Financial Arts, Inc.

Is the Individual Mandate Severable? - Forbes

2012-02-01T14:16:00.001-06:00

I have been seeing many things about the supreme court case regarding the healthcare bill. For the most part nothing has changed but there is one development. It appears that the Government is preparing there case that the individual mandate maybe unconstitutional but that does not mean that the entire bill should be struck down. They are admitting though that if the individual mandate is unconstitutional that we also have to get rid of the guaranteed issue for preexisting conditions.

I do not know if this is a strategy to get people to support them in their case, but if that is true than one of the few things that people like in the law will be gone and all we will have left is a bunch of government regulations that are going to raise costs.

Is the Individual Mandate Severable? - Forbes:

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Hungary won’t be last to make bondholders pay - Matthew Lynn's London Eye - MarketWatch

2012-01-11T14:02:00.001-06:00

This is one of those pieces of news that gets shoved to the back and years down the road people look back and say how did they not see a disaster coming.

Hungary won’t be last to make bondholders pay - Matthew Lynn's London Eye - MarketWatch:

'via Blog this'

The dirty secret in Uncle Sam’s Friday trash dump - The Washington Post

2011-12-29T13:14:00.000-06:00

This should have been big news regarding social security and medicare, but it was published on Friday Dec. 23rd. This article talks about how big our unfunded liabilities are for these two programs. The numbers are very interesting.

The dirty secret in Uncle Sam’s Friday trash dump - The Washington Post:

'via Blog this'

Walgreens and Express scripts

2011-12-28T16:48:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that there is still no sign of Walgreen s joining the express script network. So if you have pharmacy benefits from express scripts and if you are with Anthem you do, then you should not fill them at Walgreen s starting January 1st, 2012, unless you here otherwise. I can tell you that Anthem is not expecting to see Walgreens in the network on the 1st.

Walgreen profit down, says no Express Scripts deal | Reuters

2011-12-21T07:22:00.000-06:00

FYI, Walgreens says today that it does not plan to be in the express script network. So if you have express scripts as your pharmacy card which if you are with Anthem you do. Please make plans to move your prescriptions to a different pharmacy. This takes place January 1st.

Walgreen profit down, says no Express Scripts deal | Reuters:

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Universal health insurance is like having a parachute but not knowing if someone packed the chute.

2011-12-20T07:03:00.000-06:00

This article is interesting, a couple of years ago Jack was giving healthcare talks regarding what the health care systems around the world are like. This article states many of the same things that Jack found to be true. One of the most interesting this is that the argument that we need universal health insurance is that the other developed countries do it so we can do it too. When in reality the other countries do it but they can not afford it, the current debt crisis in Europe is bring this to light.

It is interesting that this article states something that we have been saying for a while. That is universal health insurance is not the same thing as universal healthcare. Universal health insurnace is like having a parchute but not knowing if someone packed the chute.

The Ugly Realities Of Socialized Medicine Are Not Going Away - Forbes:

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Obama Passes ‘Hot Potato’ to States - Bloomberg

2011-12-19T09:49:00.000-06:00

This should have been big news this last week but it missed the news cycle. I have started telling people that after sitting in meetings down in Indianapolis, that I did not believe that there was any way that the healthcare law could make the timeline set out in the affordable care act.

The determining of essential health benefits was one of the big stumbling blocks. HHS was supposed to be giving the states and the insurance companies a definition of essential benefits that all health plans would have to cover. As one could guess when they did this the president was going to take heat for not covering something that someone thinks is essential or covering too much and making the coverage cost too much. So here is the solution HHS came up with. Let the states decide.

I will tell you that I am a huge proponent of letting the states decide everything, but this is a farce. One of the big selling points of the law was that everyone would have the same choices same coverage available across the country. Now we will be in exactly the same position we are in now.

Currently every state sets minimum benefits for small group and individual health insurance. Such as Minnesota used to make hair transplants part of all health plans. Illinois covers fertility treatment. Indiana has chosen not to cover either of those.

So what this has done is caused Indiana's insurance rates to be cheaper than those two states.

One thing that my industry has asked for is to allow plans to be sold across state lines. So if you want to pay more for a plan that covers fertility treatment you could buy an Illinois plan. If you want a cheaper plan you could buy a Texas plan. This can not be done because states will not allow it. The main reason that they will not allow it is that the premium tax that the companies pay would be lost to that state.

Isn't it interesting that the the government is citing the commerce clause that governs selling things across state lines, to explain why the individual mandate is constitutional. Even though we can not buy the products across state lines.

Obama Passes ‘Hot Potato’ to States - Bloomberg:

'via Blog this'

Early-Retiree Health-Insurance Fund to Wind Down - Health Blog - WSJ

2011-12-12T08:19:00.000-06:00

Early-Retiree Health-Insurance Fund to Wind Down - Health Blog - WSJ:

'via Blog this'

Europe made easy - The Washington Post

2011-12-01T11:27:00.000-06:00

This is a very good article that concisely explains the European Debt crisis. Let me know what you think. Dan

Europe made easy - The Washington Post:

'via Blog this'

Euro Zone Debt Crisis - Can Europe Force US Money Market Funds to Break the Buck? - CNBC

2011-11-20T07:19:00.000-06:00

I saw this article and personally I do not think that Money Market Funds will fall to a value under $1, but it did happen in 2008. In 2008 the treasury as part of the bail out decided to guarantee money market funds unlimitedly. That program ended shortly after the crisis settled down. This article states that if it happens again congress put in the law that we could not guarantee money market fund again. This was news to me.

Just keep your eyes open. Dan

Euro Zone Debt Crisis - Can Europe Force US Money Market Funds to Break the Buck? - CNBC: "reprising"

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Deflation Has Arrived Page 2 of 2 - Forbes.com

2011-11-17T06:32:00.000-06:00

This is an interesting article. He (Schilling) wrote his book in 2009 and all of these predictions are in the book. I read the book then and he was definitively going against what everyone else was saying but it appears he is on the right path.

Deflation Has Arrived Page 2 of 2 - Forbes.com:

'via Blog this'

Adler and Cannon: Another ObamaCare Glitch - WSJ.com

2011-11-16T12:30:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago Jack and me sat in meetings in Indianapolis for two days learning about healthcare reform. This topic was brought up and this is one of the things in the healthcare law that makes me believe that we may never see this law completely enacted in 2014. I guess we will see what happens. Dan

Adler and Cannon: Another ObamaCare Glitch - WSJ.com:

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Healthcare Law's Fate Now In Supreme Court's Hands - CNBC

2011-11-14T09:16:00.000-06:00

Here we Go!

Healthcare Law's Fate Now In Supreme Court's Hands - CNBC:

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Don't Panic! We're Just Going to Hit the Button for a Second - US Business Blog - CNBC

2011-11-07T18:02:00.000-06:00

Just an FYI

Don't Panic! We're Just Going to Hit the Button for a Second - US Business Blog - CNBC:

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Obama unveils new student loan measures - CBS News

2011-10-26T13:14:00.000-05:00

I just want to let everyone know that this program has existed for 3 years now. It is called the income based repayment plan. The program is currently only being used by a little more than 1% of the people with student loans. I have worked with this program and can tell you that the reason that it is not utilized by more people is that most do not know that it exists and it sounds too good to be true. Also once you start looking into it seems confusing, but if you do the work you may be able to reduce your student loan payments, maybe all the way to $0. I have experience with the plan and the filling requirements, the plan works as they say it does. If you know anyone that has student loans they should take a look at this program. I am willing to help people with it so please have them give me a call.

Thanks

Dan

Financial Arts, Inc.

219-987-4438

Obama unveils new student loan measures - CBS News:

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Indystar - Annual cancer screening tests urged less and less

2011-10-19T08:02:00.000-05:00

Here is what the US Preventive service task force is recommending for preventive services.

The US preventive service Task force is supposed to be the organization that determines what preventive services are to be covered as preventive under healthcare reform.

Due to people being upset by this HHS has some ability to cover things that the US preventive service task force says should not be covered. It probably will not be long though before this changes and all that will be covered is what the preventive service task force says.

In 2014 the federal government is going to determine what are essential benefits, and that is probably the coverage most of us will have.

Indystar - Annual cancer screening tests urged less and less:

'via Blog this'

CMS: New regulations can save hospitals billions | National Nursing News

2011-10-19T07:28:00.000-05:00

New cost cutting regulations.

CMS: New regulations can save hospitals billions | National Nursing News: "ambulatory surgical centers"

'via Blog this'

White House Axes Part of Health-Care Overhaul - US Business News - CNBC

2011-10-14T17:52:00.000-05:00

It is good to see that HHS has made this choice. One thing that the article does not talk about though is that this portion of the health bill was what kept the projected costs under 1 trillion dollars over 10 years. They did this by saying that they were going to collect premiums for 9 years of the 10 and only have to provide benefits for 4 years. This was a nice little accounting trick. I wish that the CBO would re-score the bill now.

White House Axes Part of Health-Care Overhaul - US Business News - CNBC:

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HHS recommends halting the CLASS ACT

2011-10-14T15:49:00.000-05:00

HHS has recommended halting the CLASS ACT. The link is the memo to congress.

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Others opinions

2011-10-13T08:04:00.000-05:00

In my stats I am showing that I have visitors form the UK on my blog. If these are real people I would be very interested to here your opinions of what I am saying, seeing as how you have had a national system much longer than we have.
Thanks
Dan

Policy makers urged to decide what health benefits should be required in small group plans - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser

2011-10-13T07:04:00.000-05:00

I was in meeting in Indianapolis for 2 full days this week, regarding where healthcare reform is going. Essential Benefits is going to be one of the biggest issues yet to be decided. The reason this is so important it that the health insurance exchanges are to be running by October 2013. If the insurance companies do not know what is going to have to be covered until spring 2012, it looks like that gives the insurance companies 18 months to figure out the plan design, but that is not accurate. You see according to the sate they can not set up the health insurance exchange until they know what products are available to be in the exchange. So lets say that the regulations come out for Essential benefits and it takes 3 months to clarify some details so now we are looking at Jul 2012. Lets say that the insurance companies take 6 months from there to design and price their products now we are at January 2013. According to the person in charge of investigating the state exchange she has to give the federal government an answer on whether or not we want a sate exchange or we want to be in the federal exchange by January 2013.

So if she does not know what products we will have in Indiana or what prices the products are going to be how can she make a recommendation on this.

Also this decision on what essential benefits are going to be could become very political because it will be finalized right at the time of the the presidential elections.

As many of you know my wife has MS, so I am on the mailing list for the MS society. If you are not on any mailing list for a society of any diseases you would not believe how political these associations are. They are currently working together to keep the debt super committee from cutting their programs that help fund their research. Can you imagine how much they are going to fight congress to make sure that their disease is covered as an essential benefit. I can completely see us turning into a system like Germany where depending on who is elected and what disease they care about, will make the difference if you can get the treatments that you need.

You must understand that the law states that health plans have to cover essential benefits, and HHS gets to determine those benefits. So these benefits are completely at the will of a HHS who is appointed by the president and approved by congress.

Policy makers urged to decide what health benefits should be required in small group plans - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser:

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The DHHS asks Institute of Medicine to recommend how they should determine the basic benefits - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser

2011-10-03T13:41:00.000-05:00

Next week we should know a little more about essential health benefits, or at least how HHS is going to determine them.

The DHHS asks Institute of Medicine to recommend how they should determine the basic benefits - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser:

'via Blog this'

Annual Enrollment Starts October 15 and Ends December 7 for Medicare Part C & Part D Plans || CMA

2011-09-29T11:30:00.000-05:00

Please keep on mind that the annual enrollment for Medicare is earlier this year. If you or someone you know needs help with this please call Valerie. 219-987-4438

Annual Enrollment Starts October 15 and Ends December 7 for Medicare Part C & Part D Plans || CMA:

'via Blog this'

Medicare to Pay Doctors $20 Bonuses for Longer Office Visits - Bloomberg

2011-09-28T11:53:00.000-05:00

I know I have blogged a lot of stuff today, but there is a lot of new information today.

This one should make it easier to see a Dr. Since they still have the same amount of time during a day. I understand the premise but I am afraid of the results.

One time I had heard that the government is going to pass a law about lying down and sleeping, because nearly everyone how who dies in there sleep is lying down. I think that we are getting closer to this logic.

Medicare to Pay Doctors $20 Bonuses for Longer Office Visits - Bloomberg:

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Health care law definition of "affordable" vague - WSJ.com

2011-09-28T08:41:00.000-05:00

Here is another aspect of the healthcare reform law that is causing many problems.

If they define this as family coverage we will have the exchanges full of people and the federal government will not be able to afford the subsidies.

An example of the subsidies is a family of 3 making $50,000 a year currently paying $700 a month for Health insruance will only be allowed to pay $300 a month. THat means a tax credit of $4,800 a year. This is not a tax deduction this is a credit so the family will get this back even if they do not pay taxes.

The law will give the subsidy to anyone making under 400% of poverty level. Family of 4 this is $88,000. So most families will be eligible for a subsidy.

We can not afford this.

Health care law definition of "affordable" vague - WSJ.com:

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Business group files high court health care appeal

2011-09-28T08:25:00.000-05:00

We are getting closer to the supreme court deciding the fate of the health care law. I will be happy when this is decided, one way or the other.

Business group files high court health care appeal:

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Greece on Edge of Insolvency 24 Centuries After First Default - Businessweek

2011-09-22T22:12:00.000-05:00

Here is a very interesting article giving multiple scenarios for what happens when Greece defaults. If you look at some of the earlier posts several months ago you can find article that give other scenarios. I had said earlier that this looks so similar to 2008 with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For months we were told that they were solid, but everything that you would read would give specific events that were upcoming that They did not have the money for. Then 1 to 2 weeks before they were to make there debt payments they were taken over by the federal government. Fannie Mae and Freddie mac were taken over 7 days before Lehman brothers collapsed. This is how fast these things happen. So if we see Greece default I would not be surprised to see many banks major ones ready to fail all over Europe. Keep your eyes open. DF

Greece on Edge of Insolvency 24 Centuries After First Default - Businessweek:

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DC Government Shutdown Days Away? | Political News and Opinion from a Multicultural Point of View

2011-09-22T05:10:00.000-05:00

Here we go again. Another start to our fiscal year without a budget.

DC Government Shutdown Days Away? | Political News and Opinion from a Multicultural Point of View:

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Obama’s debt plan may hit your retirement - Robert Powell - MarketWatch

2011-09-21T07:07:00.000-05:00

Here is some interesting information that I have not seen any where else. If any of these changes happen it will have a big impact on many of our clients.

Obama’s debt plan may hit your retirement - Robert Powell - MarketWatch:

'via Blog this'

Will the government shutdown in 15 days?

2011-09-15T21:09:00.000-05:00

Just posting this because most people do not realize that the federal government is supposed to have a new budget done in 15 days.

Will the government shutdown in 15 days?:

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Obamacare's Fate Rests With Poor Farmer Filburn - Forbes

2011-09-15T13:08:00.000-05:00

This judge gave a very interesting verdict. It does not look or sound political.

Obamacare's Fate Rests With Poor Farmer Filburn - Forbes:

'via Blog this'

Government Healthcare: I do not understand

2011-09-13T17:01:00.000-05:00

I have been running advertisements for three weeks now that I can sign people up for the Government (PCIP) Preexisting Condition Insurance Plan. What I am finding out is very interesting.

I had a lady call me today, she said that she has medicaid. She informs me that she can not afford medicaid and would like to know if I can help her. For those of you that do not know Medicaid is the state/federal program for people that do not have any money. So I was a little confused. She explained to me that she has to spend down every month $670 on medical bills, then Medicaid will pay. She then informs me that sometimes they still do not pay. She then asks me what I have available.

So I explain about the PCIP plan, premium for a 50 yr old is $250 a month. The Plan has a drug card and a $2,000 deductible. I then inform her that she is not eligible because she has had health insurance in the last 6 months.

So it appears that the Government Health Insurance for the poor now cost more than the government health insurance for the sick.

If someone can explain this situation to me please tell me.

Government Sues Trucking Company For Taking Keys Away From Alcoholic Driver | FoxNews.com

2011-09-02T16:30:00.000-05:00

This is nuts! If you can not fire a truck driver that is an alcoholic than who can be fired.

Government Sues Trucking Company For Taking Keys Away From Alcoholic Driver | FoxNews.com:

'via Blog this'

Simple summary of coverage

2011-08-23T12:55:00.000-05:00

Under the affordable care act all employers are to have a simple summary of coverage. HHS has just released a template. I would like of know what you think about it.

Consumer Debt Forgiveness May Be Needed: Roach - CNBC

2011-08-22T20:09:00.000-05:00

Here is another idea to encourage bad behavior.

Consumer Debt Forgiveness May Be Needed: Roach - CNBC

I have a proposal for debt ceiling crisis

2011-07-27T23:01:00.000-05:00

I have a proposal on how to solve the debt ceiling crisis.

As I see it there are two parts of this crisis that we need to solve. The first being the risk of defaulting on our obligations (debt payments, Entitlement programs that were promised or just the bill that we owe). The second problem is that we as a country are headed for a dire situation if we do not change our spending habits. As of right now it looks like we have run out of time to fix both of those problems without incurring some instant pain from a lowering of our credit limit, but I think that I have an idea that might work.

First lets look at the debt ceiling as it stands today.

The US Government has a fiscal year that starts on October 1st and ends September 30th. In recent years the country operated without a budget because the 2 sides can not get along. so this year we finally received a budget in March. The budget was passed knowing full and well that we were going to need to borrow above the debt ceiling. So congress should propose to raise the debt ceiling to the amount we need to get by until October 1st, 2011. The reason that I state that day is because congress passed the budget knowing that we had to at least do this and to not at least raise the debt ceiling till then is just irresponsible.

On the other hand why should they raise the debt ceiling past that date. We are supposed to have a new budget on October 1st. So in the new budget congress can put the increase to the debt ceiling to be equal to the deficit that the budget states that we will have. This would do several things.

The 1st thing that it does is causes congress to treat the US budget the same way that you treat your household budget. In my house I periodically look at what we are spending vs what we are bringing home and see if we are spending to much. Congress does not do this. They just spend way more than what they budget. But under this proposal they will have to follow the budget and playing games with the budget numbers will be punished. The way that they will be punished is that if you overestimate income to make you budget look better (make deficit Look smaller) you will have a debt ceiling crisis you will have to deal with mid year and the American public will be informed that the budget was not accurate. For example the president proposes a budget he claims that it will only run a deficit of $600 billion and congress passes this with an increase to the debt ceiling of $600 billion. On April 1st of the next year we see that 6 months into the budget we have already deficit spent $500 billion we only have $100 billion left before we hit the debt ceiling. We now have a debt ceiling crisis again that we have to either cut spending or raise revenues or a combination of the two. One thing that we have learned in the last month is that our elected officials do not like dealing with this crisis, neither side ends up winning, so maybe they would do a better job of budgeting.

Then we need a constitutional amendment that does not allow the debt ceiling to be raised with out an amendment to the budget. This get past many of the augments against a balanced budget amendment. I would agree that there are definitely times that we need to borrow money and it would be nearly impossible to quit borrowing money completely while we are fighting wars in three countries, and have the worst economy since the great depression. I will argue though that in financial planning the biggest factor to getting out of debt and being successful is a good budget that you adhere too and is honest.

So I think that this could get us out of both problems that we have today in this crisis. It definitely keeps us from defaulting and it gives the credit rating agencies some kind of plan to see that we are serious about monitoring our debt and working to lower it. So they (credit rating agency s)would have an argument against lowering our credit rating.

Tell me what you think

Dan

US Seeks Elusive Compromise to Escape Debt Debacle - CNBC

If a law doesn’t work, waive it away? - The Boston Globe

2011-07-25T10:02:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting article written by John Sununu. John Sununu is a former Governor, former senator, Former Representative, so he definitively understands how Washington works, so I appreciate his perspective. The article is about how laws that require employers to get waivers, to not be subject to regulators should be removed and rewritten so that the law governs the employers and not the regulators governing the employers.

If a law doesn’t work, waive it away? - The Boston Globe

Senators endorse lower COLAs for retirees - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

2011-07-20T16:49:00.000-05:00

Have you heard where the $500 billion of instant saving is going to come from in the compromised finance deal?

They are going to change cost of living adjustments for retirees in social security and federal and military retirees. This is something that was talked about a couple of months ago but I head not heard anything about it since then.

Here is what they are going to do. The elected officials are going to change to a different method of counting inflation.

What I was taught in school was that to figure inflation you had to take a basket of good and determine what the price of that basket of goods cost is in one year as opposed to another year. This is how inflation rates used to be determined and how we we would give out cost of living adjustments.

The new formula is the chained CPI. This formula figures that if the cost of beef goes up and the cost of pork goes down you will buy more pork, so they adjust the basket of goods to always have more lower priced goods than high priced goods so now you do not have inflation.

It seems to me that just because I can't afford to buy something does not mean that the price did not go up.

So since our legislators have no guts they just change the formulas so they do not have to cut anything they can now say that is how the formula works.

Senators endorse lower COLAs for retirees - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Coburn Ups Ante in Debt Ceiling Standoff, Pushes Plan to Save $9 Trillion - FoxNews.com

2011-07-18T21:37:00.000-05:00

This looks like a real proposal that does stop many tax loop holes and does cut a lot of spending. The CBO says that in the next 10 years we will increase our debt by $13 trillion. Under this proposal we would only increase it by $4 trillion over the next ten years. Hopefully something like this gets done soon!

Coburn Ups Ante in Debt Ceiling Standoff, Pushes Plan to Save $9 Trillion - FoxNews.com

Healthy Indiana Plan makes room for more childless adults | 2011-07-18 | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com

2011-07-18T15:10:00.000-05:00

If anyone knows any one that is child less and low income but needs health insurance they should apply for this program.

Healthy Indiana Plan makes room for more childless adults | 2011-07-18 | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com

Debt debate cheat sheet - CNN.com

2011-07-15T18:27:00.001-05:00

Here is a breakdown of the current proposals for the debt ceiling talks. I saw something interesting in here. They keep talking about reducing the deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years. People need to realize what this really means. This means that if we are currently projected to go in debt an additional $12 trillion then by reducing it by $4 trillion we will only be $22 trillion in debt in 2022 as opposed to being $26 trillion in debt in 2022. Realize if we have $22 trillion of debt and we are paying 5% interest on that debt the interest payment would be $1.1 trillion a year.

Debt debate cheat sheet - CNN.com

The U.S. Treasury will not default - Fundmastery Blog - MarketWatch

2011-07-13T21:26:00.000-05:00

I read this the other day and I thought it was a good explanation and truthful explanation of what will happen to govt. spending if the debt ceiling is not raised.

The U.S. Treasury will not default - Fundmastery Blog - MarketWatch

Older Workers Could Face Cost Disparities in Health Law Glitch - FoxNews.com

2011-06-30T06:51:00.000-05:00

This is just one more example of how the health care reform bill was not thought through. I personally do not have a problem with people paying different rates but it will be really bad for the states if we have to add people to Medicaid just because they took Social security before age 65.

Older Workers Could Face Cost Disparities in Health Law Glitch - FoxNews.com

Obama, leaders hope to reach budget deal in the next few weeks - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser

2011-06-29T14:46:00.000-05:00

Here is an article that is discussing the changes to the budget that the congress people are working on. There are a couple of things that I find interesting.

The 1st is that they want to change how we count inflation, this is because we have tied pension benefits to this, social security benefits and I-bond interest rates. They claim this will save $300 billion. I thought that all of these things were tied to inflation to make sure that people can maintain their standard of living. So if it costs to much just make up new numbers. No one will be able to afford to live but we will not have inflation according to the government.

Also they want to cut Medicare benefits to the wealthy. I do not know if most people realize that this will turn Medicare into a welfare program that only the poor will get.

I agree that we need to cut spending but I wish the congressmen or women would have the guts to really cut the programs without trying to trick the American people.

Later Dan

Obama, leaders hope to reach budget deal in the next few weeks - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser

For Greece, Here's What Austerity Really Looks Like - CNBC

2011-06-29T10:17:00.000-05:00

This article shows some of the cuts that Greece is going to be making. I will be the first person to say that Greece has to do these things but I can also see why the people are rioting. This should be a lesson to our country to start cutting back now so we do not have to go through this in the future. Later Dan

For Greece, Here's What Austerity Really Looks Like - CNBC

Four Medicare myths that can cost you Vital Signs - MarketWatch

2011-06-22T11:27:00.000-05:00

This is a decent little article regarding some of the misconceptions of Medicare coverage. I will tell you that there are many more than just these. In our office we have had to have Valerie concentrate on our medicare eligible clients due to the complexity and ever changing rules. As an example Medicare now has a tip sheet that is 12 pages long. So if you or someone you know is looking for help with medicare questions or supplements, part D, or Advantage plans you can give us a call. Later Dan

Four Medicare myths that can cost you Vital Signs - MarketWatch

S&P Downgrades Greece on Likely Default - CNBC

2011-06-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

S&P Downgrades Greece on Likely Default - CNBC

Global Economy: Obama Presses Europe, Pledges Help for Greek Crisis - CNBC

2011-06-08T04:58:00.000-05:00

Just want to remind everyone that the US Government funds about 17% of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). I think that it is important to remember where the IMF gets the money that they hand out in these bailouts.

Global Economy: Obama Presses Europe, Pledges Help for Greek Crisis - CNBC

Many US Employers to Drop Health Benefits: McKinsey - CNBC

2011-06-07T13:16:00.000-05:00

I tend to believe that this article is correct. The only thing that I see wrong with the article is that more employers will drop the insurance coverage than the article states. The reason for this is that most employers do not understand how the system is going to work. When they figure it out it is simple cost calculation to see the easy answer.

Many US Employers to Drop Health Benefits: McKinsey - CNBC

What Happens When Greece Defaults - CNBC

2011-06-03T16:02:00.000-05:00

I am not saying that Greece is going to default, but this is a very interesting article. It looks as if Greece has been able to kick the can down the road for a couple of years, but the new bail out is not completed yet. Later Dan

What Happens When Greece Defaults - CNBC

Healthcare reform how is it really working out!

2011-06-02T09:56:00.000-05:00

Last week the news came out and said that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) would not say that insurance agent’s commissions needed to be taken out of the administrative cost for health insurance companies under PPACA. Also this year we have heard many times how congress was going to address this issue because they never meant to run insurance agents out of business. Again no action has been taken. Health and Human Services claim that they do not know if insurance agents are needed in the future for health insurance. Does any of this surprise me, not really it has been known for a long time that the government thinks agents are an unnecessary expense. It is always better to put people on the government payroll then you can make those people dependent on you and ensure your reelection. This is how the healthcare reform is supposed to work. Through this entire process I have known that this is fully the intention of the legislation, and I have not worried about it to much, or let it bother me too much.

Tonight though is a completely different story. I am mad as hell. The reason that I am so mad is that even though I felt that most likely the main part of our business was given a death sentence I thought that there was a chance that the legislation may change for the better, but tonight I realize how stupid they think that we are.

What I am talking about is the Preexisting condition insurance plan. This is the plan that the government put in place to help all of the uninsured people that wanted insurance but could not get it because they had a preexisting health condition. This plan came into effect on July 1^st, 2010. The federal government claimed that by the end of 2010 we would have 375,000 people insured, 2.5% of the 15 million uninsured, in this new wonderful program. At the end of 2010 they had insured 8,000 people or .05% of the uninsured. Also the program was spending 2X the amount of money it was bringing in on claims. So it had a 200% loss ratio.

So what did the secretary health and human services conclude. You would think that maybe we should re look at the whole program and see what can be changed so we do not lose so much money and get more people signed up, but no that was not the case what they did was lower premiums 20%. Well one would think that this should help in getting more people signed up, but probably cause the program to lose 20% more money. Well what has happened? We have now signed up an additional 10,000 people. We now have 18,000 total people insured that were not insured before. So this program has insured .12% of the uninsured.

Well today they have announced that they admit that the plan is not accomplishing the stated goal of getting more people insured. So what are they going to do? First we will lower premiums another 40%. Again I am sure this will help to balance our budget. Then they also announced that they need insurance agent to start to enroll the people in the plan. Isn’t this amazing. According to the secretary of Health and Human Services we are an unnecessary expense, but now the secretary of Health and Human services says she needs our help to make sure that her program is not a failure. Well what is she going to give me to help her not have egg on her face? I thought maybe a future in health insurance?

Well not quite I will get $100 one time if I help someone to get in the governments plan. Please note that this is something that we have always tried to help people with even though we were not compensated at all, because it was the right thing to do. So like the sheeple I have been trained to be I went and said that I would help her. Then as this night has gone on I realized what is actually happening. Our health insurance business still has a death sentence, but now I have at least been handed a shovel and some gruel and told that I dig a 6 foot deep hole better than them so please start digging, because it would be embarrassing not get the whole dug on time.

So I pray that other people will see what is happening and not dig the whole for themselves or me!

Fannie Mae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2011-05-26T10:50:00.000-05:00

I tried to find some information on the take over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a timeline. This is from Wikipedia and it all looks accurate to me. Here is the section about the take over the entire Wikipedia story is linked. To me it is interesting that the reports of the takeover are initially denied by the government. Then denied for 2 months all the way up to the take over. Dan

2008 - Crisis and Conservatorship

Main article: Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

On July 11, 2008, the New York Times reported that U.S. government officials were considering a plan for the U.S. government to take over Fannie Mae and/or Freddie Mac should their financial situations worsen due to the U.S. housing crisis.^[35] Fannie Mae and smaller Freddie Mac own or guarantee a massive proportion of all home loans in the United States and so were especially hard hit by the slump. The government officials also stated that the government had also considered calling for explicit government guarantee through legislation of $5 trillion on debt owned or guaranteed by the two companies.

Fannie stock plunged.^[36] Some worried that Fannie lacked capital and might go bankrupt. Others worried about a government seizure. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson as well as the White House went on the air to defend the financial soundness of Fannie Mae, in a last ditch effort to prevent a total financial panic.^[37]^[38] Fannie and Freddie underpinned the whole U.S. mortgage market. As recently as 2008, Fannie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) had owned or guaranteed about half of the U.S.'s $12 trillion mortgage market.^[35] If they were to collapse, mortgages would be harder to obtain and much more expensive. Fannie and Freddie bondswere owned by everyone from the Chinese Government, to Money Market funds, to the retirement funds of hundreds of millions of people. If they went bankrupt, all those investments would go to 0, and there would be mass upheaval on a global scale.^[39]

The Administration PR effort was not enough, by itself, to save the GSEs. Their investments were simply too rotten, their managements had been too incompetent, and the market was tanking too quickly. Paulson knew that Lehman Brothers and other banks were in trouble and would soon require his attention; this meant that he would not have the staff or the time to deal with a long, drawn out Fannie and Freddie conflict. Paulson's plan was to go in swiftly and seize the two GSEs; he told president Bush that "the first sound they hear will be their heads hitting the floor".^[39]

On September 7, 2008, James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were being placed into conservatorship of the FHFA. The action was "one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in decades".^[40]^[41]^[42] Lockhart also dismissed the firms' chief executive officers and boards of directors, and caused the issuance to the Treasury new senior preferred stock and common stock warrants amounting to 79.9% of each GSE. The value of the common stock and preferred stock to pre-conservatorship holders was greatly diminished by the suspension of future dividends on previously outstanding stock, in the effort to maintain the value of company debt and of mortgage-backed securities. FHFA stated that there are no plans to liquidate the company.^[40]^[40]^[41]^[41] ^[42]^[43]^[43]^[44]^[44]^[45]^[45]^[46]

The authority of the U.S. Treasury to advance funds for the purpose of stabilizing Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac is limited only by the amount of debt that the entire federal government is permitted by law to commit to. The July 30, 2008 law enabling expanded regulatory authority over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased the national debt ceiling US$ 800 billion, to a total of US$ 10.7 Trillion in anticipation of the potential need for the Treasury to have the flexibility to support the federal home loan banks.^[47]^[48]^[49]

Fannie Mae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greece: It's Austerity or Drachmas for Greece Says EU Official - CNBC

2011-05-26T10:35:00.000-05:00

It looks like a Greece default is getting closer. My opinion, it will happen some weekend when the markets are not open just like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did so there is some time for damage control before the markets open. Dan

Greece: It's Austerity or Drachmas for Greece Says EU Official - CNBC

Why a Greek Default Would be Worse Than Lehman Brothers' Collapse - CNBC

2011-05-25T14:34:00.000-05:00

This is quite interesting. I have to tell you that in 2008 there were reports for at least 1 month if not 2 months that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were going to fail before they actually failed. All the while the government denied the reports. I feel that we are seeing the same thing with Greece and Europe overall. DF

Why a Greek Default Would be Worse Than Lehman Brothers' Collapse - CNBC

Beyond irony: Nursing homes need waivers from Obamacare | Examiner Editorial | Opinion | Washington Examiner

2011-05-18T12:15:00.000-05:00

Beyond irony: Nursing homes need waivers from Obamacare | Examiner Editorial | Opinion | Washington Examiner

Government & Economy: Debt Limit D-Day Spells Tough Choices for Obama - CNBC

2011-05-16T14:10:00.000-05:00

Here is some big news today.

Government & Economy: Debt Limit D-Day Spells Tough Choices for Obama - CNBC

Social Security, Medicare to run short sooner than expected - May. 13, 2011

2011-05-13T14:19:00.000-05:00

Social Security Disability benefits could run out in just 7 years. This is big news since there are nearly 10 million people receiving benefits for just disability. Let me know what you think. Dan

Social Security, Medicare to run short sooner than expected - May. 13, 2011: "The trust fund money dedicated to disability benefits, which are paid to people who can't work because of a medical condition, is projected to run out by 2018. The program's costs have outpaced its non-interest income since 2005."

Vermont employers shocked at speed of single-payer bill - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser

2011-05-04T13:21:00.000-05:00

This is interesting, not a good sign for the rest of us.

Vermont employers shocked at speed of single-payer bill - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser

YouTube - Beyond the Headlines: Understanding the Debt Ceiling

2011-05-04T08:35:00.000-05:00

Here is a video that gives a different view on the debt ceiling. It seems to be a fair assessment. Let me know what you think.

Dan

YouTube - Beyond the Headlines: Understanding the Debt Ceiling

US Debt Gets a 'C'

2011-05-03T16:10:00.000-05:00

Here is Martin Weiss explaining the C rating on CNBC

US Debt Gets a 'C'

CORRECT: Weiss Ratings Says US Credit Rating Already Near Junk - WSJ.com

2011-05-03T08:21:00.000-05:00

This should probably be the biggest news today. Weiss rating is a company that is known for tough but fair ratings that only looks at the numbers, not political motivation, states that the USA government debt is one step above junk bond investments.

CORRECT: Weiss Ratings Says US Credit Rating Already Near Junk - WSJ.com

broker - Tools - News - New Reporting Obligation Requires Cost of Coverage on W-2s

2011-04-27T14:37:00.000-05:00

broker - Tools - News - New Reporting Obligation Requires Cost of Coverage on W-2s

Here is the latest information on the reporting of health insurance on W-2s: Dan

YouTube - Brother, Can You Spare A Trillion?: Government Gone Wild!

2011-04-25T11:02:00.000-05:00

YouTube - Brother, Can You Spare A Trillion?: Government Gone Wild!

Here is a video about our debt and interest payments in the USA. It looks accurate to me. Remember that a 1% raise in interest rates is $140 billion a year in increased interest.

IMF bombshell: Age of America nears end Brett Arends' ROI - MarketWatch

2011-04-25T09:50:00.000-05:00

IMF bombshell: Age of America nears end Brett Arends' ROI - MarketWatch

I found this interesting! Let me know what you think. Dan

Drug Industry: President Reneges on Health-Reform Deal - FoxBusiness.com

2011-04-21T13:37:00.000-05:00

Drug Industry: President Reneges on Health-Reform Deal - FoxBusiness.com

Here is another example of back door deals in the healthcare reform bill that actually hurt the majority of Americans in order to make the bill look better.

President signs 1099 repeal into law - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser

2011-04-18T13:15:00.000-05:00

President signs 1099 repeal into law - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser

This will make all businesses happy!

US Inflation Rate: Inflation Using Volcker-Era Methodology Nearing 10% - CNBC

2011-04-13T15:39:00.000-05:00

US Inflation Rate: Inflation Using Volcker-Era Methodology Nearing 10% - CNBC

This is an article from yesterday that I found rather interesting. Remember when reading it that there are reasons that the way inflation is figured has changed. Some of those reasons are mentioned others are not. Remember Social security raises are tied to inflation. The rates that the government pays for I- Bonds are tied to inflation. SO if inflation was reported the same way it was in 1979 the US Government would be paying out a lot more money. Just pointing it out.

YouTube - 10000Pennies's Channel

2011-04-11T10:14:00.000-05:00

YouTube - 10000Pennies's Channel

Here is the illustration of the federal budget cuts.

Nice illustration of budget cuts

2011-04-11T08:24:00.000-05:00

Travel insurance can give you peace of mind - todaytravel - Family - TODAY.com

2011-04-08T08:40:00.000-05:00

Travel insurance can give you peace of mind - todaytravel - Family - TODAY.com

This is an iteresting article Karen saw today. I just though that I would share it with you and let you know that this is a serivce that we offer. Check it out at tripfreetrip.com Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Congress Repeals Unpopular Tax Reporting Requirement for Businesses - FoxNews.com

2011-04-05T16:29:00.000-05:00

Congress Repeals Unpopular Tax Reporting Requirement for Businesses - FoxNews.com

Getting Back to the blog

2011-04-01T05:59:00.000-05:00

I appologize for the lack of updates but I have been very busy helping our customers implement the new rules. I just sat through anohter class and I will be getting further updates out.DF

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2011-03-31T17:05:00.001-05:00

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Preventice health services

2011-02-16T06:42:00.000-06:00

The attached link is a link to the US Preventive Services Task Force. http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/

If you have never heard of this government body I am not surprised, but you should become familiar with them soon. The reason that you need to become familiar with this organization is that in the healthcare reform law all preventive services to be deemed an A or B procedure by the task force has to be covered at 100% by your health plan if the health plan is not grandfathered. Also any immunizations that is recommended by the Advisory committee on Immunization practices of the centers for Disease Control and Prevention must also be paid at 100%. Here is another organization that I have never heard of that gets a say, they are the Health Resources and Services Administration, (the HRSA)

So what does all of this mean to employers and employees. This means that shortly nearly all plans will have preventive services covered at 100% but most likely you will not know what those services are and either will your Dr. If you go to the US Preventive services Task force you can obtain a list of all of the A & B services that will need to be covered. One problem is that this list is an ever changing list. The US Preventative Service task force is an entity that is to determine what preventive care is cost effective and recommend that care. The problem is that sometimes people do not like the recommendations that they make because they are not looking at lives saved they are looking at $. So in the bill the Department of health and human services is also able to include any care that they wish to be preventive. There is now talk that children's dental care could be preventive. Also another problem that everyone's going to have in understanding what is covered is that you health plan has a year to update their coverage to any changes that the US Preventive Services Task force makes. I have also been told by a county health department that all of the immunizations that children need in Indiana are not covered under these regulations.

We believe that getting these claims may be a nightmare, because many Dr.s may just order tests thinking that things are covered when they may not be. Some of the A & B services are very specific to age groups gender, or even if you ever smoked. So it is going to be very difficult to know what is covered and what is not. Also the law states that if the Dr. bills you for a separate office visit in addition to the preventive care that you obtained the health plan can make you pay part of the bill so then it will not be 100% paid for due to the way that a Dr. bills.

In my next blog which will be Thursday I will explain how this has affected our premiums.

Thanks
Dan

Update of legal challenges

2011-02-11T14:37:00.000-06:00

In my class yesterday our professor gave us updates on what has happened in the last week on the legal challenges of the law. As I noted in the last blog the Judge in Florida rule d the law unconstitutional. This will be appealed by the federal governmental. The new news though is that Florida has decided to not do anything that the law states because the court ruled it unconstitutional. They have not said that they will start following the law when it is appealed.

This is big news for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that if the supreme court may be forced to hear the law sooner than 2014 due to the fact that it is now an immediate issue. This may be Florida's motive for refusing to enact any provision from the law. The second reason that this is big news is because the last time we had a state refuse to follow the law of the US Government that went to the supreme court was in Brown VS the Board of Education. Now please note I am not comparing the two issues just pointing out the similarities of the situation of the state going against the US Government. This will be interesting to see what happens.

The other big thing that happened this week is that 21 Governors signed a letter to Health and Humans services Director Kathleen Sebelius. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels also had and opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal regarding the letter. If you read the letter I have to tell you that I do not always agree with him but on this issue I believe that he pretty much hits the nail on the head. Here is the Link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703652104576122172835584158.html

The letter basically laid out some demands that these 21 states need met if they are going to set up the exchanges. When I first read the article I did not think too much of it, but the professor of my class told us that this letter actually may have an impact. The reason that it may have an impact is due to several factors

1st) You have to realize that these health care exchanges are the corner stone of the legislation. If the exchanges do not exist the health care law will fall apart. In the law the states can set up the exchanges or if they do not set them up the Health and Human services is required to set them up.

2nd) These 21 governors have about 38% of the population in the country.

3rd) It does not appear that Health and Human Services will be able to implement the Health care exchanges by 2014. This bill has laid most of the burden of setting up all of the health care reform on Health and Human Services. I can tell you from my experience that we are seeing deadline after deadline either just not being met or the deadline being pushed back to a later date.

One example of this is that the health care law states that all states were to set up a Preexisting Condition insurance pool by 7/1/11 or tell Health and Human services to set it up. Indiana Has had one of these pools since at least 1996 but I believe it may have been 1993. Indiana decided to let Health and Human Services set it up in order to meet the new laws mandates. Indian also said that they were going to keep the plan we had and continue to let people join.

Well shortly after July 1st, Health and human services did give us a plan to use that meets all of the laws requirements. Health and Human Services had predicted that by 1/1/2011 they would have 375,000 new enrollees. As of 2/1/2011 we have nearly 12,500 people enrolled nation wide.
source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/10/AR2011021004184.html

There are many reasons for this but one of the most glaring examples is that the plan that Health and Human services set up is a PPO plan which means that there are in network and out of network Dr.s. This does not sound like a problem to most people, since most people that have insurance are familiar with this concept. The problem that we have is until the last month there was no list of Dr.s. Under Frequently asked questions it just stated that there will me many.

Also in the last month they changed the benefits and lowered the prices to try to get more people to join. They also now have a brochure that is 80 pages and no one to explain it. This is another reason that people do not join.

I could give many more examples of deadlines that have come and gone and in the future I am sure that I will when the topic calls for it.

Have a great day and I will be getting another post out soon.

Dan

Florida Court case

2011-02-08T08:08:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to make a quick mention regarding the court case in Florida that was such big news last week. I need to point out to everyone that there have been 12 courts that have upheld the the current health care law is constitutionally OK. There have been 2 courts that have said that the law is not constitutional. The first court was in Virginia, they said that the individual mandate was unconstitutional but that part of the law was sever-able. This means that the law would be allowed to stand by just removing the individual mandate. The Florida Court declares the individual mandate unconstitutional as well but stated that individual mandate was not sever-able. This means that the clause can not be separated from the law which would mean the law could not exist without the individual mandate. This would mean that the entire law would have to be struck down.

Now I will tell you that the individual mandate is definitely needed if the law is going to exist. We do need to get everyone insured n order to give the most people care at a responsible price, but I will also tell you that this individual mandate (constitutional or not) is not going to cause people to buy insurance. When the law starts the penalty is only $750 a year for not having insurance. This is only a fraction of what insurance costs. People would be better off paying the penalty than buying the insurance. The reason for this is that under the law people can buy insurance without a preexisting condition.

an example to illustrate this point is, lets say the government says that you have to buy homeowners insurance and if you do not you will pay a penalty of $25 a year. The government then tells the insurance companies that if someone comes to them and says that they want insurance they can not ask them any questions and they have to cover the house no matter what has happened in the past and they can only charge rates based on small, medium, and large homes everyone in each category is the same price.

Lets look at how this plays out. Your home owners insurance will cost $200 a year. So you decide not to buy insurance and pay the penalty. Now your home starts on fire you call the insurance company buy the insurance and they pay to replace your home.

It is easy to see that this can not work so insurance rates will have to be significantly raised since there will not be many people sharing the risk. So they only way to fix this is to raise the penalty to more than what the cost of the insurance would be. This is what is going to happen under the current health care reform law.

American College Course Lesson 1

2011-02-08T07:43:00.000-06:00

One of the things that I have found out in the first week of my course is that this law is more complex and unorganized than I could have imagined. Some examples of things that we all need to know about are the new rules for nondiscrimination testing for your health plan. We all were supposed to be doing this by now, but the IRS has delayed the enforcement until they issue further clarification. You are to have a four page summary plan description that is the same no matter what company you have your insurance with. This would be great but the final regulations on this will not be coming out until 2012. It is kind of hard to have a standard if no one gives guidance. Explanations of Benefits are also to be standard. We are also waiting on guidance of this as well. In my upcoming blog I will be discussing many of the benefits changes that are to be taking place.

Healthcare Repeal

2011-01-20T16:54:00.000-06:00

Well the house of representatives have voted to repeal the Healthcare reform bill. It appears that it will not go any further due to the fact that Sen. Harry Reid has stated that he will not let it come to a vote. This is a real shame. A recent USA Today/ Gallop poll stated that only 13% of people are happy with the bill. It appears that most Americans realize that this bill is not good, no matter what side of the issue you are on.

Please let me know what you think!

Preexisting conditions, the truth

2011-01-19T14:17:00.000-06:00

Lately there have been many articles written about preexisting conditions and how the new healthcare law is going to fix these. I would like to give you some insight on how we can fix this problem and the uninsured problem very quickly and easily.

The way that we do this is that you have an open enrollment at a certain age where you can get health insurance without any questions asked about your health and no penalties for preexisting conditions. All Health insurance companies will agree to this as long as there is a very high likely hood of getting all members of society to sign up. We already see that there is a very good possibility that it is unconstitutional for the government to demand that people sign up for health insurance or be forced to pay and annual penalty. So how do you go about getting almost everyone to sign up without forcing them too? This is quite simple you just allow the health insurance companies to charge a higher rate of 10% per 12 months period that you were not covered for the rest of your life. Also the coverage can not be started till the next open enrollment period.

If this proposal sounds pretty specific, that is because it comes from Medicare. These are the rules when you are eligible for Medicare part b.

So why would congress have not just written the rules like that? There is two reasons. The first reason is that if you do not have coverage you do not get care in this system and this seems cruel. Secondly many people would not be able to afford the premiums so they would never be covered and would never be able to afford to get into the system. This does nothing to help the uninsured and would cause uninsured to not be able to afford to get insured.

What this comes down to is that this bill was not designed to fix the healthcare system. The problem with the system is costs and this issue still has not been addressed. All of the propaganda on both sides of this issue is really just going around the real issue. We must decide as a country how are we going to ration care. Is it the government or your ability to pay. Until this issue is decided the health care cost will continue to go up.

As always remember that if you spent $1 million a day since Jesus Christ was born you would still not have spent $1 Trillion!

Healthcare Bill Reform

2011-01-19T09:12:00.001-06:00

Today congress is getting ready to start the process of repealing the healthcare bill.