The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates 35 thousand Ohioans will get more than 1.2 million dollars in refunds from insurance companies because of a provision in the Affordable Care Act. Lewis Wallace of member station WYSO in Yellow Springs reports.
This refund is the result of a clause in the Affordable Care Act aimed at limiting the cost of health insurance.
The law requires insurers to spend most of the money they take in from premiums on actual care, as opposed to overhead.
For individuals and small businesses buying health insurance, that spending ratio is 80 to 20meaning insurers must spend at least 80 percent on care.
If they dont do that, they owe their customers a refund.
About $1.2 million dollars in refunds were issued for premiums paid in 2013 in Ohio.
The majority of that will go back to employers who purchased small group insurance for over 30,000 consumers.
A handful of insurers in the individual market also owe money backfour companies serving 3,500 people in the state
Health and Human Services estimates the average per-family refund in Ohio is 69 dollars.
