I find it just ridiculous when people share this visceral anger about Obamacare i.e. the Affordable Care Act because most people really just don’t understand what is in the bill; all they hear is “mandate” and they’re pissed because they’re told they’re supposed to be.  I do not know anyone who can afford health insurance that doesn’t have it…and if you can’t afford it – Obamacare helps subsidize you.  If we do NOTHING – we know that healthcare will bankrupt the government.  Healthcare is a HUGE issue relative to our current and long term economy and it’s dragging Americans underneath the tide.

Well – one of those major elements of the law which Republicans worked very hard to block was the “80/20″ law which would force health insurers to send rebate checks directly to consumers if they spent less than 80% of premiums directly back to the consumer in the form of reimbursing medical costs.  In other words – insurance companies can make money but the days of ridiculous profits are over.  (Not so for Big Pharma however but I digress).  Oh – and the checks must arrive by August 1st by law.  Ha…that’s not intentional or anything.  *wink*

But these health insurance companies are going to have to explicitly tell consumers that this rebate check is due to Obamacare; Mother Jones explains:

But here’s the election-year angle on this. Not only do insurance companies have to send out rebates to lots of people, they have to tell them exactly why they’re getting the rebates. Here are the first two sentences of the letter as mandated by HHS:

This letter is to inform you that you will receive a rebate of a portion of your health insurance premiums. This rebate is required by the Affordable Care Act — the health reform law.

The checks aren’t huge. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that individuals will receive an average of $127, though the average amount will be over $200 in some states. The average rebate in small and large group plans will be smaller, but a fair number of people will receive rebates over a hundred dollars.

The Hill adds:

A rule created by the 2010 healthcare law and finalized Friday will yield about $1.3 billion in insurance rebates for nearly 16 million Americans, according to estimates by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The rule, known as the medical loss ratio (MLR), mandates that insurers spend roughly 80 percent of all premiums on healthcare rather than on marketing, executive bonuses or other administrative costs.

The rebates  — which the Obama campaign reportedly sees as a “stealth weapon” for improving opinion of the health law — will arrive no later than August 1.

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