HHS wants you to meet Howard

I subscribe to hhs.gov and their Exchange online marketplace blog. Lately they have been sharing stories about people who will be impacted in a positive way under Obamacare. The most recent person we have been introduced to is Howard. He is a self employed software designer. Here is part of Howard's story pulled directly from the article.

          Uninsurable until 2014

          Howard shared his story with us:

“Five years ago, I was diagnosed with Diabetes. Once you get that diagnosis, the insurance company says, ‘you’re uninsurable.’ To get access to medical care now, what I do is participate in clinical trials on diabetes. I’m one of the people who actually are guinea pigs for new drugs. Insurance companies want perfect people, which is totally impossible. Everybody is going to get something at some time."

The average software designer makes roughly $90,530 per year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So Howard's issue isn't cost as much as it is his health status and the fact he hasn't had insurance for five years.

One question: If Howard has been uninsured for five years and affordability isn't the issue, then instead of being a "guinea pig" doing clinical trials why didn't he enroll in PCIP?

Obamacare Navigators, That Sound You Hear . . . .

Obamacare navigators are supposed to be like guides for the blind. They will help you go through the 

maze of new health insurance options. Take your personal financial data (income, tax filing status, income tax history) and calculate your premium subsidy.

Premium subsidies are a wealth redistribution trick that is supposed to make the new, much higher premiums, "affordable".

But enough about that. How well is this taxpayer funded navigator program working so far?

More than 100 nonprofits and related organizations, which specialize in everything from running soup kitchens to organizing farm workers, have been recruited by the federal government to sign up "navigators".

Many of the groups have little expertise in health insurance. And the timeline for training the workers is tight. 

Yahoo News

Sounds like a well qualified group. Health insurance buyers now have an option and won't have to deal with greedy, commission hungry agents.

They can get advice from community organizers transformed into Obamacare navigators.

Wonder how well that will work?

Community groups received the course materials for the 20-hour training only days ago. Many have just begun to post the openings on job boards.

20 hours of training.

Impressive.

And how well is this Obama job creation plan going?

A small scream came from Tara McCollum Plese when she was asked whether her group, Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, has hired any of the 45 workers authorized in its federal grant. "Ack! No," she said Thursday. Her group has posted a job description, she said, and is now flooded with inquiries for the positions, which pay about $15 an hour. She's since heard one worker has been hired.

Not one navigator has been hired yet under the $2 million grant obtained by the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.

A bit underwhelming, but there is still plenty of time to turn this around.

Perhaps disgruntled fast food workers who have gone on strike, demanding $15 per hour should apply. They have experience dealing with the public and will be ahead of the learning curve.

"Would you like to supersize your health insurance order?"

Or as they say at The Varsity, "What'll you have, what'll you have?"

Another Day, Another Obamacare Payoff

Obamacare. The master plan to deliver (almost) universal access to health care for everyone.

Promises of lower premiums.

Promises that you can keep your plan and your doctor.

Promises of no new taxes.

What's not to love about that?

Then one day, someone started reading the law and it was discovered the promises could not be kept. So HHS and the White House started down a path of handing out pardons.

Pardons for insurance carriers that offered limited benefit plans.

Pardon's for unions and businesses in Nancy Pelosi's district.

Pardon's for college student health plans.

Pardon's for religious institutions that objected to the mandated abortion pill.

Of course the latest round of pardons orchestrated by the White House was an exemption for members of Congress and their staff.

But that was last week.

In case you have been sleeping under a rock, the AFL-CIO, a MAJOR supporter of the Democrat party and Mr. Teleprompter's election campaigns has been whining about the impact of Obamacare. Today we find out someone is coming to dinner at the White House and it isn't Sidney Poitier. 

President Barack Obama is meeting with union leaders at the White House to discuss labor's growing concerns about the new health care law.

Friday's meeting comes after the AFL-CIO approved a resolution this week saying the law could drive up the cost of union-sponsored health plans, encouraging some employers to drop coverage.

White House officials and labor leaders have been trying to work out a possible resolution. Unions want members to be eligible for the same federal subsidies available to low-income workers in the new health exchanges. The White House has resisted that fix, saying the law doesn't allow it.

Townhall

Just because the law doesn't allow it doesn't mean an exception can't be done.

If the president can pardon the Thanksgiving turkey he can certainly arrange another pardon for 11 million of his closest friends.

Everyone get's a pardon.

Everyone except you and me.

Empty promises from an empty suit.

Unusual and Interesting Insurance News

Unusual and Interesting Insurance News - Over the years, we've chronicled such things as virginity and alien abduction insurance (different posts), the risk posed by superheroes simultaneously destroying much of a city while trying to save it, and hole-in-one coverage for sporting events.

And now for more:

■ Terrorism Risk insurance - Back in 2009, we interviewed Chris Klein, Global Head of Business Intelligence for Guy Carpenter (major risk and reinsurance specialists), who explained why government involvement was necessary in providing reinsurance for major terrorist acts.

Four years later, The Cato Institute argues that the Federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) has passed its sell-by date:

"... the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 to create a “temporary” federal backstop against catastrophic losses. This program subsidized private risk with public funds through a cost-sharing program for which the government does not receive any compensation ... The private market is capable of underwriting this risk."

Interesting analysis.

■ On a brighter note, MassMutual recently kicked off a campaign to get parents looking at the topic of life insurance through the eyes of their children. Through a series of cute and compelling videos, MassMutual hopes to get this conversation kickstarted.

Here's a sample:



■ Finally, I know we've never blogged on this one before:

"The Mid-Autumn Festival (scheduled on Sept. 19), is one of China's biggest holidays and features a lantern festival, the exchange of mooncakes and dining with family and friends while gazing at the harvest moon."

Very interesting Henry, and now I'm hungry for some fried won-tons. But what's that got to do with insurance?

Ah, so:

"Residents of three cities—Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen—can buy insurance online for 20 Yuan (about $3) and be compensated for up to 50 Yuan if clouds obscure moon-viewing between 8 p.m. and 12 a.m. on Sept. 19. The plan is being offered by Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services Co. and Allianz Insurance China."

The plan's being offered in 41 other cities, as well, but at a higher premium. Still, this may be a true insurance bargain.

So if you're headed to China for this annual event, be sure to stop by the insurance counter (and bring a sweater).

Alphabet Soup Update: Why Local Matters

As we've noted time and again, having a local expert to administer Flex Spending Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements is ideal. Our local gurus, FlexBank, just proved that again. Via email, they've tipped us to a little-known - but potentially major - option for groups utilizing Section 125 plans (so-called "POP Plans").

Premium-only plans are the vehicles by which companies make it possible for employees to pay their portion of health insurance premiums pre-tax. This can be a major cost-saver for both the employee and the employer. But there are rules for these plans, one of which is that mid-year changes are verboten (unless there's a "qualifying event").

The new Exchange policies, which many employees may wish to purchase, go into effect on January 1. If your employer has a calendar-year POP plan, no problem, you make the change. But what if your employer's plan isn't on a calendar-year basis? Some employees may elect to drop their current group coverage in favor of an Exchange-based individual plan, but that's not one of the recognized "qualifying events."

Until now.

Thanks to the folks at FlexBank, we learn that the folks in Capital City have heard those pleas, and are offering a one-time only "out" for employees in this situation. The IRS has stated that employers with non-calendar year based POP plans may amend them to allow employees to drop off of (or join!) these "cafeteria" plans effective January 1, 2014.

Good news indeed.

Obamacare Security Breach

Much has been made, at least in some circles, of the vulnerability of your personal information

that will be filtered through the #Obamacare #datahub.

For the most part, the lame stream media has ignored this topic and when they have mentioned it they simply parrot what DC says indicating there is nothing to fear.

Security watchdogs know that hacking is a potential threat but most data breaches come from within, not outside the firewall.

That being said, the first known problem in the Obamacare #exchange has already been reported.

Two reviews are planned of MNsure, the state's new online health insurance exchange, after an employee accidentally distributed confidential information about more than 2,400 insurance agents.

A legislative panel and the legislative auditor said Friday they want more information about the breach. MNsure officials acknowledged mishandling private information. They said the employee sent an email to the office of an Apple Valley insurance broker on Thursday afternoon that contained Social Security numbers, names, business addresses and other identifying information.

LaCrosse Tribune

"Only" 2400 insurance agents.

No big deal, right?

If you buy from the Minnesota health insurance exchange, or any other exchange, how can you be 100% this won't happen to you?

Users of the exchanges will have to provide sensitive information, including Social Security numbers. The information will be sent to a federal hub to verify such things as citizenship and household income. The privacy of confidential data has been a long-time concern for some skeptics of the exchange.

"The people who believe in this are so driven that there's a sub-context of, `Just let us do our job and get as many people signed up as possible, and we'll pick up the debris later,'?" said Steve Parente, a University of Minnesota finance professor who specializes in information technology related to the health industry.

Yes, the push is to sign as many up as quickly as possible. Get more people dependent on the government for free money.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention another option for purchasing your new Obamacare health insurance plan, and it does not involve the data hub or navigators who have had 3 days of training..

Buy OFF exchange through a licensed insurance professional.

This Sceptered Isle, Part DCIV

From the Telegraph of London on 9/11: 

"Death rates in NHS hospitals are among the highest in the western world, shock figures revealed yesterday. British patients were found to be almost 50 per cent more likely to die from poor care than those in America."

Hat tip to Tim Worstall's enjoyable blog, which generally focuses on economics.

The Telegraph article also cites this comment from a U.K. Professor Sir Brian Jarman, who is considered a globally-recognised expert on hospital performance:

"I expected us to do well and was very surprised we didn’t do well – but there is no means of denying the results as they are absolutely clear."

Paul Krugman famously attempted to pre-empt this kind of factual finding several years ago, when he declared  "In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We’ve all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false."

Shucks, a school child knows facts cannot be both absolutely true and absolutely false.   Facts are facts, and in that sense are not political.

Yet in real life the debate over centralized government control of the medical care system rages on, in many cases fueled by expert disagreement over whether facts are true or false.