We've blogged before about Special Event policies for things like hole-in-one contests, special product promotions based on sports scores or political conventions. Here's another example:
Rap star Kanye West has been on tour recently, and was just hospitalized; he's since cancelled the balance of his tour, at a cost of at least $30 million. That's a lot of scratch even for a successful musician, which is why he (reportedly) has an insurance policy that likely covers this kind of situation.
Assuming that it ends up paying out (there may be specific exclusions, for example), his wallet will be grateful.
With 2017's Open Enrollment in full swing, lots of folks are calling in for quotes and explanations, hoping to get their coverage in place for January 1. By now most of us know that, for better or worse (but mostly worse) ObamaPlans cover pre-existing conditions. This means that if one has, say, asthma, the new plan will cover it right away.
Some people, though, are less clear on the subject.
For example, 29 year old Megan Tice-Royea, is a grocery store manager in Newport, Vermont. Last year, she she decided she couldn't afford health insurance, despite making what appears to be enough to qualify for a healthy subsidy (or just buying a Cat Plan).
Which was a fine, rational decision, until it wasn't:
"In September, she was admitted to the hospital with a gallbladder infection. The surgery left her $32,000 in debt."
Ouch.
But here's the very best part:
"Now she’s considering signing up for an insurance plan through Obamacare, but only if it will help pay off her earlier medical bills."
Good luck there, Megan.
Now let's rewind the tape a bit, and take a look at "what might have been:"
Megan's 29, makes $14 an hour, and we'll assume that she doesn't smoke. Had she taken (literally - I timed it) 3 minutes, she could have visited her state's Exchange, where she would have learned that she qualified for a $347 per month subsidy, and then purchased a Bronze level plan for less than $60 a month (that's about $2 a day).
[ed: all rates and plans based on 2017 Exchange info, YMMV]
Her maximum out-of-pocket (including deductible) would have been $7,150 plus the $720 in premiums, meaning that the $32,000 claim would have cost her less than eight grand (about 25% of the actual bill).
Expensive 3 minutes.
[Hat Tip: FoIB Dr Dino]
So this happened:
I reached out to our friend Steve Geis (VP at Cornerstone) for his thoughts. Steve's the one who basically put our LifeLock discount program together; he replied:
"In my opinion, this will only make LifeLock stronger. I’m sure it will lead to new advancements in Cyber Crime/ Data Breaches using Symantec’s resources.
It’s too soon to tell if this will impact on brokers (and clients) but my guess is it will be business as usual. We still have to wait for regulatory approval before the deal is done.
We’ll just have to wait and see what comes to us from LifeLock and we’ll communicate upon notice."
Thanks, Steve!
As a reminder, you can get a 10% discount on LifeLock services (15% is available for most employer groups).[Hat Tip: Holly R]
We were promised from the outset that The ObamaTax would "bend the cost curve down;" that is, reduce the costs of both providing and paying for health care.
Here at InsureBlog, we've also blogged extensively about Medical Tourism, where folks go across the border (or the ocean) in search of cheaper health care.
Reason I bring these up is because our friend Holly R tipped me to this interesting piece at CNBC:
"Here's where you can get health care a lot cheaper than in the US"
The article gives several examples of care purchased in France versus here. For instance:
"[A] single day in a hospital in the U.S. costs, on average, $1,514 (up to as much as $12,537), while in France it costs $853."
And:
"Hip replacement surgery costs an average of $25,061 (up to $87,987) in the U.S., but just $10,927 in France."
Of course there are various travel expenses involved, but depending on the time of year, and how far ahead one booked, it seems likely that the total cost would still be a (significant?) net savings.
To be sure, this really only works for elective (non-emergency) procedures, and it's also only available to those with the resources to pay for flights and lodging, plus the fact that one's going to have to front the money (no insurance billing back to Blue Cross or Humana). And follow-up care may be an issue, as well.
But what really piqued my interest was that the author focused on why costs here in the US varied so widely from area to area, city to city, and the role insurance companies play in negotiating prices. It does acknowledge the role that tort-reform could play in reducing the cost of (for example) malpractice insurance.
But it completely missed the elephant in the room (and to be fair, that's perfectly understandable: it is about the advantages medical tourism, after all). So what goes unsaid here?
"Remember the President's assurances that his ACA would finally “bend the cost curve”?"
That is, one of the explicit promises of ObamaCare was that not only would insurance rates go down, but so would the overall cost of health care itself.
So how's that working out?
It may not seem like it now (at least here in southwest Ohio), but sub-zero weather is around the corner. And that means a lot of folks will be in danger of severe damage from their home's water pipes freezing and bursting.
The Cincinnati Insurance Company has thoughtfully provided this helpful video to share with our readers about how to prevent this from happening:
Prevent Frozen Pipes from The Cincinnati Insurance Company on Vimeo.
Thanks, CIC!
We've written about Grandmothered plans (most recently here), focusing primarily on individual major medical policies. But these rules also apply to group plans, and the clock's ticking on them, too.
Grandmothered plans are those which were issued after ObamaCare was established, but were given a "hall pass" from many of its mandated "benefits." Much like the Doc Fix that kicked Medicare's provider reimbursement cuts down the road, Transitional Relief was ObamaCare's safety valve that allowed these plans a temporary reprieve. For the past several years, group clients have been able to re-cast their renewal date to continue to take advantage of it.
In theory, this will be last time (since no one really knows what's going to happen under the next administration). But, carriers are soldiering on; I received this in email today from United Healthcare:
"For many customers, there are significant cost implications in the change from Transitional Relief to ACA compliant plans ... you may be interested in changing your renewal to Dec. 31, 2017 ... This allows you to take advantage of the extension of Transitional Relief and keep the coverage you like for the maximum period currently allowed by law"
'Course, I'm old enough that I remember this.
In the event, UHC (and, of course, other carriers) is contacting its group clients to offer them a bit of relief.
Based on recent quotes I've seen, this is definitely an offer they shouldn't refuse.
You can't make this stuff up (well, you could try, but then reality's still going to trump you):
"NHS chiefs are trying to keep plans to cut hospital services in England secret ... Managers were even told how to reject freedom of information requests"
Of course, now this particular cat's out of the bag, so it'll be interesting to see how successful MVNHS© bureauweenies will be in fighting off those FOI requests. And just what are they trying to cover up?
Well, according to leaked information, the cuts include the closure of at least one hospital in London, maternity and stroke services country-wide, and the forced merger of four hospitals in Merseyside, to name a few.
There are actually quite a few services and facilities on the chopping block, which is interesting because we've been told that nationalized health care schemes deliver better care than ours at a fraction of the cost, effectively bending the cost curve down.
How's that working out for the Much Vaunted National Health System©?
[Hat Tip: Ace of Spades]
