Reply #35: Note that the large group is 89.5 already. The low 80 MLR is to not completely suffocate...

[joshcryer]

...the industry immediately, but it will have an effect that the large group will drop a bit as it assimilates the individual and small groups that don't meet the MLR.

You could, with a bit of fantasy thinking, hope that further modifications raise the MLR to 85 and possibly even 90, and the "ultra-large group" that eventually materializes would be able to cope with it just fine.

So I agree that it essentially makes group insurance available to everyone, which was the point, but I think that ultimately that the low 80 MLR was not necessarily a bad thing (and in fact it may have only been able to pass with it being around 80).