Within the last couple of months we've seen plenty of Health Care Reform rules and regulations being introduced by the Health and Human Services Department. Each time that takes place, the media gets your hands on it and a myriad of articles are written in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the TV network news programs discuss it Fast Weight Gain Capsules. All of the analysts start referring to the good qualities and cons, and what it way to businesses and individuals.
The issue with that is, many times one writer viewed the regulation, and wrote a piece about it. Then other writers start using pieces from that first article and rewriting parts to match their article. By the full time the data gets widely distributed, the specific regulations and rules get twisted and distorted, and what actually turns up in the media sometimes just doesn't truly represent the reality of what the regulations say.
There's plenty of misunderstanding about what's going on with ObamaCare, and one of the things that I've noticed in discussions with clients, is that there's an underlying set of myths that individuals have picked up about medical care reform that just aren't true. But because of all they've heard in the media, people believe these myths are actually true.
Today we're going to share with you three myths I hear most commonly. Not everybody believes these myths, but enough do, and others are unsure what to believe, therefore it warrants dispelling these myths now.
The initial one is that medical care reform only affects uninsured people. The 2nd one is that Medicare benefits and the Medicare program isn't going to be afflicted with medical care reform. And then the last one is that medical care reform will reduce the expenses of healthcare.
Health Care Reform Only Affects Uninsured
Let's consider the first myth about medical care reform only affecting uninsured people. In plenty of the discussions I have with clients, there are several expressions they use: "I curently have coverage, so I won't be afflicted with ObamaCare," or "I'll just keep my grandfathered medical health insurance plan," and the final one - and this one I will give them a little bit of leeway, because part of what they're saying is true -- is "I have group medical health insurance, so I won't be afflicted with medical care reform."
Well, the truth is that medical care reform is clearly going to affect everybody. Starting in 2014, we're going to really have a whole new set of health plans, and those plans have very rich benefits with a lot of extra features that the present plans today don't offer. So these new plans are likely to be higher cost.
Health Care Reform's Effect On People With Health Insurance
People who already have medical health insurance are likely to be transitioned into these new plans sometime in 2014. Therefore the insured will soon be directly afflicted with this because medical plans they've today are getting away, and they'll be mapped right into a new ObamaCare plan in 2014.
Health Care Reform Effect On The Uninsured
The uninsured have yet another issue in that if they don't get medical health insurance in 2014, they face a mandate penalty. Some of the healthy uninsured are likely to look at that penalty and say, "Well, the penalty is 1% of my adjusted gross income; I make $50,000, so I'll pay a $500 penalty or $1,000 for health insurance. For the reason that case I'll simply take the penalty." But either way, they'll be directly afflicted with medical care reform. Through the mandate it affects the insured along with the uninsured.
Health Care Reform Effect On People With Grandfathered Health Plans
People which have grandfathered medical health insurance plans aren't going to be directly afflicted with medical care reform. But because of the life cycle of these grandfathered health plan, it's going to make those plans more costly as they discover that there are plans available now that they'll easily transfer to that particular have a richer set of benefits that might be more good for any chronic medical issues they might have.
For people who stay static in those grandfathered plans, the pool of subscribers in the master plan are likely to start to shrink, and as that takes place, the expense of those grandfathered medical health insurance plans increase even more quickly than they are now. Therefore, people in grandfathered health plans is likewise impacted by ObamaCare.
Health Care Reform Effect On People With Group Health Insurance
The past one, the small group marketplace, will be probably the most notably afflicted with medical care reform. Even although medical care reform regulations predominantly affect large and medium-sized companies, and companies which have 50 or even more employees, smaller companies is likewise affected, even though they're exempt from ObamaCare itself.
What many surveys and polls are starting showing is that a few of the businesses which have 10 or fewer employees are likely to look seriously at their option to drop medical health insurance coverage altogether, and no further own it being an expense of the company. Instead, they'll have their employees get medical health insurance through medical insurance exchanges.
In reality, a few of the carriers are now saying they anticipate that up to 50% of small groups with 10 or fewer employees are likely to drop their medical health insurance plan sometime between 2014 and 2016. That'll employ a large effect on all individuals who have group medical health insurance, especially if they're in some of those small firms that drop medical health insurance coverage.
It's not merely uninsured that are likely to be afflicted with medical care reform, everybody will be impacted.
Health Care Reform Will Not Affect Medicare
Another myth was that medical care reform wouldn't affect Medicare. This one is sort of funny because from the get-go, probably the most notable cuts were specifically targeting the Medicare program. When you look at Medicare's percentage of the entire federal, you will see that in 1970, Medicare was 4% of the U.S. federal budget, and by 2011, it had grown to 16% of the federal budget.
When we look at it over the last 10 years, from 2002 to 2012, Medicare could be the fastest growing part of the major entitlement programs in the federal government, and it's grown by almost 70% through that amount of time.
Because of what size Medicare is and how quickly it's growing, it's one of the key programs that ObamaCare is hoping to get a handle on, therefore it doesn't bankrupts the U.S. Medicare will be impacted, and actually the initial cuts to Medicare have previously been set at about $716 billion.
Medicare Advantage Cuts And The Effects
Of the $716 billion cut, the Medicare Advantage program gets cut probably the most, and might find the bulk of the effects. What that's going to accomplish is raise the premiums people purchase their Medicare Advantage plans, and reduce the benefits of those plans.
Increased Medicare Advantage Costs
At this time, lots of people choose Medicare Advantage plans because they've zero premium. When given a choice on Medicare plans, they view it being an easy choice because it's a free program for them, "Sure, I get Medicare benefits, I don't pay anything for it; why not." Now they're going to see Medicare premiums start to climb, and go from zero to $70, $80, $90, $100. We've already seen that with a few of the Blue Cross Medicare Advantage plans this year. It's going to have worse as we proceed in the future.
Reduced Medicare Advantage Benefits
In order to minimize the premium increases, what many Medicare Advantage plans will do is raise the copayments, raise the deductibles, and change the co-insurance rates. In order to keep the premiums down, they'll just push more of the expenses onto the Medicare Advantage recipients. Increased premiums and reduced benefits are what we're going to see coming in Medicare Advantage plan.
Fewer Medicare Physicians
And then if that wasn't bad enough, as Medicare doctors begin receiving lower and lower reimbursements for Medicare Advantage people, they're going to stop taking new Medicare Advantage recipients Fast Weight Gain Capsules. We're going to begin to see the pool of doctors to aid people in Medicare beginning to shrink as well, unless changes are made over the length of another five years. So Medicare will be affected, and it's going to be affected dramatically by medical care reform. Everybody's sort of on pins and needles, waiting to see what's going to take place there.
Health Care Reform Will Reduce Healthcare Costs
The past one, and probably the largest myth about medical care reform, is everybody convinced that ObamaCare will certainly reduce healthcare costs. That's completely hogwash. In early stages in the act, when these were wanting to produce the guidelines and regulations, the emphasis and one of the goals for reform was to reduce healthcare costs.