Healthcare Reform - Busting in the 3 Biggest Obamacare Myths In the past few months , we've seen a lot of health care reform rules and ...
Healthcare Reform - Busting in the 3 Biggest Obamacare Myths
In the past few months, we've seen a lot of health care reform rules and regulations introduced by the Department of Health and Human
Services. Every time that happens, the media gets it and all kinds of articles are written in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and network TV news shows talk about it.
All analysts start talking about the pros and cons, and what that means for businesses and individuals.
The problem with this is that, all too often, one writer looks at the regulation, and writes an article about it.
Then other writers start using parts of that first article and rewriting the parts to fit their article. by
In a time when information is widely distributed, actual regulations and rules are distorted and distorted, and what actually appears in the media sometimes is not really what the regulations state.
There's a lot of misunderstanding about what's going on with ObamaCare, and one of the things I've
noticed in discussions with clients is that there's a core set of myths people have picked up about health care reform that isn't true.
But because of everything they've heard in the media, people believe these myths are actually true.
Today we're going to talk about three myths that I hear the most. Not everyone believes these myths, but it is enough to believe them, and others are not sure what to believe, so it calls to dispel these myths now.
The first is that health care reform affects only uninsured people. The second is that Medicare and Medicare benefits will not be affected by health care reform. Then the last one is that healthcare reform will reduce healthcare costs.
Healthcare reform affects only the uninsured
Let's look at the first myth about health care reform that only affects uninsured people. In a lot of the discussions I have with clients, there are many expressions they use: "I already have coverage, so I won't be affected by ObamaCare," or "I'm going to keep my grandfather's health insurance plan," and the last one - this one I can give them a little leeway,
Because part of what they're saying is true - it's "I have group health insurance, so I won't be affected by health care reform."
Well, the truth is, that healthcare reform will actually affect everyone. Starting in 2014, we will have a whole new range of health plans, and these plans have very rich benefits with a lot of additional features that the current plans do not offer today. So these new plans will be more expensive.
Impact of health care reform on people with health insurance
People who currently have health insurance will be transferred to these new plans sometime in 2014.
So the insured will be directly affected by this because the health plans they have today will expire, and they will be assigned to the new Obamacare plan in 2014.
Impact of health care reform on the uninsured
The uninsured face the additional problem that if they did not get health insurance in 2014, they would face a mandate penalty. Some healthy, uninsured people will look at this penalty and say, "Okay, the penalty is 1% of your adjusted gross income; I make $50,000, so I'll pay a $500 penalty or $1,000 for health insurance.
In that case, I'll just take the penalty." But either way, they will be directly affected by healthcare reform.
Through delegation, it affects the insured as well as the uninsured.
The impact of health care reform on people with serious health plans
People with prepared health insurance plans will not be directly affected by health care reform.
But given the lifecycle of their grandparents' health plan, it will make those plans more expensive as they discover that there are plans available now that they can easily transfer to a richer set of benefits that may be more beneficial for any chronic disease. Health problems they may have.
For people who stay on those grandfather plans, the pool of plan subscribers will start to shrink, and when that happens, those health insurance plans will get more expensive than they are now. Therefore, people on grandparents' health plans will also be affected by
Impact of health care reform on people with group health insurance
The last of them, the small group market, will be the most affected by health care reform.
Although health care reform regulations mostly affect large and medium-sized companies, and companies with 50 or more employees, smaller companies will also be affected, despite being exempted from ObamaCare itself.
What many surveys and polls are starting to show is that some companies with 10 or fewer employees will seriously consider their option to forgo health insurance coverage altogether, and no longer have a company account. Instead, their employees will get health insurance through a health insurance exchange.
In fact, some carriers now say they expect that up to 50% of small groups with 10 or fewer employees will forego a health insurance plan sometime between 2014 and 2016.
This will have a very large impact on all people who have insurance Group health, especially if they are in one of the small businesses that forgo health insurance coverage.
Health care reform will not only be affected by the uninsured but everyone will be affected.
Healthcare reform will not affect Medicare
The next myth was that health care reform would not affect Medicare. That's kind of funny because right from the start, the most notable cuts have been specifically targeting Medicare.
When you look at the Medicare portion of the federal total, you can see that in 1970, Medicare was 4% of the United States federal budget, and by 2011, it had grown to 16% of the federal budget.
If we look at it over the past 10 years, from 2002 to 2012,
Medicare is the fastest-growing segment of the major benefit programs in the federal government, and it's grown nearly 70% over that period.
Because of how big Medicare is and how fast it's growing, it's one of the main programs that ObamaCare is trying to control, so Medicare in the US won't be affected, in fact, initial cuts for Medicare have already been set at about $716 billion.
Medicare Advantage Discounts and Effects
Of this $716 billion reduction, Medicare Advantage is reduced to the maximum and will see the bulk of the effects. What this will do is increase the premiums people pay for their Medicare Advantage plans, and reduce the benefits of those plans. Increasing the costs of Medicare benefits
Currently, many people choose Medicare Advantage plans because they do not have any premiums.
When they are given a choice in Medicare plans, they see it as an easy option because it's a free program for them, "Sure, I get Medicare benefits,
I don't pay anything for it; why not." Now they'll see health insurance premiums start to go up, go from zero to $70, $80, $90, $100.
We've already seen that with some of the Blue Cross Medicare Advantage plans this year. It will only get worse as we go
Low Medicare Advantages
To minimize premium increases, what many Medicare Advantage plans will do is increase copayments, increase deductibles, and change coinsurance rates. To keep the premiums low, they will only pay more costs to Medicare Advantage recipients. Increased premiums and reduced
.benefits are what we'll see in a Medicare Advantage
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