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The Health Insurance Benefit Exchange - Posted August 1, 2010

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National Survey of Professional Health Insurance Agents Show that Agents see their future in various shades of grey.

(Downloadable PDF Copy Here)

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Federal and state health care administrative cost is 150-250% more than private insurance. (Downloadable PDF Copy Here)

 

Employers wary of federal health care reforms – Primary concern is cost

(Downloadable PDF Copy Here)

Seventy-six percent of employers say their most critical concern about health care is its cost. Twelve percent says its improving quality, while only 7 percent identify reducing the uninsured rate as a priority. Five percent identified other concerns.

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Entanglements to Entitlements

How government's good intentions now threatens our health care system. May 30, 2009.

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Government entanglement in health care threatens to strangle the system. Its micro-management both of the delivery of and payment for health care does immense damage to private health care. Yet, Congress focuses on fixing the private health care system.

 

After 1965, health care cost spiraled out of control, rising at a double-digit rate more often than other services and commodities. What happened that spawned this runaway health care spending?

 

Prior to 1960, private insurance paid the catastrophic health care cost for 78 percent of all Americans. Insured people paid cash for their own non-catastrophic medical costs. If an insured person actually qualified for an insurance reimbursement it meant they had experienced a very bad year – faced a serious illness or accident.

 

People were free to choose their own doctors and pharmacies. No one told them to choose a provider in a network, because there were no networks.

 

Read the rest of the article about  how government entanglement now threatens to strangle health care.

Universal Health Care? Mandating that everyone must own health insurance: Will it be effective, or even enforceable?

(Downloadable Copy Here)

Congress and state legislators are considering laws that would require every United States’ resident to own health insurance or to sign up for a government health plan (depending on income qualifications).

Their intent in mandating coverage is twofold: 1) to reduce the uninsured rolls, and 2) to force freeloaders to buy health insurance.

Freeloaders are people who have enough income to be able to purchase health insurance, but do not. They want others to insure that if they get sick, everyone else will step up to pay their bills for them.

GOALS FOR MANDATING - ATTAINABLE?

Will a mandate to purchase health insurance accomplish its goals? Could a mandate also provide increased access to health care and help hold down health care spending?

“Universal health care” is the most common term to define what Congress and legislators are trying to accomplish. It is a misleading term...

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The Congressional Budget Office Reports:

Comparing health care admin cost: Private sector vs. government - Who’s less costly?

(Downloadable Copy Here)

The United States Congress’ Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a two-volume health reform study in December 2008. It lays out the underlying logic, data, and arguments the Obama Administration and Congressional leaders are using to move their health reforms ahead.

We use these CBO reports to address the argument that government health care administrative cost is far less than that of private insurers. If this were a fact, of course, it would argue for a government-run health payment system. CBO’s data clearly disputes that argument, and instead, shows that insurance companies spend at least 51% less on administration than government does on its health care programs.

CBO draws its spending data from the 2009 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).1 CMS projects that total health spending for 2009 will be $2.56 trillion.

CMS divides spending data into two broad categories: Care and Non-Care. 1) The care category is money paid to providers for personal health care (physicians, hospitals, pharmacy, dental, etc,); 2) The non-care category is money paid for everything other than providing personal health care.

 CMS projects 2009 spending on care at $2.13 trillion – 84.4% of total spending. CMS projects spending for non-care at $424 billion – 16.6% of total spending. Non-care health spending, we argue, should be labeled administrative cost...

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Health care fairness doctrine
Is it fair that young people should pay health insurance cost of older people?

The fairness doctrine promotes equality and fairness within a community. It protects various groups of people from being unfairly burdened with cost that should be paid by others.

With car insurance, fairness means that older, more responsible drivers pay less premium than younger, less responsible drivers. Why? If a younger driver has five times as many accidents as an older driver, it seems fair that the younger driver should pay five times more for car insurance.

With health insurance, fairness means that younger, healthier people pay less premium than older, less healthy people. Why? Because older people have five times more medical costs than younger people. This is why older people pay five times more than younger people for their health insurance.

Unfortunately, legislators are about to redefine fairness, using an idea they call “community rating.”  They twist the meaning of fairness to make you believe it is right for everyone to pay the same premium for health insurance, but curiously, not for auto insurance.

For the rest of the article

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Published in:

Health care here is better than we are led to believe Minneapolis Star-Tribune, December 2008
Replacing Group Insurance, a Mistake HIU Magazine, March 2008
Replacing group insurance is a step toward government-managed health care Employer Benefits Advisor, January 23, 2008
Consumer-Directed, but Agent Led HIU Magazine, May 2007
National Health Care Advisor Today, October 2006

Agents Going on the Offense

HIU Magazine, August 2006

Other Featured Articles:

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NAHU's Healthy Access Plan

Health Care Freedom Coalition

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NAHU Website

CAHI, CCHC, and others

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