THANKS, UR!:

One of the most important and least-known provisions of Obamacare was actually the brainchild of former Senator Al Franken. When health care reform was being debated in the Senate, he offered an amendment to include something called a medical loss ratio (MLR). It requires insurance companies that cover individuals and small businesses to spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they charge on patient care. For companies that cover large groups, the MLR is raised to 85 percent.

That limits private insurers to spending 15-20 percent of premium dollars on everything else, including administration, marketing, and profits. They are further required to report annually on how their premium dollars were spent, and if they exceeded those limits, pay a rebate to their customers.

Beginning in September, those rebates are about to be issued. Reporting for the Kaiser Family Foundation, Rachel Fehr and Cynthia Cox note that, for 2019, insurers will be issuing a total of at least $1.3 billion in rebates, exceeding the previous record high of $1.1 billion in 2012.

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