Health and Human Services (HHS) recently reported that approximately 54 million Americans with private health insurance policies received access to free preventive care services in 2011.
In a
recent article by ENews Park Forest, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave credit to health care reform in the U.S. and stated: “Americans of all ages can now get the preventive services they need, like mammograms and the new Annual Wellness Visit, free of charge, as a result of the new health care law...with more people taking advantage of these benefits, more lives can be saved, and costly, and often burdensome, diseases can be prevented or caught earlier.”
Health care reform required insurance plans to provide free
preventive care coverage to all new individual insurance plans issued on or before September 23, 2010.
Note: None of this should be taken as legal or tax advice.
In October of 2011, Kathy Sebelius,
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, admitted that the
Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Act was financially unfeasible.
On February 1 2012, the U.S.
House voted 267-159 to repeal CLASS. While the Senate may still vote against the repeal, this confirms that pieces of the 2010 health care reform bill are at great risk of repeal.
After CLASS, what section of the health care reform bill do you think is next on the "chopping block"?
According to the White House, 28 states are “on their way” to establishing new marketplaces, called health insurance exchanges, where consumers can begin to shop for health insurance starting January 1st, 2014.
Nancy-Ann DeParle, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, remarked, “States are taking strong steps to implement health reform. The Obama Administration is working in partnership with State leaders across the country... we will ensure Americans in every State have access to an Exchange and the same kinds of insurance choices as Members of Congress.”
But does that mean 22 states will not be ready in time? Administration officials said ““it would be premature at this point” to draw that conclusion.
While the government is reviewing another round of grant proposals to assist states, some states, including Wisconsin and Kansas, have said they plan to give the grant back. Last week, South Dakota’s governor said there is
too much uncertainty for the state to move ahead with an exchange until after it learns the results of the Supreme Court case challenging the law, and the outcome of the November Presidential election.
Will that be too late?
“If states decide after the Supreme Court decision, we will work with them to get them as far down the path as possible,” said the official, noting that a state initially could do a partnership with the federal government, if necessary, then get certified to run its exchange solo after that. Residents in states that can’t — or won’t — run their own exchanges will be directed to a federally facilitated fallback exchange.
Still, some policy experts have questioned whether the federal government will have its backup system up and running by the time enrollment is set to open in the fall of 2013. “We are making substantial progress of development of federal exchanges,” the official said, “including signing contracts with private sector vendors to create the systems.”
Do you think the state exchanges will be ready?
Note: None of this should be taken as legal or tax advice.
Now that 2012 has become reality, figuring out employee health benefits can be a daunting task for both employers and employees.
With looming changes from health care reform and increased cost-shifting to employees,
defined contribution health benefits have emerged as the health benefit program of the future. According to leading experts,
2012 promises to be a huge year for defined contribution health benefits. That means any employer or employee considering health benefits in 2012 needs to consider the following.
In a
recent survey, McKinsey & Company spoke to a number of employers regarding major trends they see for 2012 and beyond. The following is a summary of those trends to help employers plan their health benefits strategy:
1) Cost-shifting brings companies closer to defined contribution health benefits
2) Health care reform encourages defined contribution health benefits
Health care reform, coupled with rising costs, has employers of all sizes concerned. According to McKinsey & Company, up to 60% of educated employers plan to "definitely" or "probably" pursue alternatives to offering health insurance such as:
- Dropping employer-sponsored coverage,
- Offering employee health benefits using a defined contribution model, or
- Offering health benefits only to certain employees.
Many carriers have added defined contribution health benefit programs to their product offerings, confirmation that defined contribution has become an increasingly important component of health benefit programs.
3) Technology and education are a big part of defined contribution health benefits
One of the primary changes to the health benefits landscape is the move toward more electronic communication, which means that employees will be required to educate themselves and enroll in their own health insurance plans.
Private health exchanges and individual health insurance quoting/enrollment technology are expected to be a large component of defined contribution health benefits.
With
less than 25% of small businesses expected to offer group health insurance by 2014, have you explored all possible alternatives?
Note: None of this should be taken as legal or tax advice.
Health care reform will no longer address long term care insurance due to cost concerns. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the CLASS Act (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports), intended to provide assistance to Americans for daily living needs, was scrapped by the Obama administration.
Projected to generate tens of billions of dollars during its early years, the future cost of paying out claims would have exceeded that projected revenue. According to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius: "Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time."
