It's Not Discrimination
Today must be the whiner day. Or perhaps a full moon. Or both.More than 300 patient advocacy groups recently wrote Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell to complain about some insurer tactics that "are highly discriminatory against patients with chronic health conditions and may ... violate the (law's) nondiscrimination provisions."Yahoo NewsHeads up.If you are offered coverage there is no discrimination.The advocates also say they are disappointed by how difficult it's proved for consumers to get a full picture of plans sold on the new insurance exchanges. Digging is often required to learn cruci...
Source: InsureBlog - August 18, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
T.R.A.G.I.C. is Back and Still Clueless
T.R.A.G.I.C. (Teachers Rally Against Georgia Insurance Choices) is in the news again, railing against the new SHBP (State Health Benefit Plan) choices. They whined earlier this year when they came out of the ether and realized the plan choices for 2014 which were FULLY EXPLAINED during open enrollment did not meet their expectations.Perhaps a remedial reading class is in order.The state completely revamped the 2014 plans and made RETROACTIVE changes to add doctor copay's. This only partially placated them.They still whined.Now the state of Georgia has released pro forma information on 2015 plans. Instead of one carrie...
Source: InsureBlog - August 18, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Stupid Congressman Tricks
Democratic member of the House Ron Barber is donating his Obamacare subsidy to charity! What a great act of kindness.Under PPACA, all members of Congress are required to purchase their insurance through the DC Health Link. Unlike you and I, these congresscritters are allowed to receive their traditional employer contribution - not a subsidy - from the Federal Government under the FEHB Plan. This contribution, which could exceed $900 a month, comes from our tax dollars. It is also tax deductible to Mr. Barber. To recap: taxpayers provide what could amount to $900+ per month for Mr. Barber and his spouse ...
Source: InsureBlog - August 18, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Be careful what you wish for...
The other day, Mike posted about the efficiency of Britain's Much Vaunted National Health System©, and made this observation:"[T]he UK has for years led the US in terms of restrictions on its citizens’ access to specialized medical services and newer technologies. In many respects, such restrictions make sense where overutilization is known to occur; in many other respects, setting an army of bureaucrats on a mission to "cut medical costs" is a terrifying idea."He went on to note that we're now "committed to a [similar] path over the next 20 years." To which I would reply: You wish it was that far out:"More than 3...
Source: InsureBlog - August 18, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Yum!
On August 14, the Wall Street Journal carried this op-ed piece by Dr. Scott Atlas of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (subscription required, sorry).You’ll find it well worth the time to read. Particularly interesting to me is Atlas’ statement that “NHS insurance costs $3,500 annually for every British man, woman and child.” I looked up the corresponding figure for the U.S. in the National Health Expenditure Tables published by CMS each year. Doesn't everyone know by now that the US per-capita annual expenditures are far higher than the UK’s? So that’s not the interesting part.The...
Source: InsureBlog - August 16, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Trending: Disability stats
Thanks to our friend Andy Linneman, we learn that:■ More than 30 million Americans between the ages of 21 and 64 are disabled■ 44% of employees say they have about a 1% chance of becoming disabled during their working years.■ 60% of consumers are concerned about their ability to support themselves if they were to become disabled and unable to workI just met with a client who, as the result of a recent stroke, has lost 95% of her hearing. She's struggling to make ends meet, and we even had to tap into her life insurance policy to help pay bills until Social Security Disability kicks in (if it ever does).One surefire w...
Source: InsureBlog - August 4, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Thanks to Obamacare .............
We rail against Obamacare, and with good reason. Spending TRILLIONS of dollars (including $1 billion+ on a website that STILL doesn't work) to provide health insurance to a relatively few people is foolish. Providing coverage to the uninsurable via a risk pool makes much more sense than the system we have now.That being said, let's look at Chloe Jones' situation.Chloe is 14 years old and has CF (cystic fibrosis). Treatment can easily run $300k per year for a new drug (Kalydeco).Kalydeco received FDA approval in 2012 when used to treat a rare form of CF that affects roughly 1,200 individuals.Chloe is one of three plaintiffs...
Source: InsureBlog - August 1, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Cavalcade of Risk #214: Call for submissions
Jaan Sidorov hosts next week's Cav. Entries are due by Monday (the 4th).To submit your risk-related post, just click here to email it.You'll need to provide:■ Your post's url and title■ Your blog's url and name■ Your name and email■ A (brief) summary of the postPLEASE remember: ONLY posts that relate to risk (not personal finance tips and the like). And please only submit if you are willing to link back to the carnival if your submission is accepted. Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - August 1, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Medicaid Iceberg Ahead
One of the key provisions of Obamacare involves Medicaid expansion. But then SCOTUS through a wrench in the works making expansion optional. The result, 24 states said "no" to expansion, gumming up the works.And now this .........Just six states and the District of Columbia will use their own money in 2015 to sustain the federal Medicaid pay raise to primary care doctors, which was a key provision of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) intended to make sure millions of low-income people enrolling in the expanding insurance program have access to a physician.MedPage TodayWhat happens in the other states?The other 42 states ...
Source: InsureBlog - August 1, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Anecdotal evidence piling up
David Williams, a Massachusetts-based healthcare industry consultant (and FoIB) has a very interesting new post from the Land of RomneyCare:"Obamacare caused one small businesses’s Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts premium to jump by 29 percent ... After that I heard from two other BCBS MA customers who were experiencing big premium hikes."David reached out to Blue Cross for confirmation and elucidation, and (surprisngly) they offered a helpful explication. Click on through for the unexpected twist.Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - July 31, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Too little, too late [UPDATED]
Sing it, Johnny:"A nonpartisan congressional investigation has concluded that management failures by the Obama administration set the stage for the computer woes that paralyzed President Barack Obama's health care program website last fall"Which is nice, but what difference, at this point, does it make?UPDATE (HGS@7-31-14):Adding insult to injury, we now learn that the 404Care.gov site debacle cost almost $1 Billion, and **still** needs work:"The price tag for healthcare.gov, the Obamacare website, is approaching $1 billion even as key features remain incomplete ... If the management doesn’t improve “significant ...
Source: InsureBlog - July 31, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
When journalist/propogandist don't understand their subject, Is Medicare getting more efficent?
Not sure if I should refer to Vox as journalism; their attempt at understanding the per-capita Part A spending is more along the lines of humor.But what's definitely clear — and what's driving this trend — is that Medicare is spending significantly less per person than they did two years ago. And this report expects that trend to continue for another two years going forward.Ms Kliff has a number of guesses of why this is, including Obamacare of course. What she misses is the most obvious one: Medicare growth usually happens when someone turns 65. And 65 year-olds have lower claims cost then 80 year-olds. If you add 1.6...
Source: InsureBlog - July 31, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Liberals Must Hate Obamacare
A GOP lawsuit against the Obama administration on overstepping their constitutional authority in delaying the employer mandate in Obamacare has led to Democratic outcries and a platform to fundraise for their base. Liberals call the lawsuit frivolous and that an attempt to impeach the President will follow. They say it is a waste of money and a witch hunt designed to tear apart Obamacare. They also want GOP members of Congress to do their jobs and as the President said: "stop hating all the time."While the GOP lawsuit focuses on the employer mandate, it should be noted that since it's inceptio...
Source: InsureBlog - July 30, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
(Not so) Reassuring Re-insurance
One of the (many) problems with the ObamaTax that's been flying under the radar is the soon-to-be cancelled re-insurance program:"Insurance companies will no longer have access to ACA’s “re-insurance” and “risk corridor” programs. The first item currently allows insurers to bill the government for the most expensive patients."Basically, this re-insurance is a way to funnel taxpayer money directly from DC into insurance carriers' coffers, and was designed to bribe the industry into supporting the ObamaTax protect carriers from the inevitable adverse selection they were afraid of under the Guaranteed Issue provisio...
Source: InsureBlog - July 30, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Speaking of monkeys and unicorns...
Bob's post yesterday on the travails of a couple trying to find affordable health insurance in an Obamaworld proved once again that there are no coincidences:I have spent the past few days working with a couple of very long-term clients. They've trusted me with their health insurance needs for several years (at least 5 that I can recall off-hand). Both of them have HSA-compliant plans with moderately high family deductibles ($6,000 for one, $10,000 for the other), and both are insured with Medical Mutual (MMO). Both of them renew September 1st.MMO has elected to participate in the Obamastration's offer to extend existing p...
Source: InsureBlog - July 29, 2014 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
