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raybond
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Five Obamacare Provisions To Be Thankful For

By Tara Culp-Ressler on Nov 22, 2012 at 9:00 am



After clearing significant hurdles over the past year — including repeated repeal votes in Congress, a Supreme Court challenge, and a presidential election — the future of President Obama’s landmark health reform law is finally secure. Now that it’s here to stay, Americans can expect to reap significant benefits as the Affordable Care Act continues to be gradually implemented over the next few years. But some important provisions of the health law have already gone into effect, helping improve coverage for millions of Amercians and significantly reduce the national uninsurance rate. Americans can be grateful for these five existing Obamacare provisions that are currently working to provide the following benefits for millions of people across the country:


1) Eliminating the “donut hole” coverage gap. After this Obamacare provision began working to make prescription drug coverage more affordable for seniors, the Centers for Medicare And Medicaid Services (CMS) confirmed that over 5 million seniors and people with disability saved an estimated $4 billion on their prescription costs. And the health law ensures that those savings will only increase in the future, as the Medicare program eventually covers more and more of the cost of both brand-name and generic drugs. The average senior on a traditional Medicare plan is expected to rack up about $5,000 in savings between 2010 and 2022.

2) Preventing insurance companies from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Eliminating discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions is one of the most popular provisions of the health reform law, since the insurance market has typically forced people with genetic or chronic illnesses to either pay expensive premiums in high-risk pools or forgo coverage altogether. Americans under 19 years old are currently eligible for these protections, and the provision will be expanded to all Americans in 2014.

3) Allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26. Obamacare has helped extend coverage to millions of young adults by allowing them to remain covered under their parents’ plans until they turn 26, resulting in a record drop in the number of uninsured young adults across the nation. More than six million young adults are now insured through their parents’ insurance plans because of this provision.

4) Increasing affordable access to women’s health services. Thanks to Obamacare, a wide range of women’s preventative health services are now covered in employer-based insurance plans at no additional charge. The health reform law works to eliminate gender-based disparity in health costs by eliminating co-pays for birth control, HPV screening, breastfeeding support, and domestic violence resources. And studies have confirmed that Obamacare’s contraception mandate will help lower the national abortion rate by increasing access to affordable and reliable forms of birth control.

5) Ensuring that premiums go toward Americans’ health care rather than insurance companies’ profits. Obamacare’s 80/20 rule mandates that insurance companies can only spend 20 percent of the premiums they charge on their own profits and overhead costs, while the remaining 80 percent needs to go toward the cost of providing quality health care. Thanks to this provision, Americans have already saved an estimated $2.1 billion on their premium costs. And if you got a refund check in the mail this past year from your insurance company, you can thank this part of the Affordable Care Act for that. About 13 million Americans have received over $1 billion in rebates since the health law enacted the 80/20 rule.

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Upside
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And business owners can be thankful for the 30 to 60% increase that they're going to see in their premiums.

My small business (less than 50 employees) is a relatively healthy, young group. Our 2013 rates are going up 30% and our insurance agent is estimating a 60% increase for 2014. We'll absorb the 2013 increase but guess what happens in 2014? Bye-bye health insurance, at least employer sponsored health insurance.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees won't be required to provide health insurance and there's actually incentives to drop it all together. If I choose to continue offering it I put myself at risk of being fined by the government. If a single employee opts out of a plan I sponsor and then receives a tax credit to purchase insurance on his/her own my plan will be deemed unaffordable and I could be hit with fines starting at $2,000.00 per employee. It's a ridiculous risk for any business to take on, there's no reason to do so and it provides every reason for me to wash my hands of health care.

It's also one of many disincentives for me to try and grow my business. Why would I want to grow to the point where we're over the 50 employee threshold? Again, no reason to do so and a whole bunch of reasons not to.

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glassman
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the only question i have about increases is whether or not we would have seen them anyway?

we are the only industrialised country left that that doesn't have govt provided health care.... excpet China who bascially has almost none

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Upside
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quote:
Originally posted by glassman:
the only question i have about increases is whether or not we would have seen them anyway?

we are the only industrialised country left that that doesn't have govt provided health care.... excpet China who bascially has almost none

In fairness I have to agree that's it's possible. Historically our increases average about 12% which is pretty low. It's achieved though by bouncing from provider to provider every year or two. One year we'll be with Humana, the next year with UHC and so on. It's a pain in the azz to switch so often but there's always someone lowballing the marketplace so we do it. It just seems odd that one year before the major parts of the health care reform goes into effect that the rates are almost identical across the board.
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IWISHIHAD
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Do you think your private health care is better than what Obama will be providing?

Sure makes it easy for a small company to make a decision on health care, except you feel bad for employees if the Obama care is less.


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IWISHIHAD
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You should also see a drop in your payroll taxes since programs like SSI will no longer need health care provisions.

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Upside
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quote:
Originally posted by IWISHIHAD:
Do you think your private health care is better than what Obama will be providing?

Sure makes it easy for a small company to make a decision on health care, except you feel bad for employees if the Obama care is less.


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Don't know. I think Obamacare starts out with basic, minimal coverage with upgrades available at a cost. I don't know what their definition of "basic, minimal coverage" is going to be though.

And you're right, it does make it easy to make a health care decision, ungortunately it's the wrong decision. If you dig into the reforms a little it really does seem like they're trying to dissuade employers from providing insurance. The penalties for not doing so are miniscule compared to the premium costs. Providing insurance for a family of 4 costs an employer an average of $18,000.00 annually. The annual penalty for not offering insurance is $2,000.00 per employee. Just that one employee alone saves the company 16k.

It certainly looks to me like they want to completely take over health care while gaining billions in revenue in the form of a new tax on business, health insurance penalties. Billions and billions will come pouring in as businesses get out of the health care game and all that new revenue won't even be a drop in the huge bucket that needs to be filled. My guess is that eventually the bulk of the 16k that the business just saved on that one employee will be taxed away. Instead of an employer purchasing insurance and paying a health care provider they'll pay virtually the same amount to the government instead.

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IWISHIHAD
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You know we pay one way or the other, and business pays two ways or the other.

They tell you how unemployment is dropping but state disability lines get longer and longer, after unemployment runs out. Employers get more and more hits especially in CA. Not sure about other states.

SSI is another interesting one, especially when you look who can get it... pretty much anyone

Don't know where business heads with all of this, especially small business, since they have a lot less capital to work with, so their options are always less.

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IWISHIHAD
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Here the big question for you Upside, Does that guy that use to post on this board still work for you?

I don't remember his names.

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glassman
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quote:
Originally posted by Upside:
quote:
Originally posted by glassman:
the only question i have about increases is whether or not we would have seen them anyway?

we are the only industrialised country left that that doesn't have govt provided health care.... excpet China who bascially has almost none

In fairness I have to agree that's it's possible. Historically our increases average about 12% which is pretty low. It's achieved though by bouncing from provider to provider every year or two. One year we'll be with Humana, the next year with UHC and so on. It's a pain in the azz to switch so often but there's always someone lowballing the marketplace so we do it. It just seems odd that one year before the major parts of the health care reform goes into effect that the rates are almost identical across the board.
me 'sperince getting older and needing more helath care is that MY ocsts have skyrocketed per visit...

worse than that? the doctors HERE now no longer offer mutliple care per visit..

for instance, i have to get a script every three months right? well, they won't x-ray my foot ont hesame visit, and the co-pays are going up every year..

on top of that? they often screw up my scrpit and i HAVE to pay to go in again to get it straightend out, they can-not and will not just call them in...

state of MS added sudafed to the controlled substance list, and i have to go in and get that filled too.....

i have very high "good" cholesteral nd very good numebrs onmy "bad" yet my doctor insists that i nee my toal number down... that doesn't agree with any of the literature i've read either, but i know better than to argue with my doctor....

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glassman
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and i agree with you UP specifically about they are trying to end private insurance. I have never liked the fact that they are doing htis.

the problem is that companies like walmart had tens of thousands of employees on medicaid while they worked there...

Germany has a pretty decent systme IMO... private for those that want it and public for those tha need it...
they should have health care be a 100% deduction for the EMPLOYEE and allow employers to just fuggetaboutit. that would save employers real money and make for good jobs to insurance sales people.

Obmacare COULD have been very good IF the GOP had particpated in earnest to make it good, instead they sabotaged it on purpose intending to win elctions.... and they won a few, but messed everything else up by doing it..

they didn't NEED to mess it up toget elected weither, most people really do want the party in the WH to be differnt from the one that runs Congress....

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IWISHIHAD
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What were going to see is that the real busy doctors are going to charge a yearly fee.

That's happening more and more in several states.

So people that have the money to spend will see the better doctors.

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Upside
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quote:
Originally posted by IWISHIHAD:
Here the big question for you Upside, Does that guy that use to post on this board still work for you?

I don't remember his names.

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Are you taking about Will maybe? Last I saw him he was in a sundress hightailing it out of town with a mob of angry gay guys chasing after him. He never actually worked for me though, he just stored some of his stuff from his own business in my warehouse.

The only other guy that comes to mind is MunchkinMan. I offered him a job, paid temporary housing and transportation to Wisconsin from where ever he was but he never took me up on it. He left Allstocks shortly thereafter never to be seen again.

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raybond
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The last time i read a post from the Munckinman was when Anna Nicole died. He was talking about befriending her.

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IWISHIHAD
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It was MunchkinMan.

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Upside
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Lol, found it.

http://www.allstocks.com/stockmessageboard/ubb/ultimatebb.php/ubb/get_topic/f/14 /t/003881/p/1.html

I can still remember our "negotiations". He wanted to make sure that there was at least one Chinese restaurant within walking distance and a minimum of two taverns, also within walking distance. Neither demand was a problem, at the time there were two Chinese places within a mile of where his apartment would have been. His tavern demand was even easier, this is Wisconsin after all. It's not possible to go a mile in any direction without coming across at least one bar.

After assuring him that I could meet those two demands I never heard from him again. Maybe he'll re-surface some day.

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