Tag: healthcare

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Here’s The Bullet Points On The New Republican Healthcare Plan

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Everyone is talking about the newly released Republican plan to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act.

Here’s the bullet points you should know about how this will change healthcare legislation:

• The Individual Mandate would be gone, as would the Employer Mandate. No more penalty paid for not having healthcare. No requirement of large businesses to provide health insurance for employees.

However, while there would be no individual penalty for not having healthcare (which would have gone to fund public hospitals, etc…), insurance companies will be allowed to tack on a 30% surcharge to restart your insurance should you let it lapse.

Instead of paying a penalty into a system that would fund public health services, you would pay a fine to a private company. Sound better to you?

• The A.C.A. premium subsidies would be replaced by tax credits for individuals making $75K or less ($150K for households). Folks under 30 would get tax credits of $2,000, with the amount going up to $4,000 for those over 60.

But, these are tax credits, so you have to pay for your insurance out of pocket first, then utilize the credits later when you pay taxes. If you are lower income wage earner, you may not make enough money to pay for health insurance out of pocket on a monthly basis.

• The plan would lift the limits for tax-free Health Savings Accounts. However, if you are lower-income earner, you may not have any money after your monthly bills to put into an HSA. This may be something that could help wealthier Americans, but those on a tight budget would probably not see much benefit here.

• The proposed plan would defund Planned Parenthood, removing a vital source of healthcare for millions of Americans.

• The proposed plan would prevent Americans from using their tax credits to pay for any health insurance plan that includes abortion. So, if you take the tax credits, any abortion procedures would have to be paid out of pocket, not by your health insurance.

• The proposed plan would allow insurance companies to charge older Americans up to 5 times as much as younger. Currently, Obamacare limits the difference to only 3 times the cost of younger Americans.

Three popular components of Obamacare will remain:

• No denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions

• No lifetime coverage caps

• Young people will be able to remain on their parents’ health plans until age 26

Thoughts? Leave your comments below.

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Louisiana: 100,000 Residents Will Gain Access To Medicaid As New Governor Takes Office

Two bits of good news in Louisiana – Gov. Bobby Jindal is out and newly elected Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards is in.

Plus, 100,000 residents will get healthcare immediately.

Edwards says that he’s signing off on Medicaid expansion this Tuesday. That means at least one hundred thousand low-income residents of Louisiana will gain access to health care immediately.

The Affordable Care Act of 2009 provided federal funding for expanding Medicaid to those who are as much as thirty-eight percent over the poverty line, but the Supreme Court subsequently ruled that individual states could decline the funds.

Jindal was among the republican governors who chose politics over the health of their own residents. But that now ends immediately. And the people of Louisiana are about to get even more good news.

In related news, Kentucky’s new Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has announced he will begin to dismantle his state’s health insurance exchange, kynect.

One step forward, one step back.

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California man sues Little Caesars for denying health benefits for his legal spouse

A California man is suing pizza company Little Caesars (crappy pizza anyway) because he was denied health benefits for his husband – a benefit that every other legally married employee receives.

The Advocate has the details:

Frank Bernard started working as a manager for the pizza chain in March and became eligible for benefits after 90 days, reports Courthouse News Service. However, the company declined to insure his husband, Carl.

He complained multiple times to Little Caesars Enterprises and its parent company, Ilitch Holdings, both based in Michigan, and he was told company policy is not to offer benefits to same-sex spouses. He received a letter from human resources explaining the company’s definition of spouse for benefits purposes: “Spouse means the one person to whom you are legally married under the laws of the state in which you reside, including a common law spouse, and who is the opposite gender from you.”

In a marriage equality state like California, if employers offer benefits to opposite-sex spouses, they generally have to offer them to legally married same-sex spouses as well, noted Bernard and his attorney, Gloria Allred. But Ilitch Holdings officials told Bernard that since the company is based in Michigan, where same-sex couples do not have marriage rights, it did not have to offer the benefits.

Watch the report from Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC:

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President Obama takes responsibility for bumpy roll-out of Obamacare

In response to a bumpy rollout of  Obamacare, President Obama announced today that he would allow insurers to extend policies that have been canceled for one year even if they do not comply with the law.

Originally, in presenting the Affordable Care Act, the president promised Americans that “if you like your current policy, you can keep it.”

But a problem with that approach became apparent when insurers were required to cover about ten or so specific items in every healthcare policy.  This was done to make comparing policies easier for consumers, and to make health insurance better across the board by including some preventative measures, etc.

Some policies currently in use by consumers did not include these provisions. And by not being ACA compliant, those policies were being cancelled and replaced with updated versions.  Thus – the surprise for some consumers not being able to “keep the policy” they currently have.

Also plaguing the roll-out of the program has been a website that has suffered from multiple glitches.  The president took responsibility for the problems today at a press appearance:

Obama said he “fumbled” the debut of the Affordable Care Act and let down Democratic supporters who put their political careers on the line to back the president’s signature domestic policy.

“There is no doubt that our failure to roll out the ACA smoothly has put a burden on Democrats, whether they’re running or not, because they stood up and supported this,” Obama said. “I feel deeply responsible for making it harder for them, rather than easier for them.”

(source)

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Why are American health care costs so high?

Light-hearted enough, but full of facts. This really is what you all should know about health care costs.

Good job, John.

John discusses the complicated reasons why the United States spends so much more on health care than any other country in the world, and along the way reveals some surprising information, including that Americans spend more of their tax dollars on public health care than people in Canada, the UK, or Australia. Who’s at fault? Insurance companies? Drug companies? Malpractice lawyers? Hospitals? Or is it more complicated than a simple blame game? (Hint: It’s that one.)