Obama outlines early health-care changes

WASHINGTON - President Obama unveiled a package of consumer benefits Tuesday to build support for his health-care overhaul within a divided nation and warned Republicans about trying to repeal his landmark law. "We're not going back," he said.

Obama also gave notice to the insurance industry - but this time he sounded a conciliatory note, praising insurers for meeting some requirements of the law ahead of schedule. The legislation "is not meant to punish insurance companies," he said, but will bring them millions of new customers.

Still, Obama left no doubt his administration would aggressively confront what he called unreasonable premium increases. "There are genuine cost drivers that are not caused by insurance companies," he said. "But what is also true is we've got to make sure that this new law is not being used as an excuse to simply drive up costs."

Marking the first 90 days since the bill was signed, the White House rolled out new regulations that explain how several provisions of the law will be carried out, including a ban on insurers denying coverage to children in poor health.

The law's major benefit, expansion of coverage to some 32 million uninsured, does not come until 2014. So Obama is doing his best to showcase its modest early benefits. They include:

Guaranteed coverage for children with preexisting health problems. The administration estimates that 540,000 children with health problems are uninsured, and 51,000 are likely to gain coverage. It is unclear whether families will be able to afford the premiums. The law does not limit what insurers can charge.

A ban on lifetime coverage limits. More than 100 million people are enrolled in plans that currently impose such limits, the White House said.

Some phasing out of annual coverage limits. Starting this year, plans can set annual limits no lower than $750,000. Such limits rise to $2 million in 2012 and will be completely prohibited in 2014.

A ban on insurers canceling the policies of people who get sick. Unintentional mistakes on applications cannot be used to revoke a policy. Most health insurance companies have already complied voluntarily.

Guaranteed choice of primary-care doctors and pediatricians from a plan's network. No referral needed for women to see an OB-GYN specialist. No prior approval needed to seek out-of-network emergency care.

The White House called it a "patients' bill of rights." Republicans dismissed the announcement as a public-relations effort.

"This shouldn't be called a health-care bill of rights, but a bill of goods that the American people aren't buying," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R., Utah). Still many Republicans agree with at least some of the consumer protections in the $1 trillion, 10-year overhaul legislation.

The new rules apply to most health plans, except in cases where they are "grandfathered" under the law.

Starting in 2014, adults with a history of prior medical problems will be guaranteed health insurance as well. In the meantime, the administration is setting up a special high-risk pool starting July 1 to provide affordable coverage to uninsured people with health problems. But a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office confirms previous estimates that the $5 billion allocated to the program won't be enough to meet needs.

Before his speech, Obama and other senior administration officials met privately with state insurance commissioners and CEOs of major insurance companies amid concerns over continued premium increases.

Consumers who buy their policies directly faced increases averaging 20 percent this year, according to a survey released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Although most Americans are covered on the job, about 14 million purchase insurance on the individual market and have the least bargaining power when it comes to costs.