The Department of Health and Human Services has grated a request from Maine to waive healthcare reform regulations requiring health insurers to spend 80 percent of every premium dollar on healthcare services, according to a Bangor Daily News report.
The waiver will hold the current ratio of 65 percent until 2013 for Maine insurers who offer products to the individual insurance market. The waiver applies only to these individual market products.
Maine's Insurance Superintendent requested the waiver after Megalife, one of just three insurers that offer individual insurance products in the state, suggested it would pull out of the market if the ratio was enforced. If Megalife were to exit the market, approximately 14,000 residents would have been forced to seek new, likely more expensive coverage, according to the report.
Read the Bangor Daily News report on the medical loss ratio waiver.
Read more coverage on the medical loss ratio:
- More Optimism About Impact of Reform on Health Insurers
The waiver will hold the current ratio of 65 percent until 2013 for Maine insurers who offer products to the individual insurance market. The waiver applies only to these individual market products.
Maine's Insurance Superintendent requested the waiver after Megalife, one of just three insurers that offer individual insurance products in the state, suggested it would pull out of the market if the ratio was enforced. If Megalife were to exit the market, approximately 14,000 residents would have been forced to seek new, likely more expensive coverage, according to the report.
Read the Bangor Daily News report on the medical loss ratio waiver.
Read more coverage on the medical loss ratio:
- More Optimism About Impact of Reform on Health Insurers