rules to follow, obstructing their flexibility to provide patient's effective and appropriate health care. The nation requires leadership from Secretary Sebelius and President Obama to see the path forward for the health care system, not more rules restricting individuals' freedom and growth of the health care industry."

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