A couple weeks ago, when everybody was hailing the power of the medical loss ratio to send rebate checks to health insurance subscribers, I pointed out that a large percentage of the rebates would just revert back to employers, who could then do with them whatever they pleased, within certain limits.

Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies that fail to spend 80% of their premium dollars on medical care in the individual and small group markets, or 85% for large-group employer-based plans, must return the balance of the premiums back to the subscriber. But in employer-based plans, the rebates go to the employer which may or may not apply them to the benefit of the insured employee.

Late on Friday, the Administration laid out a series of new details on the contraceptive mandate that has caused such controversy over the past several weeks. And it turns out that the White House determined that they could not enforce the mandate on self-insured plans, which may affect 200,000 students at colleges that self insure.