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Tag: ObamaCare

Has Obamacare Really Reduced The Uninsured By 16 Million And Continued To Show Strong Growth?

Recent reports have touted a significant drop in the number of uninsured and generally credited Obamacare for it. And, other reports have recently highlighted about 950,000 more people signing up for Obamacare since the 2015 open enrollment closed but haven’t said anything about the number of people who dropped their coverage during the same period.

As one headline put it, “After Obamacare Number of Uninsured Hits Five Year-Low.” Now, this headline might be technically correct but it hardly gives us the proper impression for why the uninsured rate has dropped so low.

Obamacare supporters have been citing two recent reports about the decline in the number of those uninsured:  The federal government’s National Health Interview Survey found that 7 million fewer people were uninsured in the first three months of this year, when compared to the average for all of 2014. The uninsured rate has dropped to 9.2 percent of the population—a modern day low.

A large independent survey called the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index found a statistically significant drop in the uninsured rate for most states since Obamacare launched in 2013. States that expanded Medicaid expansion saw bigger declines than the states that didn’t.

Read the full article here.

Contact Steven G. Cosby, MHSA, Group Health Insurance Broker and Agent with Cosby Insurance Group, with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

Cosby Insurance Group Warrenton Health Insurance Broker and Agent

Did You Overpay the Obamacare Tax Penalty?

More than 300,000 taxpayers have overpaid the IRS because they incorrectly indicated that they owed the Individual Shared Responsibility Payment (ISRP), the tax penalty related to the Affordable Care Act, on their 2014 tax return.

This was discovered and outlined in a annual report by the National Taxpayer Advocate. When it sampled IRS tax return data, the NTA found that a large number of taxpayers didn’t owe the penalty that they incorrectly indicated on their tax returns.

The penalty is required for taxpayers who don’t have health insurance that complies with the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The taxpayers in the sample didn’t actually owe the penalty tax because their income was below the threshold and thus they were exempt from what’s known as the “individual mandate.”

The NTA report found that the average ISRP paid was over $110.

Here’s what you need to know: If your household income in 2014 was below thethreshold for triggering the penalty and you included an amount on line 61 of your 1040, you should be eligible for a refund of the amount included on line 61.

Read the full report here.

Contact Steven G. Cosby, MHSA, Group Health Insurance Broker and Agent with Cosby Insurance Group, with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

Cosby Insurance Group Warrenton Health Insurance Broker and Agent

Obamacare Exchange Plans Have 34 Percent Fewer Providers than Commercial Plans

Avalere Health has quantified how narrow networks are in Obamacare exchange plans, as shown in the figure below:

Avalere1

According to Avalere CEO President Dan Mendelson:

“Plans continue to test new benefit designs in the exchange market. Given the new requirements put in place by the ACA, network design is one way plans can drive value-based care and keep premiums low.”

Well, that is one way to look at it and I hope Mr. Mendelson is right.

On the other hand, we have discussed indications that plans are designing plans to attract healthy applicants and shun sick ones. I fear that this research builds on that case, because the networks of specialists (oncologists, cardiologists) are much narrower than the networks of general practitioners.

That is what you would do if you were designing a network for the healthy – ensure adequate access for those who only need their annual preventive visit (free under Obamacare) but reduce access for patients in need of specialty treatment.

Read the full report here.

Contact Steven G. Cosby, MHSA, Group Health Insurance Broker and Agent with Cosby Insurance Group, with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

Cosby Insurance Group Warrenton Health Insurance Broker and Agent

Too Soon To Deride High Health Insurance Premium Rate Increases

Some health insurance companies are asking for big price health insurance premium rate increases next year and that has again riled critics of the federal health care law.

The numbers released last week came out of an Affordable Care Act requirement that insurance companies tell government regulators by June 1 if they’re requesting price hikes of more than 10 percent. But not all of the story is yet reported. Take, for example, Montana.

Some officials opposed to the law, like U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., decried the increases in a speech on the Senate floor. “Blue Cross Blue Shield, which is Montana’s largest insurer, is asking for an average increase of 23 percent for Montanans enrolled in individual plans,” he told colleagues last week.

While that sounds scary, it turns out that Blue Cross Blue Shield in Montana is actually asking for large price hikes on just two plans it wants to offer in the state. While it’s not yet public how many they’ll offer in 2016, they currently offer 50 plans.

Read the full report and listen to the NPR health news story here.

This story is part of a partnership that includes Montana Public Radio, NPR and Kaiser Health News. 

Contact Steven G. Cosby, MHSA, Group Health Insurance Broker and Agent with Cosby Insurance Group, with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

Cosby Insurance Group Warrenton Health Insurance Broker and Agent