Medical Reform - Busting 3 of the Biggest Misguided beliefs Of ObamaCare

Medical Reform - Busting 3 of the Biggest Misguided beliefs Of ObamaCare
Medical Reform - Busting 3 of the Biggest Misguided beliefs Of ObamaCare
In the last few months we now have seen a lot of Medical Reform rules and regulations being introduced by the Health and Human being Services Department. Every time that occurs, the mass media gets your hands on it and all sorts of articles are written in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the TV network information programs speak about it. Every one of the analysts start talking about the advantages and cons, and what it takes to businesses and individuals.

The problem with this is, many times one copy writer looked over the regulation, and wrote a piece about it. Then other freelance writers start using pieces as a result first article and rewriting parts to fit their article. By simply the time the information gets widely distributed, the actual regulations and guidelines get twisted and altered, and what actually shows up in the press sometimes just doesn't truly represent the reality of what the regulations say.

There are several misunderstanding about what is going on with ObamaCare, and among the things that I've noticed in talks with clients, is that there's an underlying collection of myths that individuals have picked up about medical care reform that just not necessarily true. But because coming from all they've heard in the media, people believe these myths are actually true.

Today we're going to speak about three myths I actually hear most commonly. Not really every person believes these misconceptions, but enough do, yet others are unsure what to consider, so it warrants dispelling these myths now.

The first one is the fact health care change only impacts uninsured people. The second you are that Medicare benefits and the Medicare program isn't heading to be afflicted by health care reform. Then the last one is that health care change is going to lower the costs of health care.

 Healthcare Reform Only Influences Uninsured

Let's look at the first myth about health care reform only affecting uninsured people. Within just a lot of the discussions I have with clients, there are several expressions they use: "I already have coverage, so I defintely won't be afflicted by ObamaCare, " or "I'll just keep my grandfathered health insurance plan, inch and the last one - and this one I can give them a little bit of leeway, because part of what they're saying is true -- is "I have group health insurance, so I won't be damaged by health health care reform. inches

Well, the reality is that medical care reform is actually heading to affect everybody. Beginning in 2014, we're heading to have an entire new set of health ideas, and those plans have very rich benefits with lots of more features that the existing plans today don't offer. So these new plans are heading to be more expensive.

Health Care Reform's Impact On People who have Health Insurance

People that currently have medical health insurance are going to be transitioned into these new plans sometime in 2014. So the insured will be directly influenced by this because the health plans they have today are going away, and they will be planned into a new ObamaCare plan in 2014.

 Medical Reform Effect On The Uninsured

The uninsured have an additional issue in that if they avoid get health insurance in 2014, they face a mandate penalty. Some of the healthy uninsured are going to look at that penalty and say, "Well, the penalty is 1% of my altered gross income; I make $50, 000, so I will pay a $500 fees or $1, 000 for health insurance. In that case I'll simply take the penalty. " But either way, they will be directly influenced by health care reform. Throughout the mandate it impacts the insured as well as the uninsured.

Health Care Reform Effect On People With Grandfathered Health Plans
People that have grandfathered health insurance plans are not going to be directly affected by health care reform. But because of the life cycle of their grandfathered health plan, it's going to make those plans more costly as they discover that there are plans available now that they can easily transfer to that have a richer set of benefits that would be more beneficial for any chronic health issues they may have.
For people who stay in those grandfathered plans, the pool of subscribers in the plan are going to start to shrink, and as that happens, the cost of those grandfathered health insurance plans will increase even faster than they are now. Therefore, people in grandfathered health plans will also be impacted by ObamaCare.
Health Care Reform Effect On People With Group Health Insurance
The last one, the small group marketplace, is going to be the most notably affected by health care reform. Even though the health care reform regulations predominantly affect large and medium-sized companies, and companies that have 50 or more employees, smaller companies will also be affected, even though they're exempt from ObamaCare itself.
What many surveys and polls are starting to show is that some of the businesses that have 10 or fewer employees are going to look seriously at their option to drop health insurance coverage altogether, and no longer have it as an expense of the company. Instead, they will have their employees get health insurance through the health insurance exchanges.
In fact, some of the carriers are now saying they anticipate that up to 50% of small groups with 10 or fewer employees are going to drop their health insurance plan sometime between 2014 and 2016. That will have a very large effect on all people who have group health insurance, especially if they're in one of those small companies that drop health insurance coverage.
It's not just uninsured that are going to be affected by health care reform, everybody is going to be impacted.
Health Care Reform Will Not Affect Medicare
The next myth was that health care reform would not affect Medicare. This one is kind of funny because right from the very get-go, the most notable cuts were specifically targeting the Medicare program. When you look at Medicare's portion of the overall federal, you can 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.
If we look at it over the last 10 years, from 2002 to 2012, Medicare is the fastest growing part of the major entitlement programs in the federal government, and it's grown by almost 70% during that period of time.
Because of how large Medicare is and how fast it's growing, it's one of the key programs that ObamaCare is trying to get a handle on, so it doesn't bankrupts the U.S. Medicare is going to be impacted, and in fact the initial cuts to Medicare have already been set at about $716 billion.
Medicare Advantage Cuts And The Effects
Of that $716 billion cut, the Medicare Advantage program gets cut the most, and will see the bulk of the effects. What that's going to do is increase the premiums people pay for their Medicare Advantage plans, and reduce the benefits of those plans.
Increased Medicare Advantage Costs
Right now, many people choose Medicare Advantage plans because they have zero premium. When given a choice on Medicare plans, they view it as 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 some of the Blue Cross Medicare Advantage plans this year. It's going to get worse as we go forward in the future.
Reduced Medicare Advantage Benefits
In order to minimize the premium increases, what many Medicare Advantage plans will do is increase the copayments, increase the deductibles, and change the co-insurance rates. In order to keep the premiums down, they'll just push more of the costs 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. We're going to see the pool of doctors to support people in Medicare starting to shrink as well, unless changes are made over the course of the next five years. So Medicare is going to be affected, and it's going to be affected dramatically by health care reform. Everybody's kind of on pins and needles, waiting to see what's going to happen there.

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