Yesterday, fans of Obamacare were cheering. A front-page story in the New York Times announced that individuals shopping for health insurance in New York would see their premiums halved, based on figures released by the Cuomo administration. It was an “extraordinary decline” that “demonstrates the profound promise” of Obamacare, said one supporter of the law. But the cheerleaders are wrong. New York’s premiums will remain among the costliest in the nation, after Obamacare becomes fully operational. And the unique history of how the Empire State destroyed its individual health-insurance market—using policies quite similar to Obamacare’s—will translate, at best, to only a handful of other states.
Reported by Forbes.com 10 hours ago.
The New York Times Tries -- And Fails -- To Protect Obamacare From Health Insurance 'Rate Shock'
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The New York Times Tries -- And Fails -- To Save Obamacare From Health Insurance 'Rate Shock'
Yesterday, fans of Obamacare were cheering. A front-page story in the New York Times announced that individuals shopping for health insurance in New York would see their premiums halved, based on figures released by the Cuomo administration. It was an “extraordinary decline” that “demonstrates the profound promise” of Obamacare, said one supporter of the law. But the cheerleaders are wrong. New York’s premiums will remain among the costliest in the nation, after Obamacare becomes fully operational. And the history of how the Empire State destroyed its individual health-insurance market—using policies quite similar to Obamacare’s—is itself a cautionary tale.
Reported by Forbes.com 10 hours ago.
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Obama Tries To Educate On Obamacare
President Barack Obama will again seek to seize control of the debate over his health care reform law during remarks Thursday that will emphasize Obamacare's benefits for people who buy health insurance, senior administration officials said during a conference call with reporters Wednesday.
Obama will point to the $1.6 billion in rebates delivered to health insurance buyers over the past two years as evidence that the health care law is providing assistance to consumers, and he will be accompanied on stage by people who got money back, the officials told reporters on condition of anonymity. The administration also plans to issue a report showing health insurance premiums are coming in below projections in 11 states for next year.
More than three years after Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, the president is still fighting to move past the intense political debate over the reforms. He's also looking to promote health coverage for 2014 during a six-month sign-up period that begins Oct. 1, when health insurance exchanges are set to open for small businesses and for people who don't get insurance at work.
Obama will seek to contrast the new consumer protections in the law and the financial assistance available to low- and middle-income people with the current health insurance system, which has left 49 million Americans without coverage largely because of costs or pre-existing conditions.
"The Affordable Care Act has been this abstraction. It's been, for many, just defined as a political football between Democrats and Republicans without a real, tangible effect on their day-to-day lives," a senior administration official said. "What we are beginning to see is, that as we get closer to the open enrollment period beginning and with events such as the one that we're going to do tomorrow, is that the abstraction is evaporating."
Even as Obama prepared to deliver yet another speech about his signature domestic policy achievement, however, its politics remained at center stage on Capitol Hill. House Republicans staged more votes Wednesday to repeal portions of the law, as they have on nearly 40 previous occasions. Vigorous opposition to the law in the GOP scarcely contrasts with polling that shows public support for the law remains tepid and public understanding of its requirements and benefits is poor.
Obama's speech is one component of a nationwide education, outreach and enrollment campaign spearheaded by the White House and carried out at the community level by the federal government, some states, some local officials, outside organizations such as Enroll America and medical providers like community health centers, and private health care companies. Some of the administration's on-the-ground partners also will attend the speech, a senior administration official said. The White House recently unveiled a new website and toll-free hotline for consumers to get information about the law.
In his speech, Obama will highlight several of the law's consumer benefits, including the health insurance rebates given to 8.5 million people this year. He also will emphasize the effects of provisions the administration says enabled states including California, Oregon and Vermont to pressure health insurance companies to bring down their rates for next year, a senior administration official said.
Senior administration officials also trumpeted news that health insurance premiums in New York will decline by as much as half next year, not including tax credit subsidies, as The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The Department of Health and Human Services will issue a report Thursday comparing the projected health insurance premiums in 11 states for 2014 with the Congressional Budget Office's predictions. According to a senior administration official, the lowest average price for a so-called silver plan -- the second-least-generous benefit among four levels of coverage available on the health insurance exchange marketplaces -- in those 11 states will be $321 a month, compared to the $392 expected by the CBO.
The report will be based on others by regulators in California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state, the official said. The law's effects on unsubsidized premiums will vary from state to state and will cause increases in some areas, especially for younger, healthier people who can buy inexpensive plans on today's market.
Obamacare has suffered some notable setbacks in recent weeks, chiefly the administration's announcement this month that it was postponing for a year the enforcement provisions in the law requiring large employers to offer health benefits or pay penalties as high as $3,000 per worker. The House voted Wednesday to write that administrative delay into law and also to postpone Obamacare's individual mandate that most people obtain health coverage or face tax penalties.
"If the president believes that the employer mandate is too much for the employer community, how about basic fairness for American families and individuals?" House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said at a news conference before Wednesday's votes. Reported by Huffington Post 7 hours ago.
Obama will point to the $1.6 billion in rebates delivered to health insurance buyers over the past two years as evidence that the health care law is providing assistance to consumers, and he will be accompanied on stage by people who got money back, the officials told reporters on condition of anonymity. The administration also plans to issue a report showing health insurance premiums are coming in below projections in 11 states for next year.
More than three years after Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, the president is still fighting to move past the intense political debate over the reforms. He's also looking to promote health coverage for 2014 during a six-month sign-up period that begins Oct. 1, when health insurance exchanges are set to open for small businesses and for people who don't get insurance at work.
Obama will seek to contrast the new consumer protections in the law and the financial assistance available to low- and middle-income people with the current health insurance system, which has left 49 million Americans without coverage largely because of costs or pre-existing conditions.
"The Affordable Care Act has been this abstraction. It's been, for many, just defined as a political football between Democrats and Republicans without a real, tangible effect on their day-to-day lives," a senior administration official said. "What we are beginning to see is, that as we get closer to the open enrollment period beginning and with events such as the one that we're going to do tomorrow, is that the abstraction is evaporating."
Even as Obama prepared to deliver yet another speech about his signature domestic policy achievement, however, its politics remained at center stage on Capitol Hill. House Republicans staged more votes Wednesday to repeal portions of the law, as they have on nearly 40 previous occasions. Vigorous opposition to the law in the GOP scarcely contrasts with polling that shows public support for the law remains tepid and public understanding of its requirements and benefits is poor.
Obama's speech is one component of a nationwide education, outreach and enrollment campaign spearheaded by the White House and carried out at the community level by the federal government, some states, some local officials, outside organizations such as Enroll America and medical providers like community health centers, and private health care companies. Some of the administration's on-the-ground partners also will attend the speech, a senior administration official said. The White House recently unveiled a new website and toll-free hotline for consumers to get information about the law.
In his speech, Obama will highlight several of the law's consumer benefits, including the health insurance rebates given to 8.5 million people this year. He also will emphasize the effects of provisions the administration says enabled states including California, Oregon and Vermont to pressure health insurance companies to bring down their rates for next year, a senior administration official said.
Senior administration officials also trumpeted news that health insurance premiums in New York will decline by as much as half next year, not including tax credit subsidies, as The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The Department of Health and Human Services will issue a report Thursday comparing the projected health insurance premiums in 11 states for 2014 with the Congressional Budget Office's predictions. According to a senior administration official, the lowest average price for a so-called silver plan -- the second-least-generous benefit among four levels of coverage available on the health insurance exchange marketplaces -- in those 11 states will be $321 a month, compared to the $392 expected by the CBO.
The report will be based on others by regulators in California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state, the official said. The law's effects on unsubsidized premiums will vary from state to state and will cause increases in some areas, especially for younger, healthier people who can buy inexpensive plans on today's market.
Obamacare has suffered some notable setbacks in recent weeks, chiefly the administration's announcement this month that it was postponing for a year the enforcement provisions in the law requiring large employers to offer health benefits or pay penalties as high as $3,000 per worker. The House voted Wednesday to write that administrative delay into law and also to postpone Obamacare's individual mandate that most people obtain health coverage or face tax penalties.
"If the president believes that the employer mandate is too much for the employer community, how about basic fairness for American families and individuals?" House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said at a news conference before Wednesday's votes. Reported by Huffington Post 7 hours ago.
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The checks are in the mail: Obama to announce health insurance rebates for 8.5 million Americans
President Obama will take to the airwaves to announce that checks are in the mail for 8.5 million Americans who'll split more than $504 million in rebates from their heath insurance company, thanks to a provision of the health law that penalizes insurers for wasteful spending.
Reported by Miami Herald 7 hours ago.
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Cuomo releases 2014 New York health insurance rates
Consumers in New York state buying health insurance through the New York Health Benefit Exchange next year will be able to ge -More-
Reported by SmartBrief 6 hours ago.
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Direct Primary Care: Technology Trends Supporting DPC and Requirements
This article is a section of a longer paper on Direct Primary Care (DPC) that was introduced in an earlier piece -- Health Plan Rorschach Test: Direct Primary Care. The following excerpt from that article briefly explains DPC if it's a new concept. Click through the previous link for additional context.
Despite its inclusion in Obamacare, Direct Primary Care (DPC, aka Concierge Medicine for the Masses), it's surprising how few health insurance executives know about DPC. DPC is a model of paying for primary care outside of insurance. The individual or organization paying for healthcare pays a monthly fee (like a gym membership) for all primary care needs. Generally, DPC providers say they can address 80 or more of the top 100 most common diagnoses. Reported by Forbes.com 6 hours ago.
Despite its inclusion in Obamacare, Direct Primary Care (DPC, aka Concierge Medicine for the Masses), it's surprising how few health insurance executives know about DPC. DPC is a model of paying for primary care outside of insurance. The individual or organization paying for healthcare pays a monthly fee (like a gym membership) for all primary care needs. Generally, DPC providers say they can address 80 or more of the top 100 most common diagnoses. Reported by Forbes.com 6 hours ago.
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Rhode Island’s Small Victory
AP Photo/Mel Evans
When Governor Lincoln Chaffee signed the Temporary Care Giver’s Insurance law last week, Rhode Island became the third state—along with California and New Jersey—to grant paid time off to care for a sick loved one or a new baby.
Rhode Island’s law, which goes into effect in 2014, will not only provide most workers with up to four weeks off with about two-thirds of their salaries (up to $752 a week), it will protect employees from being fired and losing their health insurance while they’re out.
Workers will be able to use the time to care for a broad range of people, including children, spouses, domestic partners, parents, parent-in-laws, grandparents, and foster children. And, though the maximum single leave is four weeks, each parent can take four weeks off to bond with a new baby. A mother recovering from birth could combine that with an additional six weeks paid through an existing state program, bringing her total paid time off to ten weeks. An entire family with a new baby could have 14 weeks off paid.
Coming just two years after the bill was first introduced, Rhode Island’s quick victory can help us understand why progress in the rest of the country has been so slow—and why it might be picking up.
In the United States, such paid leave is a huge leap forward. But, globally speaking, it’s more of a baby step. Many rich countries, including Canada, Australia, and most of Europe, have long granted their workers paid time off to care for sick relatives. And virtually every country in the world, rich or poor, provides paid time off to care for a new baby—if not for both parents, then at least for mothers. Most provide more than six months of paid maternity leave. More than a dozen countries grant new fathers as well as new mothers more than a year off with pay.
Contrast that with our national policy: the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which grants only unpaid leave—and that to less than 60 percent of the workforce. This has forced many people to choose between their jobs and doing the decent thing—be it caring for a dying parent or sick kid. And it’s meant that many working mothers wind up back at work way before they’d like to be; a majority return within three months of giving birth and one in ten—more than half a million women each year—head back to work in four weeks or less. Yet, until last week, only California and New Jersey, which instituted their paid family and medical leave programs in 2002 and 2010, had managed to guarantee workers paid time off.
This failure can partly be explained by the power of the opposition. In Rhode Island—as in California and New Jersey, and in several cases in which paid family leave proposals have failed—big business lobbied hard against paid leave. Both the National Federation for Independent Business, a corporate lobbying group, and the local Chamber of Commerce testified against the bill in the Rhode Island legislature, citing its potential to burden business. Cynthia Butler, of the Rhode Island State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management, writing in the Providence Journal, painted the law as hostile to employers. And Republican state legislator Joseph Trillo insisted the law is “wide open for abuse."
What was different in Rhode Island—and key to their success—was that this fairly typical opposition was countered by a number of business groups that vocally supported the proposal. Main Street Alliance, the American Sustainable Business Council, the Small Business Majority, and the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce all engaged in the fight from the other side, arguing that caregiver insurance was good for employers and the economy. Instead of having a fight between workers’ advocates and business interests, this time businesses were split.
“Many saw it as a great benefit and value and many didn’t,” says Marcia Coné, CEO of the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island and founder of We Care RI, a coalition of groups that formed to support the caregiver law. Though opposition framed the proposal as likely to be abused, the coalition was able to address these concerns with research from California that showed minimal abuse of their program. Meanwhile, concerns about the cost to businesses were undercut by the fact that employers don’t pay into the temporary caretaker insurance fund, only workers do.
Advocates worked hard to emphasize this last point—that the benefit is employee-funded, and thus budget neutral. “They were incredibly careful to call it Temporary Caregiver Insurance,” says Vicki Shabo, at the National Partnership for Children and Families, a Washington-based advocacy group. “That conveyed it’s something you pay into and something you get back.” Other states around the country can learn from Rhode Island’s victory, says Shabo. “The messaging is totally transferrable.”
But another aspect of the state’s ease with instituting paid leave may not be so easily transferrable. Rhode Island is one of just five states that have long-standing, built-in temporary disability insurance systems that already disburse payments to workers on leave. California and New Jersey—which, along with Rhode Island, established these systems back in the 1940s—have basically expanded them to include caregiver insurance, or paid leave, funds. Meanwhile, Washington, the only state that passed a family and medical-leave law and doesn’t have such an insurance system, was never able to implement its program. Other states starting from scratch on paid leave may have a similarly difficult time putting these laws into effect.
So the lesson for advocates other states, who have already reaching out to We Care RI for guidance, is mixed. While the passage of their law may signal that the political tide is turning in favor of this basic benefit, only the two remaining states with built-in temporary disability systems—New York and Hawaii—may be able to do so with ease.
While several states, including Connecticut and Vermont, are exploring the knotty logistics of providing caregivers’ insurance without a system in place, the problem “gives juice to a federal solution,” according to Shabo. That big fix—and the big fight that will no doubt accompany it—may come soon. Shabo says her group is working on getting federal legislation introduced this year. Reported by The American Prospect 6 hours ago.
When Governor Lincoln Chaffee signed the Temporary Care Giver’s Insurance law last week, Rhode Island became the third state—along with California and New Jersey—to grant paid time off to care for a sick loved one or a new baby.
Rhode Island’s law, which goes into effect in 2014, will not only provide most workers with up to four weeks off with about two-thirds of their salaries (up to $752 a week), it will protect employees from being fired and losing their health insurance while they’re out.
Workers will be able to use the time to care for a broad range of people, including children, spouses, domestic partners, parents, parent-in-laws, grandparents, and foster children. And, though the maximum single leave is four weeks, each parent can take four weeks off to bond with a new baby. A mother recovering from birth could combine that with an additional six weeks paid through an existing state program, bringing her total paid time off to ten weeks. An entire family with a new baby could have 14 weeks off paid.
Coming just two years after the bill was first introduced, Rhode Island’s quick victory can help us understand why progress in the rest of the country has been so slow—and why it might be picking up.
In the United States, such paid leave is a huge leap forward. But, globally speaking, it’s more of a baby step. Many rich countries, including Canada, Australia, and most of Europe, have long granted their workers paid time off to care for sick relatives. And virtually every country in the world, rich or poor, provides paid time off to care for a new baby—if not for both parents, then at least for mothers. Most provide more than six months of paid maternity leave. More than a dozen countries grant new fathers as well as new mothers more than a year off with pay.
Contrast that with our national policy: the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which grants only unpaid leave—and that to less than 60 percent of the workforce. This has forced many people to choose between their jobs and doing the decent thing—be it caring for a dying parent or sick kid. And it’s meant that many working mothers wind up back at work way before they’d like to be; a majority return within three months of giving birth and one in ten—more than half a million women each year—head back to work in four weeks or less. Yet, until last week, only California and New Jersey, which instituted their paid family and medical leave programs in 2002 and 2010, had managed to guarantee workers paid time off.
This failure can partly be explained by the power of the opposition. In Rhode Island—as in California and New Jersey, and in several cases in which paid family leave proposals have failed—big business lobbied hard against paid leave. Both the National Federation for Independent Business, a corporate lobbying group, and the local Chamber of Commerce testified against the bill in the Rhode Island legislature, citing its potential to burden business. Cynthia Butler, of the Rhode Island State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management, writing in the Providence Journal, painted the law as hostile to employers. And Republican state legislator Joseph Trillo insisted the law is “wide open for abuse."
What was different in Rhode Island—and key to their success—was that this fairly typical opposition was countered by a number of business groups that vocally supported the proposal. Main Street Alliance, the American Sustainable Business Council, the Small Business Majority, and the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce all engaged in the fight from the other side, arguing that caregiver insurance was good for employers and the economy. Instead of having a fight between workers’ advocates and business interests, this time businesses were split.
“Many saw it as a great benefit and value and many didn’t,” says Marcia Coné, CEO of the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island and founder of We Care RI, a coalition of groups that formed to support the caregiver law. Though opposition framed the proposal as likely to be abused, the coalition was able to address these concerns with research from California that showed minimal abuse of their program. Meanwhile, concerns about the cost to businesses were undercut by the fact that employers don’t pay into the temporary caretaker insurance fund, only workers do.
Advocates worked hard to emphasize this last point—that the benefit is employee-funded, and thus budget neutral. “They were incredibly careful to call it Temporary Caregiver Insurance,” says Vicki Shabo, at the National Partnership for Children and Families, a Washington-based advocacy group. “That conveyed it’s something you pay into and something you get back.” Other states around the country can learn from Rhode Island’s victory, says Shabo. “The messaging is totally transferrable.”
But another aspect of the state’s ease with instituting paid leave may not be so easily transferrable. Rhode Island is one of just five states that have long-standing, built-in temporary disability insurance systems that already disburse payments to workers on leave. California and New Jersey—which, along with Rhode Island, established these systems back in the 1940s—have basically expanded them to include caregiver insurance, or paid leave, funds. Meanwhile, Washington, the only state that passed a family and medical-leave law and doesn’t have such an insurance system, was never able to implement its program. Other states starting from scratch on paid leave may have a similarly difficult time putting these laws into effect.
So the lesson for advocates other states, who have already reaching out to We Care RI for guidance, is mixed. While the passage of their law may signal that the political tide is turning in favor of this basic benefit, only the two remaining states with built-in temporary disability systems—New York and Hawaii—may be able to do so with ease.
While several states, including Connecticut and Vermont, are exploring the knotty logistics of providing caregivers’ insurance without a system in place, the problem “gives juice to a federal solution,” according to Shabo. That big fix—and the big fight that will no doubt accompany it—may come soon. Shabo says her group is working on getting federal legislation introduced this year. Reported by The American Prospect 6 hours ago.
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General Car Insurance - Get Rates in 2 Minutes
Insurance-Online.us has been created to offer fast and accurate insurance quote comparison.
(PRWEB) July 18, 2013
The newly launched website, Insurance-Online.us, offers carrier comparison tools for a number of different insurance products such as health insurance, homeowner's insurance, life insurance and car insurance. Drivers can now put their zip codes into a simple field at the top of the site for a customized, localized list of insurance companies operating in their respective areas.
Click here to learn more or visit the website.
"The average driver doesn't spend much time looking at insurance options, and that carelessness can lead to high premiums and insufficient coverage," said a representative of the website. "We wanted to give drivers a fast, free way to learn about insurance options. Our goal is to make it much easier to compare insurance policies, which should increase the average driver's satisfaction with his or her coverage."
In addition to lower rates, drivers who compare insurance policy options can greatly improve their coverage. Many drivers avoid options like comprehensive and collision coverage in order to save money, but by getting free insurance quotes online, these motorists can keep rates under control without sacrificing coverage.
Click here to save on car insurance rates. Reported by PRWeb 5 hours ago.
(PRWEB) July 18, 2013
The newly launched website, Insurance-Online.us, offers carrier comparison tools for a number of different insurance products such as health insurance, homeowner's insurance, life insurance and car insurance. Drivers can now put their zip codes into a simple field at the top of the site for a customized, localized list of insurance companies operating in their respective areas.
Click here to learn more or visit the website.
"The average driver doesn't spend much time looking at insurance options, and that carelessness can lead to high premiums and insufficient coverage," said a representative of the website. "We wanted to give drivers a fast, free way to learn about insurance options. Our goal is to make it much easier to compare insurance policies, which should increase the average driver's satisfaction with his or her coverage."
In addition to lower rates, drivers who compare insurance policy options can greatly improve their coverage. Many drivers avoid options like comprehensive and collision coverage in order to save money, but by getting free insurance quotes online, these motorists can keep rates under control without sacrificing coverage.
Click here to save on car insurance rates. Reported by PRWeb 5 hours ago.
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Zane Benefits Publishes New Information on Tax Subsidies and Defined Contribution
The only way for employers to give employees access to the individual premium tax subsidies is by not offering group health insurance
Park City, Utah (PRWEB) July 18, 2013
Today, Zane Benefits, the online alternative to group health insurance, published new information on tax subsidies and defined contribution.
According to Zane Benefits’ website, the biggest kept secret of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the individual premium tax subsidies that will be available to the majority of employees through the new state marketplaces starting January 1, 2014. Because of the new individual tax subsidies, the best decision for most companies and employees in 2014 will be to eliminate their company-sponsored group health insurance in favor of a defined contribution health plan solution.
Zane Benefits’ website offers five strategic issues that HR professionals need to know about the individual premium tax subsidies and defined contribution health plans.
#1) Group health insurance costs too much
As most HR professionals are intimately familiar with, group health insurance costs have been rising significantly over the last decade.
#2) Individual premium tax subsidies in 2014
The individual premium tax subsidies will cap the amount of employees' health insurance at 2% to 9.5% of household income, depending on the employee's income.
#3) All employees will be approved for coverage
Starting in 2014, employees cannot be denied coverage because of a pre-existing health condition.
#4) "Pure" defined contribution model lets you get out of the health insurance business, and focus on your business
According to Zane Benefits’ website, employees purchase their own individual policy directly from a health insurance company of their choice, through an insurance broker, or through their state health insurance marketplace. Employers provide a defined monthly allowance to reimburse employees on their individual health insurance costs or other medical expenses.
#5) No penalties for small businesses not offering traditional coverage
According to Zane Benefits’ website, for small businesses with fewer than 50 FTE employees, there is no employer mandate, and thus, no tax penalties for not offering traditional coverage. And, for many companies with 50+ FTE employees (who are subject to the employer mandate and penalties for not offering traditional coverage), the total cost of paying the applicable employer tax penalty plus providing a defined contribution health benefit will be less expensive than group health insurance.
Click here to read full article.
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About Zane Benefits
Zane Benefits was founded in 2006 to provide a revolutionized SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) administration platform ("ZaneHRA") for Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and defined contribution health care. The flagship software provides a 100% paperless administration experience to small businesses and insurance professionals that want to offer better health benefits without a traditional group health insurance plan at lower costs. For more information about ZaneHRA, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com. Reported by PRWeb 5 hours ago.
Park City, Utah (PRWEB) July 18, 2013
Today, Zane Benefits, the online alternative to group health insurance, published new information on tax subsidies and defined contribution.
According to Zane Benefits’ website, the biggest kept secret of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the individual premium tax subsidies that will be available to the majority of employees through the new state marketplaces starting January 1, 2014. Because of the new individual tax subsidies, the best decision for most companies and employees in 2014 will be to eliminate their company-sponsored group health insurance in favor of a defined contribution health plan solution.
Zane Benefits’ website offers five strategic issues that HR professionals need to know about the individual premium tax subsidies and defined contribution health plans.
#1) Group health insurance costs too much
As most HR professionals are intimately familiar with, group health insurance costs have been rising significantly over the last decade.
#2) Individual premium tax subsidies in 2014
The individual premium tax subsidies will cap the amount of employees' health insurance at 2% to 9.5% of household income, depending on the employee's income.
#3) All employees will be approved for coverage
Starting in 2014, employees cannot be denied coverage because of a pre-existing health condition.
#4) "Pure" defined contribution model lets you get out of the health insurance business, and focus on your business
According to Zane Benefits’ website, employees purchase their own individual policy directly from a health insurance company of their choice, through an insurance broker, or through their state health insurance marketplace. Employers provide a defined monthly allowance to reimburse employees on their individual health insurance costs or other medical expenses.
#5) No penalties for small businesses not offering traditional coverage
According to Zane Benefits’ website, for small businesses with fewer than 50 FTE employees, there is no employer mandate, and thus, no tax penalties for not offering traditional coverage. And, for many companies with 50+ FTE employees (who are subject to the employer mandate and penalties for not offering traditional coverage), the total cost of paying the applicable employer tax penalty plus providing a defined contribution health benefit will be less expensive than group health insurance.
Click here to read full article.
--
About Zane Benefits
Zane Benefits was founded in 2006 to provide a revolutionized SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) administration platform ("ZaneHRA") for Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and defined contribution health care. The flagship software provides a 100% paperless administration experience to small businesses and insurance professionals that want to offer better health benefits without a traditional group health insurance plan at lower costs. For more information about ZaneHRA, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com. Reported by PRWeb 5 hours ago.
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Medical Tourism in the U.S.? This New Tool Makes It Possible
Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance, How to Save Money, Saving*Getty Images*
Medical tourism is nothing new: For years, ailing Americans have been traveling around the world to get lower rates on hundreds of medical procedures, from hip replacements to root canals. But patients hoping to save money on health care may not need to travel across the globe. As a new tool from consumer comparison site NerdWallet.com demonstrates, lower rates for health care could be as close as the next state.
Take knee and hip replacements, for example, two of the more than 100 procedures the tool compares. On the low end, Chickasaw Nation Medical Center in Ada, OK, charges $5,304 for a knee replacement. The next most expensive hospital, Medina Memorial in Medina, NY, charges $14,788. On the opposite end, Monterey Park Hospital in Monterey Park, CA, charges $223,373 -- 42 times as much as Chickasaw and 15 times as much as Medina Memorial. Even factoring in the cost of traveling cross-country, the difference is stunning.
The economics of knee and hip replacements is especially shocking, but there are major differences in price for most big procedures. When it comes to angioplasty, for example, prices range from $13,314 to $203,522. Pacemaker placements run from $15,128 to $167,628, and removal of a gall bladder ranges from $6,750 to $140,449.
Admittedly, not all hospitals are the same. Some may have more experience with certain operations, which can improve patient outcomes. (The tool, which compares more than 3,000 hospitals, also indicates patient volumes for various procedures.) Others may have a higher average Medicare reimbursement, which could help keep costs low. All things being equal, however, it's clear that it doesn't take an overseas plane ticket to find medical bargains. With that in mind, before you plan your trip to Mumbai for a new hip, you may want to take a peek -- and see if there's a better bet just around the corner!
Bruce Watson is DailyFinance's Savings editor. You can reach him by e-mail at bruce.watson@teamaol.com, or follow him on Twitter at @bruce1971.
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Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments Reported by DailyFinance 5 hours ago.
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A Sad Story About Childhood Obesity
Dr. Mitchell Roslin is chief of obesity surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. He holds several patents for the treatment of obesity and designed a method for treating relapse after gastric bypass surgery. Roslin has expertise in laparoscopic obesity surgery, duodenal switch surgery and revisional bariatric surgery. He contributed this article to LiveScience’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.Recently, while driving to work, I heard a very sad story: Boy Scouts who were morbidly obese would be excluded from this year’s National Scout Jamboree, an event that occurs every four years and is considered a highlight for young scouts. Additionally, scouts with lower levels of obesity had to provide medical clearance before being allowed to participate.
But this story isn’t just sad because of the discrimination. Of course, I have empathy and compassion and hate to see any child excluded or hurt. But I understand that safety has to come first, and exclusions based on health are a sad reality. For example, the branches of the armed forces will not allow recruits who are overweight. But what I found so sad was that this problem has become so widespread that there had to be a policy to address it.
American kids are rapidly becoming unhealthy. The impact will be devastating. Soon, there will be fewer eligible recruits to serve in the U.S. military. I’m concerned that more young people who have never worked will go on permanent disability for chronic diseases such as diabetes.
Several weeks ago, the American Medical Association (AMA) designated obesity as a disease. Some people questioned the decision, calling it financially motivated. For example, in an editorial in the Boston Globe, Alex Beam commented that “heredity, germs and viruses cause disease, not eating too much.” Really? I guess lung cancer is not a disease, as it often comes from smoking. What about heart disease? Aren’t cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes and smoking most responsible? Doesn’t what people eat cause or affect the risk of developing these conditions? A person’s behavior has an impact on every disease process, as do congenital conditions. Obesity and metabolic syndrome are related to heart disease, cancer, sexual dysfunction and early mortality.
Beam wrote, “What is this really about? Money.” He went on to say that the obesity epidemic was a conspiracy to get coverage for emerging pharmaceuticals and bariatric surgery.
My question to Beam and others is this: What were parents supposed to do if their son were one of the fat scouts excluded? After all, one of the reasons they enrolled their child in the Boy Scouts in the first place was to help make him more active and improve his self esteem. Now, he can’t even participate in the organization’s biggest event.
Some people think these young children want to be fat, or that they want to be excluded. No idea could be more absurd. What does Beam suggest? Enrolling the child in a weight-loss camp or a contest like “The Biggest Loser”? Unfortunately, that strategy is completely ineffective — virtually all the weight lost as a result of such activities is regained in a short period.
A better suggestion may be to see a pediatric endocrinologist, such as renowned doctors Dr. Robert Lustig and Dr. David Ludwig. Unfortunately, there are very few specialists with real expertise in pediatric weight loss — in my opinion, because there has been limited reimbursement from health-insurance providers. Because obesity hadn’t been considered a disease until recently, there are few training programs and limited opportunities for those hoping to specialize in pediatric obesity.
Though considered dubious by Beam, bariatric surgery is one of the few effective tools against obesity that doctors currently have. In the past year, I have had to operate on multiple teens who left school after being bullied and taunted. This is not about the money. It is about giving children a chance to be happy, and providing them with an opportunity to do things that I took for granted when I was their age.
Why should new or better tools be developed to address this problem if there is no health-insurance coverage for obesity-related issues? Beam feels everything has been “medicalized,” but shouldn’t we be searching for solutions for these young scouts? Certainly, the solution is not providing commercially marketed diets. Exercise reduces the risk of obesity, but it is not an effective weight-loss modality when children are already obese.
Of course, surgery isn’t the solution for everyone. The United States needs a national strategy to prevent obesity and metabolic syndrome. It will not be popular, but it is becoming necessary. The sadness of this story cannot be underestimated. Too many young children are now too heavy to be Boy Scouts or serve in the U.S. military. This trend must be stopped, and there needs to be treatment available for the children who have already been afflicted. I wonder what Beam’s suggestion is? Furthermore, I wonder what he thinks will happen if we do not help these children.
Roslin’s most recent Op-Ed was, ‘Yes, Obesity Is a Disease.’ The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This article was originally published on LiveScience.com.
· 5 Ways Obesity Affects the Brain
· 7 Biggest Diet Myths
· Dieters, Beware: 9 Myths That Can Make You Fat
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Reported by Business Insider 5 hours ago.
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A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of Fortegra Financial Corporation and Its Subsidiaries
OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of B++ (Good) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “bbb+” of the life/health insurance subsidiaries of Fortegra Financial Corporation (Fortegra) (headquartered in Jacksonville, FL) (NYSE: FRF), which include Life of the South Insurance Company (Nashville, GA), Bankers Life of Louisiana (Ruston, LA) and Southern Financial Life Insurance Company (Scottsville, KY). The life/health insurance subsidiaries are
Reported by Business Wire 4 hours ago.
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Joshua Kushner Has Quietly Amassed 30 Employees And $40 Million To Shake Up Health Care With A Startup, Oscar
You won't find Joshua Kushner tweeting his whereabouts, tagged in Instagram photos or blogging about tech.Although the 28-year-old dates a Victoria's Secret model, the entrepreneur and venture capitalist keeps to himself. He rarely gives interviews and his firm's website, Thrive Capital, doesn't even list the companies he's invested in, despite an impressive portfolio which includes Instagram, NastyGal, Fab and GroupMe.
That may be why Kushner has been able to keep his plans to disrupt the health care industry quiet for nearly two years. But under everyone's nose he's poached engineers from Google, plucked a CTO from Tumblr, and raised $40 million.
The company Kushner is launching with Microsoft's former director of health care, Kevin Nazemi and former McKinsey & Company computer scientist, Mario Schlosser, is called Oscar. It will be a full-blown insurance company that rivals longstanding entities such as Aetna and UnitedHealth. But Oscar will be transparent, making bills and charges easy for customers to consume via technology.
Oscar is set to launch in January 2014. Kushner's team was just granted a New York health insurance license this month. Oscar will begin enrolling New Yorkers this fall who are seeking insurance under Obama's Affordable Care Act. Schlosser, Nazemi and Kushner are joined by CTO Fredrik Nylander, former head of engineering and operations. Vinod Khosla and Charlie Baker, a former Governor candidate who ran Harvard Pilgrim in Massachusetts, are on Oscar's board.
Raising $40 million before launch isn't always smart. It didn't work out for Sean Parker, who raised $34 million for a social video company Airtime, or Bill Nguyen who raised $41 million for Color which flopped. But we're told all $40 million of this fundraise, which comes from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Thrive Capital, Founders Fund and a number of angel investors, is necessary. Reinventing the health care industry isn't easy, and most of the money Kusher has raised ($29 million) isn't operational. When you have an insurance company, there are reserve requirements. Much of the $40 million will be stashed away in case of emergency, thanks to industry regulations.
Oscar is Kushner's third venture. His first, Vostu, was a gaming company that rivaled Zynga in Brazil but has since gone through a series of layoffs. Thrive Capital, the investment firm Kushner started three years ago, has raised more than $200 million to invest in startups. Kushner will continue running Thrive Capital full time while working on Oscar.
Join the conversation about this story »
Reported by Business Insider 2 hours ago.
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New report finds competition lowers premiums by nearly 20 percent in the Health Insurance Marketplace
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a new report that finds premiums in the Health Insurance Marketplace will be nearly 20 percent lower in 2014 than previously expected. The Affordable Care Act requires health insurers in every state to publicly justify any premium rate increases of 10 percent or more. Health insurance companies now generally have to spend at least 80 cents of every premium dollar on health care or improvements to care, or provide a rebat
Reported by Business Wire 3 hours ago.
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Here's a really helpful chart on premiums under Obamacare
It comes from a brand new report from Health and Human Services, which summarizes what we know, so far, about the cost of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
What you're looking at here shows what insurance plans will charge for coverage that will cover 70 percent of a typical subscriber's health-care costs. These are averages of the second-lowest cost plans that provide this level of coverage (silver plans, as they're known under the health-care law):
Read full article >>
Reported by Washington Post 2 hours ago.
What you're looking at here shows what insurance plans will charge for coverage that will cover 70 percent of a typical subscriber's health-care costs. These are averages of the second-lowest cost plans that provide this level of coverage (silver plans, as they're known under the health-care law):
Read full article >>
Reported by Washington Post 2 hours ago.
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Study: Obamacare To Drive Down The Cost Of Coverage
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hoping to gain the high ground in an escalating war of words over Obamacare, the U.S. administration on Thursday forecast sharply lower than expected insurance costs for consumers and small businesses in new online state healthcare exchanges.
A report by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said data from 10 states and the District of Columbia shows preliminary 2014 premiums on the lowest-cost mid-range "silver" plans in those marketplaces to be 18 percent lower on average than earlier administration and congressional estimates.
Rates for businesses with fewer than 50 employees that purchase small-group coverage through exchanges could also be 18 percent lower than what the same plans would cost without President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform law, based on data from six states, HHS said.
The report was released in conjunction with a speech by Obama on how healthcare reform is already benefiting consumers. It represents the administration's latest bid to counter Republican allegations that consumers and businesses will see sharply higher costs from the exchanges than the individual insurance plans already on the market.
The new exchanges are slated to begin enrolling as many as 7 million uninsured Americans for 2014 on October 1 in federally subsidized health plans ranging in quality from platinum, with the highest premiums, to bronze, with the lowest.
"Today's report shows that the Affordable Care Act is working to increase transparency and competition among health insurance plans and drive premiums down," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement accompanying the report.
The actual rates consumers see could be lower than current estimates, the HHS report concluded, saying that rate reviews and negotiations under way in the District of Columbia, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont have already reduced prospective costs announced in the spring.
But it was not clear whether the lower rates contained in the report would be reflected nationwide. The report's authors cautioned that some states could see costs closer to earlier projections.
The exchanges represent the centerpiece of Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and their success could depend on the cost of so-called silver plans, which are expected to attract the largest number of enrollees.
The events come a day after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives called in a symbolic vote for a delay of the reform law's individual mandate, which requires nearly all Americans to have health coverage in 2014 or pay a penalty. The House measure is expected to go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
A leading insurance group, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, issued a statement late on Wednesday saying that such a delay, if enacted without other insurance market changes, would lead to skyrocketing costs for consumers.
The HHS report said prospective premiums in the 10 states studied appear to be affordable for younger adults, including men, whose participation is vital to the success of the exchanges and healthcare reform overall. Younger healthy people who tend to be cheaper to insure are needed to compensate for older and sicker consumers who are expected to enroll in droves.
In Los Angeles, which has the largest number of uninsured people in the country, HHS said the lowest-cost silver plan for a 25-year-old individual will cost $174 per month without subsidies and $34 per month for an individual whose income is $17,235. A catastrophic plan, which mainly covers major medical costs, will cost $117 per month for an individual.
The 10 states examined in the HHS report are California, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
(Editing by Michele Gershberg and Matthew Lewis) Reported by Huffington Post 1 hour ago.
A report by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said data from 10 states and the District of Columbia shows preliminary 2014 premiums on the lowest-cost mid-range "silver" plans in those marketplaces to be 18 percent lower on average than earlier administration and congressional estimates.
Rates for businesses with fewer than 50 employees that purchase small-group coverage through exchanges could also be 18 percent lower than what the same plans would cost without President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform law, based on data from six states, HHS said.
The report was released in conjunction with a speech by Obama on how healthcare reform is already benefiting consumers. It represents the administration's latest bid to counter Republican allegations that consumers and businesses will see sharply higher costs from the exchanges than the individual insurance plans already on the market.
The new exchanges are slated to begin enrolling as many as 7 million uninsured Americans for 2014 on October 1 in federally subsidized health plans ranging in quality from platinum, with the highest premiums, to bronze, with the lowest.
"Today's report shows that the Affordable Care Act is working to increase transparency and competition among health insurance plans and drive premiums down," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement accompanying the report.
The actual rates consumers see could be lower than current estimates, the HHS report concluded, saying that rate reviews and negotiations under way in the District of Columbia, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont have already reduced prospective costs announced in the spring.
But it was not clear whether the lower rates contained in the report would be reflected nationwide. The report's authors cautioned that some states could see costs closer to earlier projections.
The exchanges represent the centerpiece of Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and their success could depend on the cost of so-called silver plans, which are expected to attract the largest number of enrollees.
The events come a day after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives called in a symbolic vote for a delay of the reform law's individual mandate, which requires nearly all Americans to have health coverage in 2014 or pay a penalty. The House measure is expected to go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
A leading insurance group, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, issued a statement late on Wednesday saying that such a delay, if enacted without other insurance market changes, would lead to skyrocketing costs for consumers.
The HHS report said prospective premiums in the 10 states studied appear to be affordable for younger adults, including men, whose participation is vital to the success of the exchanges and healthcare reform overall. Younger healthy people who tend to be cheaper to insure are needed to compensate for older and sicker consumers who are expected to enroll in droves.
In Los Angeles, which has the largest number of uninsured people in the country, HHS said the lowest-cost silver plan for a 25-year-old individual will cost $174 per month without subsidies and $34 per month for an individual whose income is $17,235. A catastrophic plan, which mainly covers major medical costs, will cost $117 per month for an individual.
The 10 states examined in the HHS report are California, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
(Editing by Michele Gershberg and Matthew Lewis) Reported by Huffington Post 1 hour ago.
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Alliance Group Releases Comprehensive Training Resources on Their New Website to Help Insurance Agents Grow Their Business in the ObamaCare Market
On the cusp of the ObamaCare market, a leading provider of living benefits offers multiple training tools to help health insurance agents expand their business.
Lawrenceville, GA (PRWEB) July 18, 2013
Alliance Group, a foremost provider of life insurance with living benefits, has released an abundance of training resources on their new website, http://www.topsalliance.com/, which will help insurance agents continue to grow their business in the ObamaCare market.
On Alliance Group’s new website, insurance agents can now view training webinars and videos from previous training summits, and they can gain access to “leadership calls” and additional information about Alliance Group’s exclusive T.O.P.S. program.
Released officially earlier this year, the T.O.P.S. program, which stands for Total Opportunity Package for Success, is a comprehensive benefits package designed to help agents grow their agencies. It includes training, proprietary products, and a lead program, among other benefits.
“Keeping insurance agents informed on the various products that could help provide additional coverage to their clients is crucial right now,” states Peter Goldfine, the Marketing and Social Media Director at Alliance Group. “Insurance agents will need to know all of the products on the market that can provide the security that health insurance alone doesn’t cover for their clients, and to know how to market those products as well.”
In the T.O.P.S. program, insurance agents receive a proprietary “living benefits” portfolio from Alliance Group. Their life insurance with living benefits package is included at no additional premium cost and with no additional underwriting, and it provides coverage for terminal, critical, and chronic illness as well as death, all of which could lead to potential foreclosure, bankruptcy or the loss of business for the individual.
Additional information about living benefits can be found on Alliance Group’s new website via their “leadership calls.” Held every Monday, each one featuring a special guest, these conference calls cover a variety of topics, including recruiting, social media, the health insurance gap, life insurance, etc. Alliance Group will conduct training webinars each Wednesday throughout the month of July, and agents can view Alliance Group’s archived presentations on relevant topics in the insurance industry from previous sales summits and archived “leadership calls” on the new site as well.
“In this critical time for insurance agents, we want them to be prepared for which products may be even more relevant for their future portfolios, such as life insurance with living benefits,” Goldfine summarizes. “Our new website and overall training initiatives are designed to continue to help insurance agents grow their business in this changing market.”
About Alliance Group:
As a leader in the living benefits life insurance market, Alliance Group stands out as the foremost provider of life insurance products and tax advantaged concepts with exclusive proprietary living benefits, including critical illness benefit, mortgage protection, chronic illness care, critical illness care, heart attack insurance, cancer insurance coverage, and health insurance gap coverage. They provide insurance products with a living benefits insurance package included at no additional premium cost and with no additional underwriting. They only use products of companies with a proven track record of honoring their commitments and with high financial strength ratings. They are dedicated to providing quality service during and after the sale, resulting in over $51 billion in life insurance in force. You can find out more about their company at http://www.anallianceforlife.com and watch client testimonials at http://www.anallianceforlife.com/livingbenefits/video. Reported by PRWeb 1 hour ago.
Lawrenceville, GA (PRWEB) July 18, 2013
Alliance Group, a foremost provider of life insurance with living benefits, has released an abundance of training resources on their new website, http://www.topsalliance.com/, which will help insurance agents continue to grow their business in the ObamaCare market.
On Alliance Group’s new website, insurance agents can now view training webinars and videos from previous training summits, and they can gain access to “leadership calls” and additional information about Alliance Group’s exclusive T.O.P.S. program.
Released officially earlier this year, the T.O.P.S. program, which stands for Total Opportunity Package for Success, is a comprehensive benefits package designed to help agents grow their agencies. It includes training, proprietary products, and a lead program, among other benefits.
“Keeping insurance agents informed on the various products that could help provide additional coverage to their clients is crucial right now,” states Peter Goldfine, the Marketing and Social Media Director at Alliance Group. “Insurance agents will need to know all of the products on the market that can provide the security that health insurance alone doesn’t cover for their clients, and to know how to market those products as well.”
In the T.O.P.S. program, insurance agents receive a proprietary “living benefits” portfolio from Alliance Group. Their life insurance with living benefits package is included at no additional premium cost and with no additional underwriting, and it provides coverage for terminal, critical, and chronic illness as well as death, all of which could lead to potential foreclosure, bankruptcy or the loss of business for the individual.
Additional information about living benefits can be found on Alliance Group’s new website via their “leadership calls.” Held every Monday, each one featuring a special guest, these conference calls cover a variety of topics, including recruiting, social media, the health insurance gap, life insurance, etc. Alliance Group will conduct training webinars each Wednesday throughout the month of July, and agents can view Alliance Group’s archived presentations on relevant topics in the insurance industry from previous sales summits and archived “leadership calls” on the new site as well.
“In this critical time for insurance agents, we want them to be prepared for which products may be even more relevant for their future portfolios, such as life insurance with living benefits,” Goldfine summarizes. “Our new website and overall training initiatives are designed to continue to help insurance agents grow their business in this changing market.”
About Alliance Group:
As a leader in the living benefits life insurance market, Alliance Group stands out as the foremost provider of life insurance products and tax advantaged concepts with exclusive proprietary living benefits, including critical illness benefit, mortgage protection, chronic illness care, critical illness care, heart attack insurance, cancer insurance coverage, and health insurance gap coverage. They provide insurance products with a living benefits insurance package included at no additional premium cost and with no additional underwriting. They only use products of companies with a proven track record of honoring their commitments and with high financial strength ratings. They are dedicated to providing quality service during and after the sale, resulting in over $51 billion in life insurance in force. You can find out more about their company at http://www.anallianceforlife.com and watch client testimonials at http://www.anallianceforlife.com/livingbenefits/video. Reported by PRWeb 1 hour ago.
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Ahead Of Big Health Coverage Expansion, Obama Touts Benefits For People With Insurance
Flanked by health insurance customers who received rebates because of Obamacare, President Barack Obama on Thursday highlighted his health care reform law's benefits for people who already have coverage.
Over the past two years, 21.5 million health insurance consumers have gotten $1.6 billion in rebates because their providers spent less than 80 percent of the premiums they paid on medical care, rather than overhead or profit, as the Obama administration announced last month. On Thursday, Obama sought to heighten awareness of such parts of the health care law that already are in effect, ahead of a major campaign to enroll a targeted 7 million more people in health insurance starting Oct. 1.
"If you're one of the 85 percent of Americans who already have health insurance -- could be through your employer or through Medicare or through Medicaid -- you already have an array of new benefits in place," Obama said during remarks at the White House. "You don't have to wait until Oct. 1. You're already getting benefits even if you don't know if it's because of the Affordable Care Act."
Obama's speech is part of a growing campaign by the White House and its allies to push back against Republican attacks on the 3-year-old law and to improve woeful public understanding and weak support for its mandates and benefits for health insurance consumers. Obamacare's health insurance exchange marketplaces for people who don't get health benefits at work and for small companies are set to open in less than three months, amid questions about the administration's preparedness and resistance from Republican-led states.
The administration faces significant challenges to getting those health insurance exchanges ready for the six-month enrollment period that begins in October, and it is embarking on a major effort to promote enrollment in health insurance and Medicaid among people -- especially the young, healthy, and poor -- who are uninsured or currently buy their own health insurance. The difficulty of the task and doubts about the administration's readiness are underscored by the White House's decision to delay a separate requirement that large employers cover their workers of face penalties of up to $3,000 per worker.
The biggest parts of the health care law not yet online -- and the hardest measures to put into place -- will affect the uninsured.
"Our broken health care system threatened the hopes and dreams of families and business across the country who feared that one illness or one accident could cost them everything they spent a lifetime building," Obama said Thursday. "Step by step, we're fixing that system."
But he also must assuage concerns of the majority of Americans who already are covered by job-based health insurance and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid that Obamacare will upend their benefits. The president sought to promote the insurance rebates as an example of how the law has positively affected currently insured people.
"Millions of Americans opened letters from their insurance companies, but instead of the usual dread that comes from getting a bill, they were pleasantly surprised with a check," he said. "Most folks wouldn't know when that check comes in that this was because of Obamacare."
Obama also touted the news, reported Wednesday by The New York Times, that health insurance premiums in New York state will decline by as much as half under Obamacare next year, not counting the tax credits available to low- and middle-income people.
Health insurance premiums in 10 states and the District of Columbia will be lower on average than projected by the Congressional Budget Office, the Department of Health and Human Services reported in an analysis released Thursday. Premiums will vary greatly from state to state and based on individuals' ages and other factors, and will be higher for some people next year. Reported by Huffington Post 25 minutes ago.
Over the past two years, 21.5 million health insurance consumers have gotten $1.6 billion in rebates because their providers spent less than 80 percent of the premiums they paid on medical care, rather than overhead or profit, as the Obama administration announced last month. On Thursday, Obama sought to heighten awareness of such parts of the health care law that already are in effect, ahead of a major campaign to enroll a targeted 7 million more people in health insurance starting Oct. 1.
"If you're one of the 85 percent of Americans who already have health insurance -- could be through your employer or through Medicare or through Medicaid -- you already have an array of new benefits in place," Obama said during remarks at the White House. "You don't have to wait until Oct. 1. You're already getting benefits even if you don't know if it's because of the Affordable Care Act."
Obama's speech is part of a growing campaign by the White House and its allies to push back against Republican attacks on the 3-year-old law and to improve woeful public understanding and weak support for its mandates and benefits for health insurance consumers. Obamacare's health insurance exchange marketplaces for people who don't get health benefits at work and for small companies are set to open in less than three months, amid questions about the administration's preparedness and resistance from Republican-led states.
The administration faces significant challenges to getting those health insurance exchanges ready for the six-month enrollment period that begins in October, and it is embarking on a major effort to promote enrollment in health insurance and Medicaid among people -- especially the young, healthy, and poor -- who are uninsured or currently buy their own health insurance. The difficulty of the task and doubts about the administration's readiness are underscored by the White House's decision to delay a separate requirement that large employers cover their workers of face penalties of up to $3,000 per worker.
The biggest parts of the health care law not yet online -- and the hardest measures to put into place -- will affect the uninsured.
"Our broken health care system threatened the hopes and dreams of families and business across the country who feared that one illness or one accident could cost them everything they spent a lifetime building," Obama said Thursday. "Step by step, we're fixing that system."
But he also must assuage concerns of the majority of Americans who already are covered by job-based health insurance and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid that Obamacare will upend their benefits. The president sought to promote the insurance rebates as an example of how the law has positively affected currently insured people.
"Millions of Americans opened letters from their insurance companies, but instead of the usual dread that comes from getting a bill, they were pleasantly surprised with a check," he said. "Most folks wouldn't know when that check comes in that this was because of Obamacare."
Obama also touted the news, reported Wednesday by The New York Times, that health insurance premiums in New York state will decline by as much as half under Obamacare next year, not counting the tax credits available to low- and middle-income people.
Health insurance premiums in 10 states and the District of Columbia will be lower on average than projected by the Congressional Budget Office, the Department of Health and Human Services reported in an analysis released Thursday. Premiums will vary greatly from state to state and based on individuals' ages and other factors, and will be higher for some people next year. Reported by Huffington Post 25 minutes ago.
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New Medical Director Brings Innovative Physician Engagement Skills to CDPHP
Dr. Richard Dal Col will work as a liaison between the company and the provider community.
Albany, NY (PRWEB) July 18, 2013
In the continued effort to build strong relationships with providers and improve outcomes of member care, CDPHP® is pleased to announce the addition of Richard H. Dal Col, MD, MPH as medical director for surgical services.
In this role, Dr. Dal Col provides leadership and serves as a liaison between CDPHP and the physician community. Working with the team of medical directors, he assists in utilization management, quality improvement, resource management initiatives, and design and implementation of innovative reimbursement models.
Prior to joining CDPHP, Dr. Dal Col was vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh. He also served as a specialty consultant for Hudson Headwaters Health Network and the Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot. Dr. Dal Col was an attending cardiothoracic surgeon with Albany Cardiothoracic Surgeons for almost 20 years prior to his involvement in medical policy and management.
Dr. Dal Col is board-certified in preventive medicine, cardiothoracic surgery and general surgery. He received much of his medical training from Albany Medical Center and was a longtime managing partner with the Albany Cardiothoracic Surgeons, as well as assistant chief of the department of cardiac surgery at St. Peter’s Hospital.
He holds a master’s degree in public health/preventive medicine from the State University of New York at Albany/NYS Department of Health, a Doctor of Medicine from Albany Medical College and a Bachelor of Science degree from LeMoyne College, Syracuse.
About CDPHP®
Established in 1984, CDPHP is a physician-founded, member-focused and community-based not-for-profit health plan that offers high-quality affordable health insurance plans to members in 24 counties throughout New York. CDPHP is also on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Reported by PRWeb 11 minutes ago.
Albany, NY (PRWEB) July 18, 2013
In the continued effort to build strong relationships with providers and improve outcomes of member care, CDPHP® is pleased to announce the addition of Richard H. Dal Col, MD, MPH as medical director for surgical services.
In this role, Dr. Dal Col provides leadership and serves as a liaison between CDPHP and the physician community. Working with the team of medical directors, he assists in utilization management, quality improvement, resource management initiatives, and design and implementation of innovative reimbursement models.
Prior to joining CDPHP, Dr. Dal Col was vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh. He also served as a specialty consultant for Hudson Headwaters Health Network and the Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot. Dr. Dal Col was an attending cardiothoracic surgeon with Albany Cardiothoracic Surgeons for almost 20 years prior to his involvement in medical policy and management.
Dr. Dal Col is board-certified in preventive medicine, cardiothoracic surgery and general surgery. He received much of his medical training from Albany Medical Center and was a longtime managing partner with the Albany Cardiothoracic Surgeons, as well as assistant chief of the department of cardiac surgery at St. Peter’s Hospital.
He holds a master’s degree in public health/preventive medicine from the State University of New York at Albany/NYS Department of Health, a Doctor of Medicine from Albany Medical College and a Bachelor of Science degree from LeMoyne College, Syracuse.
About CDPHP®
Established in 1984, CDPHP is a physician-founded, member-focused and community-based not-for-profit health plan that offers high-quality affordable health insurance plans to members in 24 counties throughout New York. CDPHP is also on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Reported by PRWeb 11 minutes ago.
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Study: Obamacare To Drive Down The Cost Of Coverage
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hoping to gain the high ground in an escalating war of words over Obamacare, the U.S. administration on Thursday forecast sharply lower than expected insurance costs for consumers and small businesses in new online state healthcare exchanges.
A report by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said data from 10 states and the District of Columbia shows preliminary 2014 premiums on the lowest-cost mid-range "silver" plans in those marketplaces to be 18 percent lower on average than earlier administration and congressional estimates.
Rates for businesses with fewer than 50 employees that purchase small-group coverage through exchanges could also be 18 percent lower than what the same plans would cost without President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform law, based on data from six states, HHS said.
The report was released in conjunction with a speech by Obama on how healthcare reform is already benefiting consumers. It represents the administration's latest bid to counter Republican allegations that consumers and businesses will see sharply higher costs from the exchanges than the individual insurance plans already on the market.
The new exchanges are slated to begin enrolling as many as 7 million uninsured Americans for 2014 on October 1 in federally subsidized health plans ranging in quality from platinum, with the highest premiums, to bronze, with the lowest.
"Today's report shows that the Affordable Care Act is working to increase transparency and competition among health insurance plans and drive premiums down," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement accompanying the report.
The actual rates consumers see could be lower than current estimates, the HHS report concluded, saying that rate reviews and negotiations under way in the District of Columbia, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont have already reduced prospective costs announced in the spring.
But it was not clear whether the lower rates contained in the report would be reflected nationwide. The report's authors cautioned that some states could see costs closer to earlier projections.
The exchanges represent the centerpiece of Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and their success could depend on the cost of so-called silver plans, which are expected to attract the largest number of enrollees.
The events come a day after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives called in a symbolic vote for a delay of the reform law's individual mandate, which requires nearly all Americans to have health coverage in 2014 or pay a penalty. The House measure is expected to go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
A leading insurance group, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, issued a statement late on Wednesday saying that such a delay, if enacted without other insurance market changes, would lead to skyrocketing costs for consumers.
The HHS report said prospective premiums in the 10 states studied appear to be affordable for younger adults, including men, whose participation is vital to the success of the exchanges and healthcare reform overall. Younger healthy people who tend to be cheaper to insure are needed to compensate for older and sicker consumers who are expected to enroll in droves.
In Los Angeles, which has the largest number of uninsured people in the country, HHS said the lowest-cost silver plan for a 25-year-old individual will cost $174 per month without subsidies and $34 per month for an individual whose income is $17,235. A catastrophic plan, which mainly covers major medical costs, will cost $117 per month for an individual.
The 10 states examined in the HHS report are California, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
(Editing by Michele Gershberg and Matthew Lewis) Reported by Huffington Post 3 days ago.
A report by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said data from 10 states and the District of Columbia shows preliminary 2014 premiums on the lowest-cost mid-range "silver" plans in those marketplaces to be 18 percent lower on average than earlier administration and congressional estimates.
Rates for businesses with fewer than 50 employees that purchase small-group coverage through exchanges could also be 18 percent lower than what the same plans would cost without President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform law, based on data from six states, HHS said.
The report was released in conjunction with a speech by Obama on how healthcare reform is already benefiting consumers. It represents the administration's latest bid to counter Republican allegations that consumers and businesses will see sharply higher costs from the exchanges than the individual insurance plans already on the market.
The new exchanges are slated to begin enrolling as many as 7 million uninsured Americans for 2014 on October 1 in federally subsidized health plans ranging in quality from platinum, with the highest premiums, to bronze, with the lowest.
"Today's report shows that the Affordable Care Act is working to increase transparency and competition among health insurance plans and drive premiums down," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement accompanying the report.
The actual rates consumers see could be lower than current estimates, the HHS report concluded, saying that rate reviews and negotiations under way in the District of Columbia, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont have already reduced prospective costs announced in the spring.
But it was not clear whether the lower rates contained in the report would be reflected nationwide. The report's authors cautioned that some states could see costs closer to earlier projections.
The exchanges represent the centerpiece of Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and their success could depend on the cost of so-called silver plans, which are expected to attract the largest number of enrollees.
The events come a day after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives called in a symbolic vote for a delay of the reform law's individual mandate, which requires nearly all Americans to have health coverage in 2014 or pay a penalty. The House measure is expected to go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
A leading insurance group, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, issued a statement late on Wednesday saying that such a delay, if enacted without other insurance market changes, would lead to skyrocketing costs for consumers.
The HHS report said prospective premiums in the 10 states studied appear to be affordable for younger adults, including men, whose participation is vital to the success of the exchanges and healthcare reform overall. Younger healthy people who tend to be cheaper to insure are needed to compensate for older and sicker consumers who are expected to enroll in droves.
In Los Angeles, which has the largest number of uninsured people in the country, HHS said the lowest-cost silver plan for a 25-year-old individual will cost $174 per month without subsidies and $34 per month for an individual whose income is $17,235. A catastrophic plan, which mainly covers major medical costs, will cost $117 per month for an individual.
The 10 states examined in the HHS report are California, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
(Editing by Michele Gershberg and Matthew Lewis) Reported by Huffington Post 3 days ago.
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