Category: HST Blog
The Great Experiment Begins
Healthcare Solutions Team wants to help you. The agents at our office work with our clients face to face as well as over the phone. The most important thing that you should remember that in this experiment that is occurring you aren’t the only guinea-pigs! More than three years after President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, some of the big changes in the nation’s health-delivery system that the legislation mandated are about to go into effect. With the pro and anti-forces already claiming victory there’s a lot of misinformation going around about how the new system will operate. Critics who claimed that the reform which ran to nearly two thousand pages was too complicated even to get off the ground have been discredited. But big questions remain about how things will shake out. Starting on October 1st, people will start enrolling in new plans through the exchanges and come next January, all Americans (with a few exceptions) will be legally obliged to acquire some sort of health coverage or face a fine. Some low-income people who aren’t currently eligible will be able to enroll in Medicaid, the federal system for the poor and indigent. …
+ Read Full PostAffordable Care Act’s challenge: getting young adults enrolled
How many times do you hear someone say to you “I never get sick?” Or maybe you say that yourself. Why get health insurance coverage if there is nothing wrong with me? As the clock ticks toward the 2014 launch of the Affordable Care Act, health leaders across the nation are embarking on a tough task: persuading young adults to enroll. Their participation will be critical to balance out older, sicker patients more likely to sign up for health insurance as soon as they are able. This has been the battle that private insurers have faced in the past as well. If any plan regardless if it is a private carrier or the plans in “ObamaCare” the only way it would ever work is if there is a “balance” in the age of the people who apply. The success of the healthcare law depends on reaching everyone who is uninsured, but particularly young people who may feel like they don’t need insurance. Beginning in 2014, nearly everyone will be required to have insurance or face a fine — $95 or 1% of their household income in the first year. Many young adults who are not covered through work or their …
+ Read Full PostPrivate Pay or Penalties It’s All Your Choice
As we move closer towards the end of the year there is no assurance that folks will be buying insurance under the Obamacare. In a recent survey nearly two-thirds of Americans who currently do not have health insurance still do not know if they will purchase that coverage by January 1, 2014. Nearly 50% of those surveyed believe that the Affordable Care Act will make it more difficult for them to get the care that they will need in a timely manner for tests and other procedures. Also found is that 68 percent of lower income families weren’t sure that they could even qualify for the tax credits that would subsidize their purchase of health insurance. 64 percent of the people also said that they haven’t decided if they will purchase insurance by the January 1st deadline and that they really have no clue on how to proceed. Under the ACA, uninsured Americans have until the beginning of 2014 to purchase insurance through healthcare exchanges being set up nationwide or other venues—or face a financial penalty. That penalty is equal to $95 per adult, and $47.50 per child, up to a maximum of $285—or 1 percent of household income, whichever …
+ Read Full Post“Obamacare” Funding Angers Lawmakers!
You have all heard the saying, “time is money and money is time,” right? With money and time running out to implement the president’s health care law, administration officials are looking for funding wherever they can find it—and angering members of Congress along the way. Republicans in Congress are fuming about recent reports that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been calling private insurance companies, including some that her department regulates, and asking them to help with private efforts to educate the public about the Affordable Care Act. It’s one of several actions the department has taken recently to direct funds toward the massive effort that will be required to explain the 2010 health care law to uninsured people who will benefit and help them enroll in health plans starting in October. The administration announced last week that it would be directing funds earmarked for expansion of community health centers toward outreach workers. In April, Sebelius disclosed that the department had diverted money from a dedicated Prevention and Public Health Fund to subsidize similar efforts. The actions reflect the department’s failure to secure additional funding from Congress or cooperation from state governments to implement the Affordable Care …
+ Read Full Post7 Key Terms in the Affordable Care Act that Small Businesses Should Know
The Affordable Care Act includes new health care reform terms used to describe parts of the law that affect small business. Understanding what these terms mean can help both self-employed individuals and small employers better navigate the law and take advantage of reforms that are helping to lower premium costs and increase access to quality, affordable health insurance. The agents at “Healthcare Solutions Team” are the most educated in the country when it comes to your well-being. Here are seven terms in the Affordable Care Act that small businesses should know. At “Healthcare Solutions Team” we want to educate you, the small business owner so that you can educate your employees! 1. Affordable Insurance Exchange Also known as the health insurance “Marketplace,” the Affordable Insurance Exchange is a new transparent, competitive insurance marketplace where individuals and small businesses can purchase affordable and qualified health benefit plans. The Marketplace for small employers, known as the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), and the Individual Marketplace for consumers and those who are self-employed, will open in all states on January 1, 2014. Enrollment begins on October 1, 2013. To get the latest updates on enrollment, sign up for email and text alerts …
+ Read Full PostHealth Care Reform’s Time is Near!
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr once famously observed, “Time takes time.” While I’m sure that Ringo Starr wasn’t talking specifically about health insurance as far as I know, his keen observation remains a timely one as we witness the gradual unfolding of health care reform. It makes you think doesn’t it?? The Affordable Care Act is now just five months away from the historic first open enrollment period of the new federal-state health exchanges. It is supposed to provide a simplified, one-stop online source for affordable health insurance for individuals and small businesses. But the on-line 21 page application has our federal government scrambling to find a more “stream-lined” version that will be less demonstrative for the many people that cannot maneuver around a computer let alone a complicated website and application process with no help. The individual mandate portion of the law, of course, requires all Americans to obtain health insurance or face a penalty on their federal income tax. But many are in the dark and will have to pay more for their coverage through the exchange verses if they would contact us at “Healthcare Solutions team” for the help that they so badly need. Unfortunately, a health …
+ Read Full PostTWIST & SHOUT!!!!
Let me ask you a question. What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “retail health care?” Perhaps a fast consultation with a nurse at a Minute Clinic or flu shots at the local Target Pharmacy? What is happening is that Blue Cross Blue Shield has put forth the innovative effort to create its own basic health and wellness center. The very first of its kind has opened in “Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania” with the hopes of expanding all over the country. Having health care at our finger tips seems to be popular these days. Instant gratification isn’t always the right thing to aim for is it? With the medical field being impacted with the “Health Care Reform Act” the last thing we as consumers need to do is go the way of the fast and instant, leaving the slow and steady relationships on the side of the road. In all actuality, having an established relationship with a physician that you trust, is the best type to have because of the changes that are coming in 2014, don’t you agree? As the clock shouts loudly on the mandatory health coverage demanded by the “Affordable Care Act,” these coverage requirements will …
+ Read Full PostAmericans Still Without Health Insurance!
In a survey released this past week, in 2012 close to 84 million people, almost half of all working-age adults did not have health insurance at one point, or had extra out of pocket expenses. This extra out of pocket was so high in comparison to their pay, they were actually considered “underinsured!” Also revealed in this survey by the “Commonwealth Fund 2012 Biennial Health Insurance survey” was the amount of young adults aged 19-25 who were uninsured during the year dropped from 48% to 41% between 2010 and 2012-reversing a trend of climbing uninsured rates in that age group! Because of the “Affordable Care Act” which has permitted young adults to stay on their parent’s insurance plans until the age of 26, this has helped with the many young adults that have gone uninsured in the past. The plans that we offer at “Healthcare Solutions Team” have all the benefits already implemented in them and are 100% health care reform complaint! There is no reason that you should remain uninsured with the different plans that we have to offer every size budget. The survey suggests that many people live without insurance because they simply cannot afford it. Eighty million …
+ Read Full PostHow Will The Insurance Exchange Operate?
I bet you’re wondering how this is all going to come together right? On October 1, 2013 an exchange operated jointly by the state and federal governments will become active allowing pre-registration for the plans offered in the “Obama-care exchanges.” In the state of Illinois, lawmakers are considering a bill to create a state-run exchange beginning in 2014. If the legislature does not approve that bill by May 31-the last day of the legislative session-the jointly run program could continue or Illinois could move to the federal only exchange. When the exchange is created, small businesses and individuals form a large pool, opening the possibility of more choices for insurance policies. The exchange will allow consumers to compare insurance plans (including Medicaid) and the rates. Unfortunately, even after all this work there is no guarantee that the rate that you seek will be less expensive then what we can offer. In fact, we have been actively working with the exchange in comparing prices and unless you are 400% below the poverty line there is a very strong possibility that you will end up paying more on your own than you would with us. Healthcare Solutions Team has prepared their agents …
+ Read Full PostFUNDING FALLING SHORT!
Washington announced that the federal funding is running out for an Affordable Care Act program meant to provide temporary health insurance for people with pre-existing medical conditions, forcing some states to stop signing up new participants. The critics of the act said on Sunday, April 7th, 2013, that the $5 billion that they had for the pre-existing condition insurance program was never enough to actually fund the program. The enrollees with very serious medical conditions such as cancer and heart disease are the ones that are very expensive to treat. That is why at “Healthcare Solutions Team” we have given our health insurance agents all the tools to help give you the choices that you need to protect yourself and your family. There are plenty of options that we can offer that will still give you the benefits of the health care reform plans and save you money! About 135,000 people nationwide signed up for the PCIP before the federal government shut down enrollment last month, saying there wasn’t enough money to continue. Some claims had run as high as $225,000. Coverage will continue for people already enrolled, but they now face higher costs. Because of the stall in funding …
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