Private Exchanges

I'm at the Choice Administrators road show for their private exchange product that has been writing multi-carrier health insurance for small business in California for 20+ years.

Mercer is all pumped up that their exchange has 52 employers signed up for 2014.  Big whoop.

I just love working with small business because they tend to have long term employees and are run like family. There is a desire to take care of employees and their families. CalChoice allows employees to pick the carrier (Anthem, Blue Shield, HealthNet, Aetna, Western Health, Sharp)  that has their doctor or the health plan or the health plan that includes docs (Kaiser). 

The difference between (besides the obvious apolitical superior customer service) private exchanges and the Government run (call centers full of employees trained in the ACA only) administrated exchange is that the public exchange (Covered California) seeks to 

enroll everyone regardless of doctor or coverage need.

While the private sector allows easy access and the services of a licensed health insurance broker, they also offer major medical and ancillary health carriers with their full superior networks of doctors and hospitals.

Employer based health care is moving from a “defined benefit” to a “defined contribution” format, where employers give employees a percentage or flat dollar amount. Your professional broker (like myself) helps educate and assists employees choose benefits that best fit their family situations. 

If you're a Califirnia employer that would like to learn more, I would be happy to assist.

The value of a health insurance broker.

It's the personal nature of health insurance that makes the need for human interaction so important. The purpose is to finance care and at times that comes in moments of fear and personal crisis. There isn't a website or “navigator" that can compensate for that.

Employers are more likely (20%) to offer medical coverage in markets with competing brokers. Broker competition is associated with lower premiums (13% less).

The government is throwing bushels of tax payer dollars at the concept that our service has no real value and unnecessarily adds to the cost of coverage. I beg to differ.

http://ow.ly/21xUV2

How Paul Bunyan and Babe will help the Affordable Care Act (and MNsure)

MNsure (Minnesota's health insurance exchange) has rolled out it's Ad campaign with Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox, making the pitch that Minnesota is the land of 10,000 reasons to get health insurance. http://ow.ly/21ln6Z

Not that I plan on filling my Blog with  the commercials from every state exchange, but this is a witty and clever example of getting the attention of the uninsured (in Minnesota's case 1.3 million of them) that it's a good idea to have health insurance coverage. 

This rollout in states that have decided to create their own exchange is the one best chance for the law to gain traction with the American people enough to take it out of the liability column for the President and his administration. 

That in of itself is a tall order and will need a Paul Bunyon like effort to succeed with 40% of the population polling that they don't understand (or approve of?) the Affordable Care Act.

The New Health Insurance Marketplace

Ready or not, here it comes. I saw this HealthCare.Gov commercial at the end of The Charlie Rose Show on PBS last night http://ow.ly/216DZ7

Covered California has a budget of about $290 million taxpayer dollars to spend on educating the masses. Half will be in traditional media like TV and radio. 

You won't be able to commute to work without seeing their billboard or hearing their drive time radio spot. Once you get home the exchange will pop up during football timeouts and between housewives reunion shows.

The majority of the money into social media, data mining you on FaceBook and distracting the single folks fussing over their Match.com profiles.

I just hope their jingle is catchy and not annoying. 

Since I tweeted this out I had 40 clicks yesterday and another 46 today. Not Rock Star numbers but it has an audience of health insurance brokers staring at the reality that the product they've been selling with its myriad of options is being dumbed down to a row of cereal boxes. A sobering thought.

The video I link to is put out my a new co-op in Iowa and Nebraska and has their tag attached to the actual HealthCare.gov video. 

There may not be much reason to join a union. So much for the logo jackets.

This CNBC article outlines the unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act for union members. The thought that the companies will decide that these plans are too expensive and drop the coverage and pay the fine, the average union guy is probably wondering "how can this be?" The loss of the tax incentives for employers tax subsidies for Taft Hartley coverage leaves them in a position where the cost of these plans becomes an issue. 

The big draw for joining unions has always been the rich benefits. Couple this with the possibility of scaled back plans due to the "Cadillac Tax" and union leaders are left with "not much". So much for the "If you like your plan, you can keep it" promises, that was talk for an election year.

I spent one summer home from school working as a Culinary and Bartenders Local member while cooking in a hotel. The "lifers" in the kitchen swore by it, but I saw a group that new it couldn't be easily fired, going for breaks when the kitchen got busy. You get the picture. For people at the bottom economically the revelation that their President brought them this law, well that must be disappointing. 

As the COBRA subsidy extension ends, employers would be wise to offer high deductible HSA plans

Congress has not renewed a subsidy that helped many jobless Americans afford health benefits. COBRA requires employers to continue insurance for former employees for 18 more months, if they pay the entire premium plus a 2% administrative fee. Last year, Congress approved a 65% COBRA premium subsidy, but it ended May 31.

People who started on COBRA before May 31 can still get the aid, but those who had exhausted the 15-month subsidy, and the newly unemployed, aren’t eligible.
Finding affordable insurance can be tough. The average price for family coverage is about $1,100 a month, with the subsidy, COBRA coverage costs $385.

Thus, there is a need for low cost high deductible options. The higher the deductible, the lower the premium cost and the lower the cost for COBRA. Now, more than ever, an employer that offers a high deductible HSA plan and contributes to the Health Savings Account of the employee is doing that employee a big favor. The money in a Health Savings Account can be used to pay the COBRA premium and keep the uninsurable employee covered once they have been let go.

For the short sighted employees used to the low copay options and using their medical plan without regard to cost, this new reality is a cold but very real wake up call. It's time to manage your health and healthcare expenditures.