An amazing American legislative victory over this March 2010 weekend has earned a circle on every person’s calendar. Although it’s not officially law yet, an enormous step towards universal health care has been achieved. The House has officially passed the Health Care Reform. This piece of social legislation has been a newsworthy debate by every individual who has held title of American President since 1960 when the Great Society saw the passing of Medicare and Medicaid. Universal health care coverage is the goal. The house voted 219 – 212 in favour of an overhaul of the health care system being signed into law. The Democrats passed this bill without one single Republican vote.
The second bill that passed by the House on March 21 will be the bill to make adjustments to the current legislation such as lowering the taxes on high-value insurance plans and removing kickbacks like budget reconciliations. However, President Obama made a promise to continue with the consistency of some existing Federal laws of the Hyde Agreement that has been in place since 1976.
The goal of this new bill is to make the practice of medicine and health care providers more efficient. They would be rewarded on how well they treat patients instead of the current method of how much care they provide to individual patients. The bill would also make available health coverage to approximately 32 million legal Americans, increasing the number to 95% coverage from the current 83%.
Even in Canada where Medicare has existed in one form or another since 1968, you can fall victim to debt resulting in bad credit due to medical bills from a rejected insurance claim, for items not covered by Medicare. If you are in such a predicament, a private loan could assist with the consolidation of debt as well as to help rebuild bad credit as these financial institutions understand such situations and specialize in bad credit loans.
Albeit in the United States or in Canada, like any newly implemented law, it will take time to see positive results. During the first few years, most people will notice only minor changes. If you fall into the category of denied insurance or denied insurance claims due to pre-existing conditions, the good news is that the immediate changes are severe and are directed at those insurance company’s policies. The practice of denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions and dependent children under the age of 26 who cannot otherwise get healthcare, will allow them to remain covered under their parent’s policies. As well, adults with pre-existing conditions will be allowed to buy coverage with high-risk companies, an option that is not available now.
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The White House last week continued to rail against rising health insurance premiums to help build popular support for his health care reform package. But the effort to focus the blame for rising costs on insurers was questioned, in particular, by state insurance experts and economists quoted in a New York Times story last week. Insurance commissioners said that trying to hold down premiums before costs were under control would be very risky. This approach could mean solvency issues in some cases, they told the Times. To help educate Americans about the true drivers of rising health care costs, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade association, last week launched a new national ad campaign. The ad demonstrates that health insurance company costs represent a small slice of the overall health care cost pie.
Federal
With a cadre of staff operatives searching for the right health insurance reform provisions among those previously discarded from the House, Senate and the President’s proposals, Democratic leadership has been relentlessly pursuing every possible pathway to pass a final bill. The expected process would have: 1) the House pass the Senate-adopted reform bill (which most House members hate), 2) the House passing a bill to “fix” all the things it hates using a reconciliation legislative vehicle, followed by 3) the Senate passing the very same reconciliation bill — requiring only 51 votes in the Senate. The House Budget and Rules Committees are expected to start the review, hearing and mark-up process of the reconciliation bill this week. The Senate commitment to using reconciliation was made official in a scathing letter from Leader Harry Reid to the Minority Leader. Along the way the two Chambers will need to see the latest CBO “scores” on the bill before voting, and 216 House Democrats will have to resolve policy disagreements over abortion, federal health insurance rate review and authority, and other substantive issues. Additionally, the House will have to trust that the Senate can pass the reconciliation measure without changing one comma. Partisanship has blossomed into open hostility over health reform. Whether Congress can overcome these policy, process and political mine fields remains as murky as ever, but Democrats have chosen to try and will push for resolution by the Easter recess.
The Senate has passed Jobs Bill II and shipped it off to the House, where passage is not certain. Within the bill are two health-related items of note. First, the COBRA eligibility and subsidy program will be extended to the end of 2010. (These provisions are set to expire at the end of March.) Second, the bill contains a suspension until September 30, 2010 of the cut to physician Medicare reimbursements for the current calendar year. (This provision is also set to expire at the end of March.) Aetna urged Congress to apply the “doc fix” to next year’s reimbursement as well, since insurers’ Medicare rates are based on what doctors are paid, but in the end Congress failed to make this change. Aetna and the industry will continue to find ways both to establish a more lasting, if not permanent, doc fix and to devise a legislative solution to the disconnect between doctor reimbursement and Medicare Advantage rates for 2011 and beyond.
States
ARIZONA: Budget issues remain front and center as the governor and Republican leadership proposed a plan they hope will close the $700 million deficit this year and reduce the anticipated $2.6 billion deficit in 2011. Righting the state’s fiscal ship has become a very partisan exercise, with the Republicans supporting reductions in Medicaid and KidsCare, and the elimination of full-day kindergarten. As the special session on the budget is running concurrently with the regular session, no other bill hearings were held. The oral chemotherapy parity bill may be dead for this year as proponents did not meet the deadline for submitting amendatory language.
CALIFORNIA: The Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee chaired by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre held a hearing last week to examine how the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) and the Department of Insurance (CDI) has handled issues surrounding the rescission of policies in the individual market. According to a report prepared for the committee by Bryan Liang, director of the Institute of Health Law Studies at the California Western School of Law, fewer than 300 of 6,000 former policyholders are participating in health insurers’ agreements to settle such cases. Republican committee members were highly critical of this witness, while De La Torre was critical of the Departments. The DMHC reported that since their settlements were completed there have only been nine rescissions over the past two years, proof that the DMHC and the health plans have revamped their processes for rescission and have worked to address the problem.
COLORADO: A bill mandating maternity and contraceptive coverage in individual policies continues to receive significant attention in the Senate. The most recent amendment proposes requiring maternity coverage in at least three of the plans marketed by an insurer. It would also allow a current member of a plan without maternity coverage to switch to a plan with maternity coverage from the same carrier during the first trimester. The other major bill would require that second level appeals be performed by physicians who are actively involved in clinical practice. This measure is counterintuitive in the current economy, since it would result in outsourcing appeals and drive up costs for plan sponsors and their employees.
CONNECTICUT: A proposal that would require health insurance plans to cover oral chemotherapy in the same way that intravenous chemotherapy is covered made it through the legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee last week. Currently, many health plans treat the two kinds of cancer treatments differently. Chemotherapy treatments that come in pill form are often categorized as prescription drug benefits that can require patients to pay a larger share of the cost. Cancer patients, doctors and patient advocates spoke in favor of the bill, while insurers and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association opposed it, arguing that it would put a mandate on health plans that could raise costs and make it more difficult for employers to afford insurance.
GEORGIA: A bill restricting the use of rescissions in individual health insurance policies passed a Senate committee last week. Aetna continues to work with its trade organizations to educate legislators about the adverse effect of this type of legislation. Discussions also continue regarding legislation affecting the use of rental networks.
KANSAS: Roughly half way through the legislative session, several health care bills are still moving through the process. On the regulatory front, the Insurance Department has proposed a regulation that would mandate coverage of routine patient care costs while the insured is enrolled in a cancer clinical trial – a mandate that was rejected by the legislature in 2008. A hearing will be held on April 20, and Aetna will have an opportunity to present testimony on this issue. Bills still alive include mandates for autism and orally administered chemotherapy, legislation prohibiting dental contracts that require the dentist to follow a fee schedule for non-covered services, and a ban on “most favored nation” clauses by some insurers. Another bill would allow small employers to create individual HRAs to fund premium payments on individual policies, require administering insurers to offer employees the option of receiving health insurance coverage through a high-deductible health plan with an HSA, and requiring insurers who offer small group health plans to offer high-deductible health plans with HSAs, while authorizing tax deductions for health insurance premiums for individual insurance policies. Separate legislation would amend the definition of “eligible employee” to include part-time workers (currently less than 30 hours per week). Pending legislation concerning hospital charges would prohibit charging private-pay patients more than 25 percent of what the hospital’s highest volume private payer would pay for the same goods or services. Legislation that died includes a telemedicine mandate and creation of a health care insurance database for employers.
KENTUCKY: Health issues that are being hotly debated by the legislature right now include an autism mandate, a dental bill that would not allow insurers to hold dentists, optometrists or ophthalmologists to a fee schedule for non-covered services, and a bill setting a reimbursement floor for chiropractic services. The chiropractic services proposal would allow chiropractors to bill, and would require insurers to reimburse, an evaluation and management (E&M) CPT code on each and every visit. In addition to billing for follow-up services for manipulations and other therapies, the chiropractor would be allowed to submit, and the insurer required to pay, for another E&M code on each and every visit. The legislation would also add a new mandated benefit to the Kentucky statutes. Currently, reimbursement for chiropractor visits is required only if the chiropractor performs a service already covered by the health benefit plan. Under the proposal, any service within the scope of practice of a chiropractor that is billed would become a mandated benefit. Finally, the bill would require health benefit plans to provide reimbursement without the chiropractor having to provide any documentation that the services were medically necessary. Each of these bills has, or is expected to, pass at least one chamber.
SOUTH DAKOTA: Several important legislative deadlines are approaching, resulting in a flurry of activity. Bills or resolutions not passed by the second chamber by March 9 died. But the Governor has already signed a bill that amends the premium rate-setting procedure for the high-risk pool so that rates for a given classification are 150 percent of the average actively marketed premium. The pool will have to offer three or more plan designs, remove coverage requirements for the plans (such as disease management) and remove set cost-sharing values. The bill was signed by the Governor on March 1 and will become effective on July 1, 2010. The Governor has also signed a bill prohibiting rating based on injuries caused by domestic violence and legislation requiring refunds of premiums for partial months, in the case of mid-month cancellations. Both chambers have passed legislation prohibiting contract language requiring dentists to accept a fee schedule for non-covered services, and the bill awaits the Governor’s signature. Finally, the legislature passed a resolution opposing the federal health care reform proposals passed in the U.S. Senate and House.
Home health care helps seniors live independently for as long as possible, given the limits of their medical condition. It covers a wide range of services and can often delay the need for long-term nursing home care.
More specifically, home health care may include occupational and physical therapy, speech therapy, and even skilled nursing. It may involve helping the elderly with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, and eating. Or it may include assistance with cooking, cleaning, other housekeeping jobs, and monitoring one’s daily regimen of prescription and over-the-counter medications.
At this point, it is important to understand the difference between home health care and home care services. Although they sound the same (and home health care may include some home care services), home health care is more medically oriented. While home care typically includes chore and housecleaning services, home health care usually involves helping seniors recover from an illness or injury. That is why the people who provide home health care are often licensed practical nurses, therapists, or home health aides. Most work for home health agencies, hospitals, or public health departments that are licensed by the state.
How Do I Make Sure That Home Health Care Is Quality Care? As with any important purchase, it is always a good idea to talk with friends, neighbors, and your local area agency on aging to learn more about the home health care agencies in your community. In looking for a home health care agency, the following 20 questions can be used to help guide your search:
How long has the agency been serving this community? Does the agency have any printed brochures describing the services it offers and how much they cost? If so, get one. Is the agency an approved Medicare provider? Is the quality of care certified by a national accrediting body such as the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations? Does the agency have a current license to practice (if required in the state where you live)? Does the agency offer seniors a “Patients’ Bill of Rights” that describes the rights and responsibilities of both the agency and the senior being cared for? Does the agency write a plan of care for the patient (with input from the patient, his or her doctor and family), and update the plan as necessary? Does the care plan outline the patient’s course of treatment, describing the specific tasks to be performed by each caregiver? How closely do supervisors oversee care to ensure quality? Will agency caregivers keep family members informed about the kind of care their loved one is getting? Are agency staff members available around the clock, seven days a week, if necessary? Does the agency have a nursing supervisor available to provide on-call assistance 24 hours a day? How does the agency ensure patient confidentiality? How are agency caregivers hired and trained? What is the procedure for resolving problems when they occur, and who can I call with questions or complaints? How does the agency handle billing? Is there a sliding fee schedule based on ability to pay, and is financial assistance available to pay for services? Will the agency provide a list of references for its caregivers? Who does the agency call if the home health care worker cannot come when scheduled? What type of employee screening is done?
When purchasing home health care directly from an individual provider (instead of through an agency), it is even more important to screen the person thoroughly. This should include an interview with the home health caregiver to make sure that he or she is qualified for the job. You should request references. Also, prepare for the interview by making a list if any special needs the senior might have. For example, you would want to note whether the elderly patient needs help getting into or out of a wheelchair. Clearly, if this is the case, the home health caregiver must be able to provide that assistance. The screening process will go easier if you have a better idea of what you are looking for first.
Another thing to remember is that it always helps to look ahead, anticipate changing needs, and have a backup plan for special situations. Since every employee occasionally needs time off (or a vacation), it is unrealistic to assume that one home health care worker will always be around to provide care. Seniors or family members who hire home health workers directly may want to consider interviewing a second part-time or on-call person who can be available when the primary caregiver cannot be. Calling an agency for temporary respite care also may help to solve this problem (see the Respite Care fact sheet for more information about these services).
In any event, whether you arrange for home health care through an agency or hire an independent home health care aide on an individual basis, it helps to spend some time preparing for the person who will be doing the work. Ideally, you could spend a day with him or her, before the job formally begins, to discuss what will be involved in the daily routine. If nothing else, tell the home health care provider (both verbally and in writing) the following things that he or she should know about the senior:
Illnesses/injuries, and signs of an emergency medical situation Likes and dislikes Medications, and how and when they should be taken Need for dentures, eyeglasses, canes, walkers, etc. Possible behavior problems and how best to deal with them Problems getting around (in or out of a wheelchair, for example, or trouble walking) Special diets or nutritional needs Therapeutic exercises.
In addition, you should give the home health care provider more information about:
Clothing the senior may need (if/when it gets too hot or too cold) How you can be contacted (and who else should be contacted in an emergency) How to find and use medical supplies and medications When to lock up the apartment/house and where to find the keys Where to find food, cooking utensils, and serving items Where to find cleaning supplies Where to find light bulbs and flash lights, and where the fuse box is located (in case of a power failure) Where to find the washer, dryer, and other household appliances (as well as instructions for how to use them).
A WORD OF CAUTION . . . Although most states require that home health care agencies perform criminal background checks on their workers and carefully screen job applicants for these positions, the actual regulations will vary depending on where you live. Therefore, before contacting a home health care agency, you may want to call your local area agency on aging or department of public health to learn what laws apply in your state. HOW CAN I PAY FOR HOME HEALTH CARE? The cost of home health care varies across states and within states. In addition, costs will fluctuate depending on the type of health care professional required. Home care services can be paid for directly by the patient and his or her family members, or through a variety of public and private sources. Sources for home health care funding include Medicare, Medicaid, the Older Americans Act, the Veterans’ Administration, and private insurance.
Medicare is the largest single payer of home care services. The Medicare program will pay for home health care if all of the following conditions are met:
The patient must be homebound and under a doctor’s care; The patient must need skilled nursing care, or occupational, physical, or speech therapy, on at least an intermittent basis (that is, regularly but not continuously) The services provided must be under a doctor’s supervision and performed as part of a home health care plan written specifically for that patient The patient must be eligible for the Medicare program and the services ordered must be “medically reasonable and necessary” The home health care agency providing the services must be certified by the Medicare program.
To get help with your Medicare questions, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227, TTY/TDD: 1-877-486-2048 for the speech and hearing impaired) or look on the Internet at http://www.medicare.gov.
WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT HOME HEALTH CARE? There are several national organizations that can provide additional consumer information about home health care services. These include the following:
The National Association for Home Care, which can be reached at 202-547-7424 or by visiting its website at www.nahc.org. The postal address is: 228 7th St., SE; Washington, DC 20003. The Visiting Nurse Associations of America, which can be reached at 617-737-3200 or by visiting its website at http://www.vnaa.org. The postal addresses are: 99 Summer St., Suite 1700; Boston, MA 02110.
To find out more about home health care programs where you live, you will want to contact your local aging information and assistance provider or area agency on aging (AAA). The Eldercare Locator, a public service of the Administration on Aging (at 1-800-677-1116 or http://www.eldercare.gov can help connect you to these agencies.
Case Study
WHEN IS HOME HEALTH CARE APPROPRIATE? Because it is not always clear to the average person when an ailing senior needs home health care and when he or she needs nursing home care, it is usually best to consult a medical professional for advice. The following case study describes one situation in which home health care proved to be the right choice. Francis is 84 years old and recently had a stroke. She was hospitalized briefly and then discharged to continue recovering at home. To enable her to return home, her doctor called a home health care agency, and the agency gave Francis a complete home health care plan for six weeks. Since the doctor ordered the home care for Francis, Medicare paid for it.
For the first week after Francis went home, a nurse visited her every day. The nurse met with Francis’s family to discuss her special dietary needs and to arrange for exercise therapy to help Francis regain her strength. Once that was done, the nurse visited Francis twice a week to check on how well she was recovering. The home health care agency also sent a homemaker, a personal care attendant, and a physical therapist to visit Francis several times during the week. The homemaker would do the shopping and cook light meals. The personal care attendant would help Francis bathe, get dressed, and walk. The physical therapist would keep Francis moving and see to it that she got some exercise to aid in her recovery.
Health Care System Needs Reform, Not a Government Takeover
Believe it or not, America boasts some of the world’s best doctors, the most advanced health care system, and the most technically superior resources in the world, bar none. Those who travel globally and have gotten sick know that their first choice for treatment would be in the U.S. Though heatlh care in America is, more expensive thanany other country, many of the worlds wealthiest come to the U.S for surgical procedures and complex care, because it holds a worldwide reputation for the gold standard in health care.
To examine the complex health care issue, a small research study was conducted from randomly selected doctors in mdnationwide.org’s best doctors database. We ask 50 top doctors, located in different states and who practice different specialty fields, ” Is a universal health care plan good for America?” Forty-eight of these doctors essentially responded that it was a “bad idea” that would have negative mpacts on the quality of our nation’s health care.
Social Engineering Your Health Care
One of the greatest mis-conceptions some people have relied on with regard to the health care debate is that, given a universal health care system, every person in the U.S. would receive the highest quality health care – the kind our nation is renowned for and that we currently receive. However, unlike some public amenities, health care is not a collective public service like police and fire protection services, therefore the Government cannot provide the same quality of health care to everyone, because not all physicians are equally good orthopaedic surgeons, internists, neurosurgeons, etc, in the same way that not all individuals in need of health care are equally good patients.
As an analogy – stay with me – when you design a software program, there are many elements that are coded on the back-end, and used to manipulate certain aspects of the software program, that your average “John Doe” who uses the software(the end user) does not understand or utilize, nor do they care about these elements. Certain aspects of the program are coded, so that when one uses that portion of the program, other elements of the program are manipulated and automatically follow the present or next command.
Likewise, once a universal health care plan is implemented in America and its massive infrastructure is shaped, private insurance companies will slowly disappear, and as a result, eventually patients will automatically be forced to utilize the government’s universal health care plan. As part of such a system, patients will be known as numbers rather than patients, because such a massive government program would provide compensation incentive based on care provided, patients would become “numbers,” rather than “patients.”
In addition, for cost savings reasons, every bit of health information, including your own, will be analyzed, and stored by the Government. What are the consequences? If you’re a senior citizen and need a kneereplacement at the age of 70, the government may determine that you’re to old and it’s not worth the investment cost, therefore instead of surgery, you may be given medication for the rest of your life at a substantial cost savings to the government, and at a high quality of life price to you.
Solutions:
Fixing the current U.S. health care system might require that we;
1. Encourage prevention and early diagnosis of chronic conditions and management.
2. Completely reform existing government health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.
3. Forgive medical school debt for those willing to practice primary care in under-served areas.
4. Improve access to care, provide small businesses and the self-employed with tax credits, not penalties for providing health care.
5. Encourage innovation in medical records management to reduce costs.
6. Require tort reform in medical malpractice judgments to lower the cost of providing care.
7. Keep what isn’t broken-research shows 80% of Americans are happy with their current insurance, therefore, why completely dismantle it?
8. Reimburse physicians for their services.
9. Innovate a system in which Medicare fraud is dramatically decreased.
Devil In the Details
Socialized medicine means:
1. Loss of private practice options, reduced pay for physicians, overwhelming numbers of patients, and increasing burn-out may reduce the number of doctors pursuing the profession.
2. Patient confidentiality will need to be compromised, since centralized health care information will be maintained by the government and it’s databases.
3. Healthy people who take care of themselves will pay for the burden of those with unhealthy lifestyles, such as those who smoke, are obese, etc.
4. Patients lose the incentive to stay healthy or aren’t likely to take efforts to curb their prescription drug costs because health care is free and the system can easily be abused.
5. The U.S. Government will need to call the shots about important health decisions dictating what procedures are best for you, rather than those decisions being made by your doctor(s), which will result in poor individualized patient care.
6. Tax rates will rise substantially-universal health care is not free since citizens are required to pay for it in the form of taxes.
7. Your freedom of choice will be restricted as to which doctor is best for you and your family.
8. Like all public programs, government bureaucracy, even in the form of health care, does not promote healthy competition that reduces costs based on demand. What’s more, accountability is limited to the budgetary resources available to police such a system.
9. Medicare is subsidized by private insurers to the tune of billions of dollars, therefore if you take them out of the equation, add a trillion dollars or more to the current trillion dollar- plus cost estimates.
10. Currently, the government loses an estimated $ 30 billion a year due to Medicare fraud. Therefore, what makes anyone think that this same government will be able to run & operate a universal health care system that is resistant to fraud and save money while doing so?.
If the elections approaching, politicians talk about “health crisis that threatens the United States,” as if he wanted to do something, until they were elected. The experts say the costs of the study of health care is one of the biggest problems facing the country in terms of cost and quality of care.
Providing the insurance?
Government
Federal, state and local authorities on, 39 millionemployees (including military), 39 million Medicare beneficiaries (a number that occasion, the first baby boomers will receive up to 65) and 41 million Medicaid will. Of course, governments do not have to generate their own income. Everything that comes from one place: taxpayers. With an average of 7 health insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists for every member of Congress, it is easy to understand, taking into account as the feet of the legislature, when it comes to improving health care for its members. (However,Receive free health insurance for life. You probably say, “What’s wrong?”)
Employers
Employers offer health insurance to 120 million Americans. Those who decide to accept the insurance have hundreds of dollars a month deducted from their wages than their share of the premium their employers pay for health insurance. In 2005, the average worker paid over $ 2700 for the group insurance by an employer.This does not include annual deductible and co-payments for doctor visits, prescriptions, hospitalization, surgery, etc.. The National Coalition for the medical reports, insurance premiums for employees increased by 73% over the period 2000-2005. Compare that with a cumulative rate of inflation over the same period by 14% and a cumulative wage increase of 15%. Obviously, the difference of 1% does not come anywhere close to a 73% increase in premiums.-health care
Of course, the employerTo increase the premiums. In fact, the NCHC web site relates this troubling information: “The costs of health insurance are the most rapidly increasing costs for employers. Unless something changes dramatically, health insurance, the cost exceeds the benefits in 2008. ” Since the point that in business to make a profit is to have the employer at least two ways: (1) spend a portion of the additional premium for employees, (2), new employees less and give smaller pay poses to others;Danger (3) pay more for their products and services and / or (4), that workers who have health insurance all together.health care
Even if your insurance through your employer, you must be careful to read and understand the fine print. Do not see a doctor without permission. Not able to find in “Network Neighborhood”, without expecting to pay most of your doctor. You must go to a hospital? I hope you know and think clearly, becauseYou may need to call your auto insurance company or hospital to get the OK button. We’ve all heard the horror stories of people who rushed someone to the hospital “false” in an emergency situation and have been denied insurance coverage because they lacked “a deal” with the hospital in question.
When facing a choice politicians talk of “America’s looming health crisis,” as if they actually plan something, if and when they are elected. Experts who say the costs of health care study, it is one of the most serious problems the country faces in terms of cost and quality of care.
Who Provides Health Insurance?
The Government
Federal, state and local governments to secure 39 millionEmployees (including military), 39 million Medicare (receiver determines a number that increases as the first baby boomers to turn 65), and 41 million Medicaid. Of course, governments have no revenue is generated. It all comes from one place: the taxpayers. With an average of 7 health insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists for each Congressman, it is easy to understand, consider why the legislature’s feet when it comes to improving health care for their constituents. (Nevertheless,they all get free health insurance for life. You are probably saying, “What’s the big deal?”)
Employers
Employers offer health insurance to 120 million Americans. Those who decide to accept the insurance have hundreds of dollars a month deducted from their salaries than their share of the premium their employers pay health insurance. Paid in 2005, the average worker more than $ 2700 for its share of consolidated sales of insurance through an employer.This does not include annual deductibles and co-payments for doctor visits, prescriptions, hospitalization, surgery, and so on. The National Coalition on Health Care reports that employee insurance premiums increased by 73% from 2000-2005. Compare that with a cumulative inflation rate over the same period by 14% and a cumulative wage increase of 15%. Obviously, the 1% difference does not come anywhere near that increase the 73% premium.
Of course, shared by the employerto increase by premiums. In fact, the NCHC web site relates this troubling information: “health insurance expenses are the fastest growing cost component for employers. Unless something changes dramatically overhaul the health insurance costs profits by 2008.” Since the whole sense of being in business to make a profit, employers have some choices: (1) pay a portion of the additional premium to the employees, (2) for new employees less and give smaller raises to others ;(3) charge more for their products and services and / or (Stop 4), together with employees of health insurance.
Even if your insurance through an employer, you must be very careful that you read and understand the fine print. Do not see a doctor without prior authorization. Do not see from the “network” without expecting to pay, in large part doctor’s fee yourself. Do you need to go to a hospital? Let’s hope you’re aware of and think clearly, becauseYou may need to call the insurance from the car or the ambulance to get their OK. We’ve all heard the horror stories of people who rushed someone to the “wrong” hospital in an emergency and were denied coverage by insurance because they do not have “an agreement” with the concerned hospital.
