Friday, April 26, 2013

2014: Are you Ready for Health Care Reform?

Health Care Reform Will Still Shock America

Evidence is mounting that consumers are unprepared for changes scheduled to arrive next year.
TheStreet.com

Health Care Reform Will Still Shock America

By Brian O'Connell | TheStreet.com – 2 hours 54 minutes ago

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AFL52.880.31
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Are American consumers ready to take control of their health care decisions?
Health care reform virtually demands they do, but evidence is mounting that consumers are unprepared for the changes scheduled to hit the marketplace next year.
Aflac , the Columbus, Ga.-based insurance mainstay, has taken the pulse of the health care market and how and if U.S. adults are ready for what's coming.

What the company found should be alarming to health care companies, government officials, and above all, U.S. health care customers.
According to fresh data from the its Workforces Report, released on Thursday:
  • More than half (54%) of workers would prefer not to have greater control over their insurance options.
  • Only 23% of workers are saving money for potential increases in health care costs.
  • 53% of workers fear they may not manage their coverage adequately, leaving their families less protected than they are now.
  • 72% of the workforce hasn't even heard phrase "consumer-driven health care."
  • 75% of workers said they think their employer would educate them about changes to their health care coverage as a result of reform, yet only 13% of employers said educating employees about health care reform was important to their organization
Maybe that's why Aflac says Americans face an "uphill climb" with changes in the nation's health care system starting next year.
The firm says consumers are going to have to change the way they look at health care; the way they choose a plan; they way they prepare to pay for care (which, as it has been for decades, will continue to rise after reform, Aflac says); and the way they adhere to regulations that will change significantly.
The report, which tracked responses from 2,500 U.S. employees and 1,900 workplace managers, says that while Americans shouldn't be blamed for being unprepared for health care reform, blunders in dealing with those changes will fall on them, and them alone.

"It may be referred to as 'consumer-driven health care,' but in actuality, consumers aren't the ones driving these changes, so it's no surprise that many feel unprepared," said Audrey Boone Tillman, executive vice president of Corporate Services at Aflac. "The bottom line is if consumers aren't educated about the full scope of their options, they risk making costly mistakes without a financial back-up plan."
The study notes that 89% of health care consumers opt for the same health care plans every year, but don't understand what's in those plans. Furthermore, 76% say they are largely unaware of how so-called health care exchanges -- which are the foundation of health car reform -- work.
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Health Care Reform Will Still Shock America

I have already been shocked by Medicare since I turn 65 this year. I didn't expect many of the changes that happen when you go on Medicare since no other insurance will carry you after age 65. However, for everyone younger than I am you will have to deal with many of the things that are going to start in 2014. However, I think the best way to look at is that no one can be thrown off their insurance anymore in the U.S. But the fact that doing this also will make everyone's insurance cost more. However, if it is your family, or your parents or relatives or friends that go bankrupt and/or die because of impossible health care costs likely you wouldn't mind paying a little more not to watch them suffer and die needlessly like it has been in the past up until now.

Also: In regard to the question asked above: "Do you think the economy will ever recover?"

My answer would be that the economy can never really recover until another Glass Steagle:

Glass–Steagall Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass–Steagall_Act
The Glass–Steagall Act is a term often applied to the entire Banking Act of 1933, after its Congressional sponsors, Senator Carter Glass (D) of Virginia, and ...
Name confusion: 1932 and 1933 ... - Legislative history of the ...
is passed. The reason for this is simple. Until Banks are regulated the way they were from the 1930s until the 1980s, it is not possible for investors to have enough confidence that the banks won't once again make stupid bets with their money and get us into difficulty again. 
So, basically full recovery is not ever possible without enacting another Glass-Steagle Bill.

Also: Too big to fail banks means that if a "Too Big to Fail" bank goes down it takes the whole nation with it. So, not having a Glass Steagle in place is basically potential suicide for the nation as long as we have too big to fail banks. It's sort of like playing Russian Roulette every year now with a gun to the head of the economy and nation. So, if you imagine that every year the government shoots a blank chamber and hopes it doesn't get the bullet, this is actually how it really is. Eventually the laws of probability catch up.

  

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