One of the initiatives of the federal health reform law was to implement new requirements for summaries of health insurance plans. This would enable consumers to make more informed coverage choices and have more clarity into the many health plans available to them.
"For too many Americans today, choosing a health plan means reading through a human resources book usually the size of a small phone book, and important information about eligibility and benefits is often buried in the fine ...
The End of Health Insurance Companies
Former Advisers to the Obama Administration Predict: “The End of Health Insurance Companies”
It’s hard to imagine a world without health insurance, but that’s just what Ezekiel Emanuel and Jeffrey Liebman – former advisers to the Obama administration – have predicted in their most recent issue of The New York Times.
It’s a bold claim, “By 2020, the American health insurance industry will be extinct,” but Liebman and Emanuel have reason. They breakdown their reasoning as follows:
Current health ...
The Department of Health and Human Services released a report on what the essential benefits health plans must include by 2014. A summary of the report can be read here.
To summarize the effects that this mandatory package will have on your premiums, consider this quote:
“HHS cannot both make the plans extremely generous, and also make them affordable so that they cover millions more Americans. Those goals contradict one another.”
- Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who helped design health ...
One of the many changes that the Affordable Care Act brings is determining a group of “essential benefits” that health insurance plans must provide. The Act requires that the Secretary of Labor conduct a survey of employer-sponsored coverage to determine benefits that should be covered by employers.
In a report from the Secretary of Labor to the Department of Health and Human Services, here are the twelve essential benefits and their respective descriptions:
There are many factors that attribute to rising healthcare costs, but you’ve probably never heard of this one.
As reported by America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Affordable Care Act imposes a new sales tax on health insurance. Beginning 2014, the tax will start at $8 billion and rise to $14.3 billion in 2018. It is calculated that by 2019, the tax will impose $73 billion on individual, small businesses and seniors in the form of a sales ...
In this video, we explore the importance and significance of health insurance exchanges.
See a great video describing the role of Health Insurance Exchanges here.
Here is the description:
“Milliman consultants and industry experts discuss the benefits and challenges of state healthcare exchanges, the dynamic between public and private plans, the importance of tailoring health exchanges to the needs of individual states, and how Milliman’s expertise can help states design a health exchange suitable for their healthcare market. Milliman ...
There are factors that will both inflate medical cost, and factors to decrease medical costs, and so in the mix, how will Healthcare reform affect the medical costs of this year?
According to data from the PwC Health Research Institute here’s a brief message to sum it up: “Health reform [is] expected to have minimal impact on medical cost trend[s] in 2012.”
Why is that? Well most of the major provisions under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care ...
Ever wonder how much market share your healthcare provider actually has in your state?
Check out this great InfoGraphic that represents the market shares of various healthcare providers in each state.
Here’s the description of the graphic:
“Opponents of the public option claim that by being forced to compete against the government, health care companies will be at an unfair advantage. But right now, health care companies hardly have to compete at all. In most states, one health care ...
A lot is expected to take this year in the healthcare industry to improve patient outcomes and health. Improvements in technology and legislative policies will give you better access to healthcare and have better outcomes.
According to an article by Healthline, here are highlights from the breakthroughs that you can expect this year that will save you on your health care costs.
Improved Diabetes Treatment
With the epidemic of Obesity across the nation Diabetes has dramatically increased. Many Americans suffer ...
Under a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, health insurance providers will be handing an estimated $1.3 billion back to consumers and employers by August 1st.The law requires that health insurers spend at least 80% of premiums on health care expenditures and quality improvements, or provide refunds.
“While the health reform law as a whole continues to divide the American public, there are tangible changes taking place that benefit consumers,” Kaiser President Drew Altman
How much will ...
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