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Posts Tagged ‘individual insurance’

Health insurance and open enrollment – what you need to know

Monday, October 30th, 2017

The Chicago Tribune reports:

“As open enrollment for health insurance begins Wednesday, Nov. 1, and several changes have occurred or been proposed, I decided to check in with two industry experts for their advice on what you need to know.

(more…)

Blue Cross Blue Shield Confirms Obamacare Death Spiral

Thursday, April 28th, 2016

According to The Beacon:

” The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, which represents 36 Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans covering 105 million Americans, has just released a study of its members’ claims data in Obamacare exchanges 2014 and 2015. It confirms that Obamacare exchange enrollees are sicker and more expensive than enrollees in pre-Obamacare individual plans or employer-based plans.

Here I quote four of the study’s findings:

  • Members who newly enrolled in BCBS individual health plans in 2014 and 2015 have higher rates of certain diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, coronary artery disease, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C than individuals who had BCBS individual coverage prior to health-care reform.
  • Consumers who newly enrolled in BCBS individual health plans in 2014 and 2015 received significantly more medical care, on average, than those with BCBS individual plans prior to 2014 who maintained BCBS individual health coverage into 2015, as well as those with BCBS employer-based group health insurance.

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IRS Grants Extension for 6055 and 6056 Reporting

Tuesday, January 26th, 2016

According to United Healthcare, Broker Connection Special Edition:

“On Dec. 28, 2015, the IRS announced that it is granting an automatic extension for the 2015 information returns required of insurers, employers and certain other providers of Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) under Section 6055 and 6056 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).

Coverage providers that need more time now have until March 31 to get Form 1095 to individuals and until June 30 to electronically file with the IRS. For providers not filing electronically, the deadline is May 31, 2016. (more…)

Canadian Health Care: Patients Waiting Longer Than Ever For Treatment

Monday, January 11th, 2016

Investors Business Daily Reports:

Socialist Medicine: Canadians love their hockey and have historically been happy with their government-run health care system. Hockey is thriving. The country’s health care system, though, is a wreck and getting worse.

It could be said the words “Canada” and “health care” really don’t go together because some Canadians never make it to the doctor.

Too many die untreated due to extended wait times to see a doctor, and those wait times have increased again this year. They are now almost twice as long as they were in 1993, the year Hillary Clinton tried to force government health care on Americans. (more…)

More than 100,000 in SC could lose health insurance if Supreme Court rules against subsidies

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015

The State reports:

“Tim Liszewski didn’t have health insurance for a decade before signing up for a subsidized policy through the Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplace last year.

He likely will be uninsured again if the U.S. Supreme Court rules federal subsidies are illegal in states such as South Carolina that didn’t create their own insurance exchanges. The court hears arguments about that issue in the King v. Burwell case on Wednesday, with a decision likely coming in June.

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Employer-paid Individual Health Plans

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014

Flexible Benefit reports:

“The IRS and other agencies have issued three different sets of guidance making it clear that employers cannot give actively employed workers pre-tax dollars through a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) ,or any other type of arrangement, to purchase individual coverage on their own. Employers using this model will be subject to fines of up to $100 per employee per day.

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Small Firms Hit by Big Changes in Health Coverage

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014

The Wall Street Journal reports:

“Businesses with fewer than 50 workers are exempt from the most stringent requirements for larger employers under the federal health-care law. But that doesn’t mean they’re off the hook entirely.

Smaller employers aren’t required under the Affordable Care Act to offer coverage for their full-time workers—as larger firms must by 2016 or face penalties, for instance. But many owners of small ventures and startup entrepreneurs are nonetheless facing big changes to how they obtain their own health coverage, as well as to the benefits they’re able to offer employees.

“It’s a myth that smaller firms aren’t being hit” by the health law, albeit in less obvious ways, says James Schutzer, president of the New York State Association of Health Underwriters, referring to employers with fewer than 50 workers.

(more…)

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