I've written 4 articles on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the newsletter section of BenefitsCafe.com. The articles will help employers and individuals who purchase their own coverage understand a few aspects of the law. The articles include: Five Things Everyone Needs to Know about Health Care Reform (ACA) Five Things [...]
The State of California is hard at work to create the first government-run entity to sell health insurance as required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Since first created, the entity has been called the "California Health Benefit Exchange" (HBEX). The government felt that name was a mouthful so they hired a marketing firm, Ogilvey PR, to develop a catchier one. Click here to find out what the new name is and how the new name was chosen.
Blue Cross of California has announced that they will issue all of their small group clients (i.e., employers with 2-50 employees) a one-time credit of 18% of the monthly health insurance premium. The credit will be based on active enrollment in the Blue Shield plan on July 31, 2012 and it will apply to the September 2012 bill. Click for more details and resources about the Blue Shield credit.
To mark the two year anniversary of President Obama's signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act we've written a summary of the most important changes that impact individuals and small businesses who purchase medical insurance. Click through for an accounting of the changes that have occurred since 2010 and changes planned for 2014.
Visit a dentist or orthodontist with your young child and be told that braces are needed leads one to the question: Should I buy an individual California dental insurance plan to cover the cost of braces for my child? This article addresses this question by examining the cost and benefits of two separate individual PPO dental plans. Read about how much orthodontics will cost with dental insurance plans from Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Delta Dental to make an informed decision.
The California Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) was set up under the new Federal health insurance reform law (PPACA). It’s supposed to go until 1/1/2014 at which time there will be no medical underwriting and all insurance companies must take everyone without regard to pre-existing medical conditions – i.e., you can transition to a standard plan. For someone close to age 65, enrolling on this plan would take him/her until he/she is eligible for Medicare which is currently "Guarantee Issue." Read about eligibility and cost of the PCIP based on our analysis of this government program.
On April 7, 2011 California enacted Assembly Bill 36 which allows employees and the self employed to deduct the cost of health insurance premium for dependents under the age of 27. This conforms California state tax law with the Federal guidelines passed into law with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that extend eligibility for group health insurance to adult children, regardless of student status, through age 26. Thank goodness that California legislators fixed the discrepancy between Federal and State law regarding the deductibility of dependent health insurance premium. Allowing the deduction means that California forgoes the tax revenue on adult children's health insurance premium. At the same time allowing the deduction removes a major head ache for employers who have been trying to comply with conflicting State and Federal guidelines. Read the post here.
I recently had the opportunity to hear Susan Kennedy speak at the Milken Institute Forum entitled: Federal Health Reform: Can It Achieve Its Goals? Susan Kennedy was Gov. Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff and she is his appointee to the board that will oversee the California Health Benefit Exchange. I was very impressed with Ms. Kennedy. Anyone interested in the future of health insurance of California should watch the video of her presentation, linked to here. Read on for my report of Susan Kenedy's presentation on the true cost of health care.
One provision of the new Federal health insurance reform law (PPACA) that became effective on September 23, 2010 was the requirement that all health insurance companies approve children under age 19 without regard for health status. While the new law requires insurance companies to sell coverage there is no requirement for parents to buy health insurance for their children. Fearing "adverse selection" where people would wait until they got to the hospital to sign up for coverage then cancel it after they received treatment (like buying fire insurance when your house is on fire) virtually all of the insurance companies refused to sell children only health insurance. In response, Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 2244 into law September 20, 2010. This new law requires all California health insurance companies to offer children only individual policies on a "guarantee issue' (GI) basis beginning January 1, 2011. Failure to comply will cause the California health insurance company to be banned from selling individual health insurance plans for 5 years. This penalty is so sever that it forces insurance companies to either accept all children under these conditions, or go out of business. Read more about AB 2244 requirements and the law surrounding guaranteed health insurance for children in California.
The IRS has provided additional information on the tax credit for small businesses that provide health insurance to their employees. The IRS has elaborated on provisions of the small business health care credit with an FAQ; a 3 Step Chart to determine eligiblity; and examples of credit calculations. Click through for an explanation of how the credit calculation works.