The situation with that is, often times one writer looked at the regulation, and wrote an item about it. Then other writers begin to use pieces from that first article and rewriting parts to fit their article. By enough time the information gets widely distributed, the specific regulations and rules get twisted and distorted, and what actually shows up in the media sometimes just doesn't truly represent the reality of what the regulations say.
There's a lot of misunderstanding about what is going up with ObamaCare, and one of many things that I've noticed in discussions with clients, is that there's an underlying set of myths that folks have found about healthcare reform that just aren't true. But because of they've heard in the media, people believe these myths are now actually true.
Today we're going to talk about three myths I hear most commonly. Not everybody believes these myths, but enough do, and others are unsure what to trust, so it warrants dispelling these myths now.
The very first one is that healthcare reform only affects uninsured people. The next one is that Medicare benefits and the Medicare program isn't likely to be afflicted with healthcare reform. And then a last one is that healthcare reform will reduce the expense of healthcare.
Health Care Reform Only Affects Uninsured
Let's consider the first myth about healthcare reform only affecting uninsured people. In a lot of the discussions I've with clients, there are numerous expressions they use: "I curently have coverage, so I won't be afflicted with ObamaCare," or "I'll just keep my grandfathered health insurance plan," and the past one - and that one I will give them a little leeway, because section of what they're saying is true -- is "I've group health insurance, so I won't be afflicted with healthcare reform."
Well, the truth is that healthcare reform is clearly likely to affect everybody. Starting in 2014, we're going to have a whole new set of health plans, and those plans have very wealthy benefits with a lot of extra features that the prevailing plans today don't offer. So these new plans are likely to be higher cost.
Health Care Reform's Effect On People With Health Insurance
People that already have health insurance are likely to be transitioned into these new plans sometime in 2014. So the insured is going to be directly afflicted with this because the plans they have today are getting away, and they will be mapped in to a new ObamaCare plan in 2014.
Health Care Reform Effect On The Uninsured
The uninsured have one more issue in that when they don't get health insurance in 2014, they face a mandate penalty. A few of the healthy uninsured are likely to look at that penalty and say, "Well, the penalty is 1% of my adjusted gross income; I make $50,000, so I'll pay a $500 penalty or $1,000 for health insurance. For the reason that case I'll take the penalty." But in any event, they will be directly afflicted with healthcare reform. Through the mandate it affects the insured in addition to the uninsured.
Health Care Reform Effect On People With Grandfathered Health Plans
People that have grandfathered health insurance plans aren't likely to be directly afflicted with healthcare reform. But because of the life cycle of the grandfathered health plan, it's going to produce those plans more costly as they discover there are plans available now that they may easily transfer to that particular 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 likely to start to shrink, and as that happens, the expense of those grandfathered health insurance plans increase even faster than they're now. Therefore, people in grandfathered health plans will also be impacted by ObamaCare.
Health Care Reform Effect On People With Group Health Insurance
The past one, the little group marketplace, will be probably the most notably afflicted with healthcare reform. Even although healthcare reform regulations predominantly affect large and medium-sized companies, and companies that have 50 or more employees, smaller companies will also be affected, although they're exempt from ObamaCare itself.
What many surveys and polls are starting to exhibit is that a few of the businesses that have 10 or fewer employees are likely to look seriously at their option to drop health insurance coverage altogether, and no more contain it being an expense of the company. Instead, they will have their workers get health insurance through the insurance exchanges.
Actually, a few of the carriers are now saying they anticipate that up to 50% of small groups with 10 or fewer employees are likely to drop their health insurance plan sometime between 2014 and 2016. That will employ a large effect on all people who have group health insurance, especially if they're in some of those small firms that drop health insurance coverage.
It's not merely uninsured that are likely to be afflicted with healthcare reform, everybody will be impacted.
Health Care Reform Will Not Affect Medicare
The next myth was that healthcare reform would not affect Medicare. This one is type of funny because from the very get-go, probably the most notable cuts were specifically targeting the Medicare program. Once you look at Medicare's percentage of the entire federal, you can see that in 1970, Medicare was 4% of the U.S. federal budget, and by 2011, it'd grown to 16% of the federal budget.
If we consider it during the last 10 years, from 2002 to 2012, Medicare could be the fastest growing area of the major entitlement programs in the us government, and it's grown by almost 70% throughout that period of time.
As a result of what size Medicare is and how fast it's growing, it's one of many key programs that ObamaCare is hoping to get a handle on, so it doesn't bankrupts the U.S. Medicare will be impacted, and in reality the original cuts to Medicare have already been set at about $716 billion 4aco dmt.
Medicare Advantage Cuts And The Effects
Of this $716 billion cut, the Medicare Advantage program gets cut probably the most, and will dsicover the bulk of the effects. What that's going to do is boost the premiums people purchase their Medicare Advantage plans, and reduce the benefits of those plans.
Increased Medicare Advantage Costs
Right now, many individuals choose Medicare Advantage plans because they have zero premium. When given an option on Medicare plans, they notice being an easy choice because it's a free of charge program for them, "Sure, I get Medicare benefits, I don't pay anything because of it; why not." Now they're likely to see Medicare premiums start to climb, and go from zero to $70, $80, $90, $100. We've already seen that with a few of the Blue Cross Medicare Advantage plans this year. It's going to have worse even as we proceed in the future.
Reduced Medicare Advantage Benefits
To be able to minimize the premium increases, what many Medicare Advantage plans is going to do is boost the copayments, boost the deductibles, and change the co-insurance rates. To be able to keep carefully the premiums down, they'll just push more of the expense onto the Medicare Advantage recipients. Increased premiums and reduced benefits are what we're likely to see arriving 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 prevent taking new Medicare Advantage recipients. We're likely to see the pool of doctors to support people in Medicare starting to shrink as well, unless changes are made within the span of the following five years. So Medicare will be affected, and it's likely to be affected dramatically by healthcare reform. Everybody's type of on pins and needles, waiting to see what's going to occur there.
Health Care Reform Will Reduce Healthcare Costs
The past one, and probably the biggest myth about healthcare reform, is everybody convinced that ObamaCare will reduce healthcare costs. That's completely hogwash. Early on along the way, when these were trying to develop the rules and regulations, the emphasis and one of many goals for reform was to reduce healthcare costs.
But somewhere across the line, the target actually shifted from cost reduction to regulation of the insurance industry. When they made that transition, they pushed cost reductions to the back burner. There are a few small cost reduction components in ObamaCare, but the true emphasis is on regulating health insurance. The new plans, as an example, have much richer benefits than many plans today: richer benefits means richer prices.
Health Care Reform Subsidies: Will They Make Plans Affordable?
Lots of people hope, "The subsidies are likely to make health insurance plans more affordable, won't they?" Yes, in some instances the subsidies will help to make the plans affordable for people. But when you make $1 an excessive amount of, the affordable plans are suddenly likely to become very expensive and may cost tens and thousands of dollars moreover the span of a year. Will a subsidy make it affordable or not affordable is actually at the mercy of debate at this time in time. We're going to own to really see what the rates appear to be for these plans.
New Health Care Reform Taxes Passed On To Consumers
Then there's a complete ton of new healthcare reform taxes which were added into the system to greatly help purchase ObamaCare. Which means everybody who has a health insurance plan, whether it's in a sizable group, a tiny group, or perhaps being an individual, will be taxed to be able to purchase the expense of reform. Medical care reform adds various taxes on healthcare that insurance companies must collect and pay, but they're just likely to pass it right to us, the consumer.
Mandate Won't Reduce Uninsured Very Much
During the original years of healthcare reform, the mandate is clearly pretty weak. The mandate says that everyone must get health insurance or pay a penalty (a tax). What that's going to do is make healthy people just take a seat on the sidelines and watch for the mandate to have to the level where it finally forces them to get health insurance. People who have chronic health problems that couldn't get health insurance previously, are all likely to jump into healthcare at the start of 2014 4aco dmt.
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