So I have no words but to say watch this. It is truth about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that we had to “wait till it comes out to see what is in it.” And this is one part that we were told would not happen, well guess what….. Watch the video at the end of the article and see for yourself the truths about Obamacare and it’s greatness.
1) Cover Preexisting Conditions
2) Everyone Covered and Protected
Think it is really happening? Here is your answer about the new law.
I wanted to send out a few videos and share a little of my feelings on what the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is doing or will do for our great country. I want to make a statement that I do not see insurance prices dropping as it was once promised to us. I do not mathematically see it working out in any way what so ever. I just know that working in the health care market, I work to give you as much stability as possible in this unstable market. Plus, you can call me, on my personal cell phone, sit across a table from me and talk to me; that wont happen working through the Health Care Reform Exchanges. If you do talk with someone face to face (a Navigator as they are called), it will be a one and done, never to see them again where as I am still here, just a phone call away.
This first video touches a bit on the reason why we as a country were at one time excited to have the ACA and now are scared to death of what might be. “Lower premiums by $2500 per family” was an original selling point from Obama. Were we lied to?
You saw a bit about the promises not being carried through in the last video and this one touches more one who is going to be hit the hardest. Sad to see this turning out this way. Thank you Sen. John Barrasso for doing the research and allowing this video. Great info on the impact we have had and will have.
Now to have a quick look into what we are really looking at for our future in the health care system. Who really is the primary concern here, the American people? I think not! “What Government-Run Health Care Really Means” is put up on the video and think she explains it well. Some of her words make me scared of what Health Care will be like, very eye opening!!!!
Here is a short list of a few companies that have already dropped or are going to be dropping health care for employees or cutting hours so they don’t have to provide healthcare. Trader Joe’s is the most recent to make the public announcement, other are Subway, UPS, Forever 21, Sea World, Walmart, Regal Entertainment, IBM (cutting insurance for retired) and many more as the list goes on and will continue to grow. Here is a good article talking in depth about this particular issue.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2013/09/11/with-eye-on-obamacare-companies-move-to-cut-workers-hours/
I hope you have got something out of these videos and the article I have posted here. I know one place that is taking a stand to work hard and fight to keep great health care for a great price. Click the US Health Advisors (Awards just received: Stevie Award, Most Innovative) link on the left and let’s talk about your options.
I know it has been a few days since my last post but I thought I better get some info out there to you all. So here are some recent videos relating to the Health Care Reform. Lots of crazy new rules and regulations that have been released, and the worst part, these rules and regulations will keep coming, they are not already planned. Obama writes the rules as we go, not sure that is a good setup to stick with. Here you go, enjoy.
Hours being cut:
1) “Businesses, Unions, Colleges all say employee hours being cut over Obamacare” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwx70wSS4dc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
2) “Obamacare Fallout For ‘Forever 21”
3)”Uh Oh ! Small Businesses Can’t Avoid Obamacare by Switching to Part Time Workers!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69HNInFbwFk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Old school part time of up to 30 hours is now the new full time, 29ers becomes more popular.
Deadlines are often important for our jobs, guess that’s not the case with Health Care Reform.
4) “Obamacare Delay Disaster – Admin Misses Half Of Health Care Deadlines”
OBAMACARE FRAUD- BE AWARE!!!! This is important information for months to come.
5) “Obamacare Confusion Leading To Fraud” Good info to know to protect you!!
Obamacare and it’s impact on us. The end tells a lot of how it will impact us.
6) “Obamacare’s Impact on Seniors”
I pulled all these videos from YouTube as I felt this was the easiest way to share the information. Please take note of all the videos here and know that I take no credit for any of these videos but give it to those who put them up or originally produced them.
Want answers, I have some to help. My contact info is on this page.
Kids build mud fort.
What kid or even some adults don’t like to build something? It gives us all the chance to open out minds and explore options, put things together in strange ways. We are so proud of these creations and brag about them to everyone. I know I was always looking to share my new creations with my brother, even if it was just a simple pile of mud that I called a fort. No matter what though, it was our choice, our openions and options that designed it. We had say in it and that is the true binding factor behind it, we OWNED our creation!
I look at the healthcare policies I work with and there are something like 250 different ways you can customize them to meet your needs and fit your budget. Now that sounds pretty awesome to me, 250 ways I can sit with and agent and create my own policy for exactly what I need and it will fit my budget, SIGN ME UP!!
Now I take a look at what the Healthcare Reform will be bringing out with each State Exchange on October 1, 2014. There are going to be 3 choices for you to choose from, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Oh wait, there will be one more that is just catastrophic coverage, that is if you are under the age of 30. I might be making a mistake here though as there might only be 3 options to choose from but there will be multiple insurance companies that offer these 3 options. Oh yeah, almost forgot. It will all be run by one group, government (side note, less government= more freedom, more government= less freedom).
So I guess you have your choice of light brown mud, dark brown mud, soup like mud (that is not really mud just like some of these policies will privede so little it really isn’t worth having but instead save your money and pay for your hospital bill yourself), rock filled mud, stick filled mud, maybe you even live where you can get mud with a color other then brown (that is if you are under 30). And yes, I forgot, my big brother, the one I was so excited to show my mud fort to, yes him. He is the one determinining what my for it made of and how big it can be.
I somehow feel empty after writing this blog and as I sit here and think about it, I think it is because I just lost or gave the rights away to my own pride. Let someone else choose for you or choose for yourself, you decide.
Build your own Insurance fort that you can be Proud of: http://ushagent.com/TyrellClark
I know as a kid just getting your drivers license you can’t wait to get out on the road, roll down the windows and crank up the radio. You feel an extra level of awesome if you are in a nice sports car with a fresh wax and shinny rims. This is what a lot of teens dream about for years till they finally do get their first car but then slowly realize it is not as fast as they thought it would be, not as shinny as it should be and the wheels look a lot like racing slicks. Now reality has set in but still the excitement is there, “I have my car and I am free!”
Maybe for some teens just starting to drive their parents cover their gas or some of it at least, maybe they pay for the auto insurance, or at least some of it. But then you get into college, maybe graduate and at some point you are on your own to take care of these things. Gas, insurance, maintenance, keeping it clean, it is all you now so what do you do with this nice sports car you got and now have to pay for? Ummmm, sell it and get something cheap that you can pay off quick, something with low maintenance and maybe one that doesn’t impress the chicks, but hey, it’s a car right? At least you can afford this one and might actually have some money to eat and pay for rent as well.
This is all your choice now though as to what you drive and how you take care of it. Heck, you are not even forced to have a car, but if you do have a car you do have to have insurance. To this point, you might have got some of your car things for free but it was only free to you, someone was paying for it. Healthcare is the same way, if we are forced to get coverage, we are being forced to drive the sports car when we were only looking to drive the $250 car that would get us by if drive one at all. Well the government is going to help pay for some of your insurance based on what you make annually so that makes it okay right? Well no as this isn’t free either as someone has to pay in so subsidies can be paid out.
We all like to have nice things at a good price but I would like you to really think what really is the price for “healthcare for everyone.”
Prices may not seem so bad on the Exchange, but what kind of coverage do you get for the cost? That is the important question to answer. I know I just wrote a policy for a for a young man, age 25, no health issues, non smoker and the policy includes Sickness coverage, Accident coverage, Wellness coverage (doctor visits), Life Protector, Critical Illness Protector, Disability, Accident Protector, Dental/Vision, plus a few other perks like extra benefit for hospital confinement, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D), Call MD (also know as Web MD) and a few more. That total came to $255.88.
There is a lot of value for that dollar amount. Now compare State Run Exchange Policies (example picture below) and you tell me which car you want to drive.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/07/obamacare-premiums-not-so-high-after-all/index.htm
The Healthcare Reform is set to allow coverage for all, young and old, sick or well, rich or poor. That is a great picture to paint and one we all would love to look at. But how does the Health Care Reform provide so much for so many and do it with no problems? Well, the idea is that the young will jump at the opportunity to get health insurance and pay for something a lot of younger adults don’t feel they need. Is it right to make this group of young adults get health insurance no matter what and not leave them any choice but to purchase it? We as Americans have freedoms and it seem that freedom of choice is now at stake.
For any level of plan that will be offered on the Healthcare Exchange (there are 3 levels, bronze, silver and gold), no matter your age, you will pay the same price as everyone else. For the young, this means prices will be higher and for the older, the prices will be lower and still the care given will be the same.
Here are some facts you are welcome to look up on your own but be ready as these truths are what society is really facing today. Going to college and getting an education to better your chances of getting a better paying job is what we have all been taught. The saying used to be if you had a college degree you would make a million dollars more in your lifetime then a person without a college degree. Now statistics are proving that to be false. In fact, most college graduates are stepping out of college with $30,000 of debt if not more. Less companies are bringing young people on full time as they know their company expenses are going to be going up in healthcare and with many more factors involved in this, it means college graduates are more financially strapped then ever before in American history. Why do you think the number of college graduates that are moving back in with their parents is going up, well, less income and fewer jobs to support a lifestyle on their own.
Young adults will have a choice to make in months to come. Pay for health insurance through the Exchange, pay for health insurance with a private insurance company or pay a tax for not having insurance. A lot will choose the $95 (or 1% of their annual income, whichever is greater) tax of not having health insurance as it is less then what the insurance will cost. But wait, there is a tax built into the Healthcare Exchange policies anyways and that tax is 3.5%. I think you can do the math here, a tax no matter where you go? One is higher then the other? Wait, wasn’t the Health Care Reform supposed to help America young and old? I feel we have not painted that perfect picture that we looked at in the first paragraph. Let me know what your mathematical calculations give your for an answer as to how the young will fair with the Healthcare Reform.
https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/affordable-care-act/news/top-5-obamacare-questions-2
I can’t even begin to tell you how impressed I was to see this video. Usually you have to read for hours, watch 20 videos just to be able to draw to these conclusions. I simply got on YouTube, typed in the words “News on Obamacare” and this video came up. They touch one so many great things and feel they really lay it out on the table with one quick punch after another. And it only takes 3:26 for TKO!!!
So many of these topics are talked about on a daily basis but this group starts to look at the cause and affect, the beginning and the end, the before and after and paints a great real life picture. Well worth 3:26 of your time to watch.
Topics Covered: -Transfer of Wealth for Young and Old. -Delay Employer but not the Individual Mandate. -Original Obama Statements and Current Truths. -Workers Being Moved to Part Time- “29ers.” -Hospital and Doctor Visit Wait Times (blog to come later on this topic). Below is a great example of “wait time” from a country that has the type of healthcare we are going towards. I personally have numerous examples of these kinds of wait times at a local county hospital in my area. ***Please note in the picture wait time is “in weeks” not days.***
“People subsidizing costs for other people and everyone’s going to be sharing less of what will be in the system and in the market place to being with….” Great statement he makes. -“He said he would not require people to have a mandate because you can’t ask people to pay for something they can’t afford.”
Hold Obamacare accountable, get healthcare protection yourself, don’t wait for the government to give it to you. Nothing is for Free.
A big question has been going around for months now, will the Affordable Care Act be ready to launch on October 1st and be ready for activation on January 1, 2014. After lots of reading, watching news and following what new laws are coming out on a regular basis (this stack of laws is over 7 feet tall, see picture), I don’t think America is putting money 
on the idea it would be ready. On July 3rd, President Obama delayed the Employer Mandate and today the House voted to delay the Individual Mandate for all Americans.
It was a big sign from President Obama himself when he, on his own accord, delayed the Employer Mandate. Was it within his authority to do so? Was it breaking the law? Those questions may never be answered but it sure was a wake up sing that even President Obama did not have faith that his own Affordable Care Act would be ready to go. We were told that prices would go down in health insurance and that people could keep or stay on plans they already have, is that still true? After Obama delayed the Employer Mandate it was a for sure that more changes were to come.
Today as the house voted to delay the Individual Mandate, many House members did not stay on the same side of the vote that they had voted on in previous months. “Testifying before the House Oversight committee, Alan Duncan of the Treasury’s Inspector General office said the rush to be ready for open enrollment Oct. 1 may leave some technology not fully tested. “The lack of adequate testing could result in significant delays and errors in accepting and processing … applications for health insurance coverage,” Duncan testified. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/17/house-obamacare-delay_n_3613331.html
It is clear as can be, this was not going to work for America, I just hope it will get fixed or will be permanently removed from our laws. I do know this, no matter what government run health insurance does, I know one place still working go cover Americans with truly Affordable and Customizable Healthcare. Want to know about this option? I am happy to talk with you.
On July 3, 2013 Obama pushed the Employer Mandate launch date from January 1, 2014 to January 1, 2015. What does this mean for large businesses (businesses with 50 or more employees)? This means that large companies would not have to provide health care coverage to employees until January 1, 2015 (let me make this known here, by pushing the Employer Mandate, they took out approximately 21% of the full Healthcare Reform budget). How great is that for the large business you might say, it is a good break for them and gives the government time to make sure the Healthcare Reform is ready to go for the large business. Well some of that is right, the government will have more time to get things in a working order but my question for you is what happens to the employee now?
We are quickly becoming a nation where part time employment is more common then full time employment (please refer to my earlier post about “29ers” to see more detail on this). At the same time large businesses are not required to offer benefits, the individual employee is required to have healthcare coverage. This means that someone is still getting to get the short end of the straw.
I know some of you grew up with siblings and possibly some of you are older or the oldest. How many times did your younger sibling want to go out one night and your parents let them. That same night you wanted to go do something with your friends and your parents told you that you had to stay in for some reason or another. You never got it and probably still don’t understand why. You were forced to stay in and yet your younger, less responsible, out of control sibling could go out like they owned the town, makes no since. Well in both cases, sibling going out and healthcare reform, someone is getting the short end of the straw, if there was even a straw left to pull a short end.
In this case, there is no straw left for the individual to pull. They are stuck in the Healthcare reform system and for one year, must pay a tax for not having health care coverage or pay for high premium rates in Obamacare. Things may change tough on July 17, 2013 as congress is set to vote one more time (as if they haven’t voted enough) to delay the Individual Mandate. This will be a big day and a very critical vote. I will write about this when I know the outcome.
My question to leave you with for now is if the government can’t set up the Healthcare Reform right the first time for businesses or individuals to run smooth, then why set it up at all? “If you can’t do it right the first time then when will you have time to do it right the second time?” Unknown. Why we are pushing such big parts of the Healthcare Reform?
YouTube video talking about the vote to push Individual Mandate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5hjs-B06sA
I wanted to give a little personal story for this post as a reason for “why insurance.” I know insurance is a peace of mind for people in-case something does happen. For a lot of us, we are health, maybe younger and no real need for insurance. I totally agree, you have to put money out each month towards something that you can’t say is for sure going to happen. If it does happen though, your money can be greatly returned to you. It is all a gamble, but more and more, older age is becoming less and less of a factor in this gamble.
2 stories I have for you before I give a short story for myself. I have a friend that was age 26, and in 2009, she was diagnosed with cancer. Really to young to be getting cancer but it was a hard fight, lots of hospital visits and a very expensive year. In late 2010, she passed leaving a husband and 2 young boys. They did not see this coming but since they did have insurance, bills were way less then what they could have been. I know this brief story does not do the real story justice but it’s a true story about and I hoping you see you have not seen this in your life.
In late 2011 I was told that a student at a local high school, age 16, had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He fought the hard fight and did very well but in the end the cancer took this young man from us and once again, insurance was a great support to have. This is not the only story I have heard like this but with both of these stories, I knew them personally and lived some of their story with them. It was very hard to see young and healthy people fall ill and families be left with so much to deal with for months to come.
As for my personal story, when I was 6 years old my parents were having some financial problems and they decided to drop health insurance as we were a young and healthy family. Just a few months later after the policy was dropped I was diagnosed with Diabetes so the search started to get coverage for a preexisting condition. I have been in that search for 25 years now and I will say, it is never at a good cost. I am a healthy person, never been in the hospital, and have little family health issues so I should be good to get great rates in insurance, but I can’t with a preexisting. If I don’t have coverage, my medications will cost me somewhere in the ballpark of $1000 a month, so insurance really helps to cut that cost of medications and also gives me protection for the gamble of in-case something happens.
So do I think insurance is priced really high and is not needed a lot of the times and for some people? Yes, I do think that but I also know that when and if something happens you will be very thankful you have invested money into health insurance coverage.
Some stats for you:
Insurance may not be the biggest concern in your life but if you consider what might be, it is better to protect yourself then gamble with unfair numbers. It is your short term thinking in exchange for long term results. I wish my parents would have decided that 25 years ago to keep health insurance but they didn’t and still to this day I put time in to find good and affordable health insurance for myself. But I found it finally and happy I did. Talk with you soon about your coverage.
Clark Benefits 