Health Care Reform In the Supreme Court

Today starts the first day of the debate on health care reform. It will be very interesting to see how the supreme court rules in the next 3 days.   Fox News reported on what a fine line the administration’s argument is on. Not having health insurance cause to get a penalty or a tax? The administration’s attorney had […]

CBO Projects Obamacare to Cost $1.76 Trillion

$1.76 Trillion for Obamacare The CBO released the cost of the Health Care Reform for the next 10 years. The congressional Budget office originally projected the cost of the reform at $940 Billion for 10 years. Now the CBO is projecting $1.76 Trillion for the next 10 years. Then in 2022 with another $265 billion for coverage expansions […]

Senator Johnson Questions Secretary Sebelius

  Senator Johnson Questions Secretary Sebelius Regarding Obamacare Cost Here is a questing  from Senator Johnson to Secretary Sebelius on the cost of the health care reform. The Senator has some of his facts mixed up and the Secretary seems to be unprepared for the questioning. The Senator was using cost estimate and predictions that had different time […]

State Based Exchange Final Rule

The department of Health and Human Services has release a 644 page document on the rules for a state based exchange.  This document is going to have a huge impact on health insurance and health care.  At this point no one really has an idea of how a state based exchange is going to look […]

Health Insurance under the Health Care Reform

The department of health and Human Services released guidance on two key components that will affect the level of protection a private insurance policy will provide under health care reform. 1st  Involves the services the insurance policy must cover 2nd  Involves how much the insured must pay for out of pocket services. The services that […]

Federal High Risk Pool

The current administration reported the federal High-Risk medical plan, is expected to more than double the initial predictions of the Obama administration. The Health Care law set aside $5 billion for the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan  (pcip.gov) plan.  If you were denied coverage in the individual market and had been without coverage for 6 months you were […]

Why The Health Care Reform Employee Tax Subsidies Could Cost You More

The Hill Under the new health care reform law, if an employer’s group health insurance is considered unaffordable — a cost to the employee of more than 9.5% of household income —  the employee would be eligible for tax subsidies through a health insurance exchange.  As the law was originally interpreted, if the employee was […]

Bad News for Children on Medicaid and Health Care Reform.

Forbes reported on the Government Accountability Office study children on Medicaid have lower access to health care and quality. The study showed that Medicaid patients are 13% more likely to die than uninsured patients in a hospital. 66% of children covered by Medicaid were denied appointment with a specialist for an urgent medical condition.  The physicians do not […]

Health Insurance Mystery Shopper

The Hill Health and Human Services have canceled their “Mystery Shopper” program. This program was to give HHS information on getting Doctor Appointments. They wanted information on how long someone would have to wait to be seen. They would call a medical practice and state they had Medicare, Medicaid, & Private Insurance to see if waiting […]

Some Positive News on ACO’s

My News Businessweek.com Reported a positive view of the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) The ACO is one of the main programs to reduce health care cost in the new health care law. This is really the 1st publication that states this type of approach to health care can be successful.  The Gov. is developing this […]