December 9, 2009This Week in Health Reform —Legislative OverviewSenateLess than two weeks after the debut of official legislative language, the Senate began official debate on its $848 billion health care reform bill “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (H.R. 3590) on November 30. The bill, which is estimated to cover 94 percent of Americans, passed its first hurdle before the Thanksgiving holiday when Senate Democrats received the needed 60 votes on the “motion to proceed” to debate. Quoting & Saving just got easier…EasyToInsureME Health Insurance Quotes… Quote all carriers in secondsHealth insuranceHealth insurance quotes More than 60 amendments have been filed to the Senate health care reform legislation in its first week of debate. Some of the notable amendments include one by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), which was adopted by a vote of 61-39. The amendment would eliminate co-payments for many preventive services for women – and would require that insurers provide full coverage for breast and cervical cancer screenings. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) also included a stipulation to the amendment that would preclude the most recent controversial recommendations on breast cancer screenings by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from being used for insurance coverage determinations. Additionally, Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) are crafting an abortion-related amendment that will mirror the one passed in the House version of the bill last month. The amendment would prohibit the use of federal funds for abortions.Senator Thomas Carper (D-DE) is leading efforts in the Democratic caucus on the creation of a public health insurance option that is built around a state-by-state “trigger” option. Carper has spent weeks working with members of the Democratic caucus, as well as some moderate Republicans on the amendment that he is hoping will appease a broad range of individuals concerned about the government-run health insurance plan, also known as the “public option”.Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) still has significant work to do in uniting his divided Democratic caucus. Reid has stated that he will keep Senators in Washington on weekends throughout December to ensure that key legislative issues are worked out before a final bill can be brought to the Senate floor. As detailed above, Reid will have to balance trying to appease the progressive members of his party with a robust government-run health insurance plan with corralling the moderate and conservative Democrats who have been vocal on issues such as abortion and cost-containment measures. HouseThe House of Representatives remains quiet on health care reform legislation after passing its portion of the bill in November. Its main focus during the next few weeks before the holiday recess will be on a financial regulation package to be brought up by the House Committee on Ways and Means.

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Although the health reform acts were passed in March, the guidelines are not clear as to how the changes are going to be put into effect. Therefore, although everyone agrees that health reform is happening, no one knows how it is going to impact family health insurance Georgia plans. There is a lot of confusion at this time. There are certain changes that need to be implemented by the federal government, and some changes that take place at the state level. However, at this time, Georgia is not making many changes, and a federal agency may step in to regulate and pay for some of the needed programs and plans required. Georgia is not rushing to make changes because government officials are concerned as to whether family health insurance Georgia plans will end up being negatively affected by the new rules and regulations.

In fact, Georgia is one of several states that have filed a law suit against the federal government. The big issue is whether it is constitutional or not for the federal government to require that every American citizen purchases a family health insurance Georgia plan, or one from their home state. However, it is highly unlikely that anything come of the law suit, because suing the federal government is very unusual.

In the mean time, many people have questions, particularly about whether they will be allowed to keep their current family health insurance Georgia plan. The law states that you are allowed to keep your current family health insurance Georgia policy. However, many family health insurance Georgia providers are changing their policies and plans. Things like the co-insurance, deductible, and premium are changing. Therefore, there is confusion as to whether this makes the plan be different enough that one can change, or whether one will be required to change that plan. Also, many family health insurance Georgia plan providers are changing their rules about certain policies. For example, many companies are no longer offering Child Only policies. But yet, not all children will qualify to be added onto current family health insurance Georgia plans.

Right now, many government officials at the federal and state level are working together to has out the details of how changes will affect family health insurance Georgia plans, and what it means to the health insurance consumer. Different health insurance Georgia companies are working, along with their national trade association, to clarify the rules and regulations, and minimize the negative impact on family health insurance Georgia policies and premiums for Georgia residents.

There are many sources of information on how the health reform will affect your particular family health insurance Georgia policy. Depending on your political viewpoints, you will find a lot written both positive and negative about the health care reform, and the changes that will occur to family health insurance Georgia plans.

Eventually, reform is going to be a good thing, but in the mean time, there is a lot of confusion and a lot of concern about what is going to happen to family health insurance Georgia plans

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U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin met with several small business owners this weekend to draw attention to the benefits of health care reform for those owners and the self-employed.“Right now small businesses are at the end of the tail that is wagged,” the Democratic lawmaker explained. “They don’t get the discounts and the rates and the coverage like the huge businesses do because they just don’t have the bargaining power, and they don’t have the choices available to them. So many small businesses in Iowa basically have one insurance company to deal with or maybe two at the most. So, therefore, there is no competition out there.“I think one of the best-kept secrets of our health reform bill that we have in Congress right now is that the biggest winners are going to be small businesses and the self-employed.”A lack of competition within the health care market, according to Harkin, would be alleviated when a national health care exchange is opened a few years following the passage of reform legislation. At that point, small business owners and those who are self-employed would theoretically be able to go onto the exchange either as individual entities or in cooperation with other businesses and/or individuals, which ever way provided consumers the best insurance rates.Prior to that time, however, the bill also includes a provision that would allow small business owners to take up to a 35-percent tax credit for the portion of health care premiums they pay. Once the exchange opens, the tax credit jumps to 50 percent.Cedar Rapids small business owner Shawn Gallagher, who had just spent a few minutes speaking with Harkin about the difficulty he and his wife have had providing health insurance coverage for their four employees at AdCraft Printing, said such reforms are not only welcome, but necessary.“One of the reports I’ve read shows that it will cost $27,000 per person or something like that if nothing is done,” Gallagher said. “We certainly couldn’t afford that. So I guess the question is how many years it will take to get to that level. Is it 2012? 2013? I don’t know, but we aren’t that far away from it. What I do know is that we just flat-out can’t afford it, whether it is a year or two years down the road.”Through his commercial printing business, Gallagher provides health insurance for himself, his wife and four employees. The business has experienced an average yearly increase of 14 percent in the premiums it pays. Gallagher is also quick to point out that even as he has been paying steady increases, his family and his employees are receiving less coverage and paying much higher deductibles than they were only a few years ago.“It is very difficult. This is something that we want to provide to our employees,” he said, noting that with such a small pool of employees, any moderate illness impacting one of his employees’ families can have dire consequences on the entire company’s health insurance premiums.Harkin, who has spent the past several months in reform hearings and public forums, said Gallagher’s plight is not at all unique.“What we just heard from Mr. Gallagher regarding his small business and employees is, sadly, something that we hear all over Iowa and all over the United States,” Harkin said.Gallagher, who is also a long-term member of the Democratic Party and was one of thousands of Cedar Rapids business owners heavily impacted by the June 2008 floods, was only one of several small business owners that provided Harkin details of their struggles with health insurance costs. The meetings were scheduled with the assistance of Iowa Citizen Action Network, a grassroots public interest organization that has been actively supporting national reform efforts.During the meeting in Cedar Rapids, Harkin once again vowed that Congress will pass health care reform with a public option and have the bill on President Obama’s desk before the winter holiday recess.

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Americans are concerned with coverage and healthcare more than they ever have been. Statistics display that when deciding whether or not to accept a job the most key thing that persons consider is what if any type of coverage benefits are offered. This is more vital than how much the job pays, or how much vacation time is offered.

The recession has forced some small organizations as well as some greater companies to make drastic cuts in expenses. They have to choose between laying off an employee, and dropping their health benefits. Some small companies owners have even had to drop their own benefits as well. However neither decision is a good one. One must even consider it like selecting between the lesser of the two evils. If a company chooses to lay off some of their employees go in order to cut expenses that must increase the work load of the remaining workers. Statistics indicate that increased work load can hire the stress lever, and lower the quality of work which increases the chance of getting hurt on the job. However, if the agency drops the workers coverage, then the professional will either have to take their chances and hope never to get sick, or pay for their own personal coverage which is extremely expensive.

With the new health reform, business and businesses are now being offer substantial tax breaks if they continue to pay for insurance coverage for their professionals. This has decreased the number of companies dropping their insurance, and cutting jobs.

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I just left the house of a 47 year old man who I had met with nearly 2 years ago, when I originally met him I was so concerned with myself and my life I never considered researching Florida public assistance programs. My business was selling health insurance and I did the best I could to give the person the most health insurance I could for the least money. I went so far as to license with every reputable company and have never so much as held a discount plan in my hand much less sold one. I would try to write somebody with the Florida health insurance company that was of course the most suitable and if I failed, I considered it to be not my fault and not my problem. Success gives people a chance to reflect and due to my diligence in selling the best company to people I attained a very solid level of success in a very difficult business. Back to this guy John (fictitious name), I drive to his house in  South Florida (and I never go on face to face appointments and try to not even pick up the phone if possible) and I get out of the car and find out that his COBRA ended in April and he was now like so many Americans and without health insurance as someone swindled him into buying United American which he quickly figured out was a bogus company. Having had cancer in the last two years he was uninsurable unless you know a way around the system. Most brokers do and I learned one my first day which I was about to do for this guy as he out of work and needed insurance. But upon hearing his situation (I had forgotten, had he reminded me, he could have saved me three hours of my life) I sent him right over to the Broward health district program and lost a sale. Health reform is not about me or any liberal organization, it is about people that through no fault of their own have no health coverage because of either a health or wealth situation. Most people don’t have me or my company as a broker and would most likely have ended up paying $300 per month when they could have a free insurance policy. Most people don’t know me nor should they have the displeasure of getting to know me. But all people deserve health coverage and medical attention. John is lucky, most people like him are in way worse situations that I can’t solve. In the end there is nothing that I can do about this situation that I am not already doing, but I would really love to hear that more people regardless of political motivation see that this situation rises above politics and finance.

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