While I'm sure there will be those employers who dodge the new law by watching the hours worked, the bigger issue will likely be just ignoring the law and paying the fine. I have spoken with CPA's who've told me that their world is all abuzz with that very thought. For many of their clients - especially the big companies - it will be cheaper (as the law presently stands - for them to simply say NO! and pay the fine.
You can bet your sweet patootie that aspect of the law will change quickly.
Summary of the following link ... take it to heart:
"It is critical to understand that a fundamental, nearly intractable, doomsday-magnitude fiscal problem with our healthcare spending preceded Obamacare, and continues today. That fiscal problem will remain whether we proceed with Obamacare or not. Simply striking it down in the courts or repealing it will not help fix the underlying problem."
You need to look around a bit. Mine have decreased :) No premium either. Double :)
_____________
The benefits have ancillary costs.
If I were an insurance company I'd be looking into how much some of the providers charge. Many are getting fat. Very fat. That is especially true of some specialists as they get paid by procedure...the more procedures they do the more they make.
It is also true in that economic wasteland known as "durable medical equipment" as provided to users. Check the prices on some of those cute little motorized chairs sometime. Or diabetic supplies. I imagine you have seen the TV commercials by "someone famous" explaining how the company they are pitching "will deliver them right to your door at no cost to you". They sure will...they will also automatically continue doing so at frequent intervals whether you need/want them or not. I am told that there are people busily selling all that excess.
Oh, I agree totally. I disliked the idea from the git-go but good ol' Lyndon wanted to go down in history.
MedAdvantage is an HMO under another name. Bush set them up and paid them more in the hopes that the HMO model would reduce Medicare costs.
At least that's the charitable conclusion. There are those that suggest he was just repaying his contributors by giving them another path to fleece the elderly.
Obama says that they should be paid no more than regular Medicare. Since they make out by restricting service as per HMO practices, I think that's fair.
Ever price a hearing aid?
As I understand it is not only the employed that must have insurance it is also those people who are unemployed, have give up finding a job, and those that never have been employed
Under the obama plan the cost of all of those items are going up 2.3% since they are all medical devices. The cost of compliance to the current federal regulation FDA, OSHA, EPA, is adding 10 to 30% to the cost of item manufactured by the medical industry. I know from companies that I have worked for the Regulatory groups consisted of over
30% of the work force.You want to cut the cost for the medical industry, Cut the OSHA, EPA and the FDA, their cost is much more that their contributions.
My favorite is the current government requirement require all street signs to be changed because they don't have the proper mix of upper and lower case letters. Is that really a government concern?
I wish you could read some of the FDA audits I have seen and the nitpicky things they wrote up. Each observation requires hours of time developing a response, implemented it and monitoring it for compliance. Regulation does not make a safe product, personal responsibility does, of course no one is responsible for any thing under obama, where everything is President Bush's fault.
Since you made the statement about "fleecing the elderly", it is obvious you are less than 40 and have never had any dealings with the Med Advantage plans. All you hear about is the donut hole. However the donut hole is insignificant for those people who were paying 1000/month for drugs before the Advantage plans.( a little over a month and they are through it) The plans made the difference between having the money to live or the pistol.
Seeing it work it it is one of the most successful medical plans ever implemented by the Government.
I am currently looking, but my current plan still appears to be a better fit than the others available for my area. The zero premium plans here make it hardly worth giving up the basic Medicare.
I momentarily considered simply reverting to basic Medicare, but they make that damned difficult if you went with a MA during your first 12 months of eligibility. Since I originally went with an MA, any Medigap insurance would come at a much higher cost ... if you can even get it without some exclusions they might come up with during the required physical.
Whoever makes up some of these seemingly arbitrary "rules" most definitely did not make them to benefit the folks.
A word to those coming up on 65 ... making an informed choice about Medicare options is NOT something you want to leave until the last minute.
You damned well better start making a massive effort to understand the options and their nuances ... they can be confusing, and are seemingly written to trap the unwary.
Get some expert advice, but don't count on anyone being an expert on your particular situation ... make an effort to understand it first, before talking to that expert.
Basically, ".... don't try this at home!"
LOL! How about just a regular wheelchair. My late father required one towards the end. Medicare paid for it (as did we all). Medicare requires a lease arrangement for a certain period of time (maybe 18 months, maybe 12). Don't recall the time frame exactly. The way it worked was if he needed it for that period, the lease was terminated (as were the payments) and it was his to keep. Terminate the need (or, in his case, life) and it was returned to the medical supply company.
Whatever the time frame, if he kept it the required time Medicare (read US) paid ~ $1,960 for that chair.
Imagine my joy when I found that I could go to eBay, click "Buy it Now" and have the EXACT SAME BRAND & MODEL DELIVERED to his home for less than $500! No lease, no screwing around. As it was, the medical supply company took it back (no strings attached) after collecting about $1,600 in "lease" payments from Medicare.
We need government managing this stuff like Custer needed more pissed off Native Americans!
Those too. Ridiculous prices. Have you noticed that the vendors of same tend to take full page newspaper ads?
Not necessarily. There are numerous structures.
Keith, thank you for my laugh of the day. Talk about unwarranted assumptions!
I'm 75. I went from regular Medicare with a supplement to a MedAdvantage plan for two years - then I went back. So despite your assumption, I do know whereof I speak.
Better luck next time :-).
The rules must have changed since I reverted. IIRC, the insurer *could* require a physical, but mine did not. And my cost was the same as everyone else's for the company I chose, as is required - policies are either age-rated or community-rated.
If you don't believe me, see:
The above explains the pricing, but does not address the reversion issue. I couldn't find anything definitive on that, but there was some indications that your rights might vary from state to state.
I Worked with my mother and her finances for 10 year until she died and only know what it meant to her.
Medicare Advantage insurance is subsidized in part by Fed payments to the insurance companies that provide it.
Just plain old common sense and a bit of the way the world works suggests that as those subsidies are decreased, it is a good bet that the either the cost of Medicare Advantage insurance will go up, or the benefits will decrease ... probably both.
Basically when dealing with any government program your best bet is to take the most pessimistic view possible ... you will bear the brunt in any case, particularly if you are a member of a specific demographic.
Funny, that's exactly how I view the insurance industry. December 01 will be the 24th month I've been w/o health insurance. Since I fired the Assurant Health crooks I've saved ~$40k [not counting the automatic premium increase that would have kicked in December 01, 2011] and, hopefully, reduced their CEO's compensation package in the process. In those 24 months I've been to the doctor exactly twice, both times for yearly physicals.
Dave in Texas
I read this forum it's really nice and informative i really like it i get most of useful information from it which can prove beneficial for me i was need some similar post's but i get your post on first search on Google search engine it's fulfil my need i really appreciate it and keep it up!! 'gold coast timber supplies'
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.