Know the facts when you vote Tuesday

Tomorrow's Election, might be the biggest of my lifetime, surely, for a non-presidential election. As you all know, we have a health care crisis in this country. We have for many years.

First let me say we have the best health care system in the World. In America, we have the shortest waits to see a doctor, also the best survival rate of cancer and heart disease ( Source: Dr. Jeffery English, MD,basil and spice). Dr. English states WHO (World Health Organization), or actually many of the countries ranked by WHO, do not count infants of low birth weight,nor do they try to keep premature babies a live like we do here. If you backed out those numbers our average live would be increased, and our statistics would look better.

Now I have been saying for months that our health care bill that was passed, and I am sure not read by most members of congress, was a bad bill for our country. I have read it and have been helping clients get the best plan for their needs for a decade. You can beleive me, Dr. English, or a politician who has not served a patient or read the bill.

The bill will ration your health care. It will make it more difficult to get treatment, and you will wait longer to see a doctor. That is just a few of the issues with the bill. I have voted for candidates on both sides, and I voted for an independent in Ross Perot, so I try to be open minded.

Now I do not blame the Democrats, Republicans, or anyone in Congress, for the current state that the health care system is in this country. I do blame the Democrats solely for passing OBAMACARE. We need to Repeal this bill and start over. I do not know if the Republicans can do better than the Democrats, but I am willing to try. I think the R in Republicans might also stand for RESTART, or REPEAL.

Remember to Vote on Tuesday. It might be a matter of life or death.

Thanks for reading.

Are these services Free?

I am always concerned when I hear something is free. I have always been taught there is no such thing as a free lunch, or phrases like nothing gets you nothing everything has a little price.

In the healthcare reform bill, some of the entitlements kicked in on September 23rd of this year. The biggest one in my opinion is in the preventative care section of the bill. This is where I hate the word free. I keep hearing... Mammograms are free, PSA tests are free, some immunizations are free.

Free at what cost??

When you add benefits, you have to add premium. I have seen premiums increase between 5% and about 15% since October 1 of this year. Now I am not sure the real difference if I have to pay more for the service and have no deductible or co-pay, or if I can pay less and have a co-pay or a deductible.

My personal belief with health insurance, car insurance, home owners insurance, whichever, is that INSURANCE should be for things you cannot pay for on your own. I have home owners insurance incase, I have a fire and I would have to re-build it. Auto Liability incase I heaven forbid rear end someone. I do not need coverage for something that costs $100. I can pay that. I do not think in the history of this country anyone has gone bankrupt for $100 or even $1000.

You need insurance to protect yourself and your assets against the CATESTROPHIC LOSS. Now we have to pay in the form of a higher premium for something I could pay for out of my pocket.

Something to think about, how many FREE SERVICES, do you want to pay for?

Another thing as that children can now stay on their parents policy until they are 26 years old. Not sure how I feel about this one. I think if the child ( and when you are 26 are you still considered a child?) is getting an advanced degree, that is a fabulous idea. If the child has a medical condition still fabulous, but everyone else, not so sure. Heck, I did not want to burden my parents at all at that age. Some States that is age 28 or 30. We all want the best for our children, but again we need some common sense here, if the child can get insurance on his own, he should regardless of who pays for it.

These are my thoughts of the week.

Eric Wilson is President of I Sell Health, Inc. A Chicago based Insurance Agency. He represents most carriers in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and has just added New Hampshire. He can be reached toll free at 888-448-5370. You can visit online at www.isellhealth.net. You can email at isellhealth@gmail.com

Here's a good one!!!

I am watching a YOUTUBE video today with the first lady, Michelle Obama and she is talking about the new preventative care benefits that we are entitled to under the health care reform law. That was educational for most people. Then she says, go to www.healthcare.gov to compare pricing and see what health plans are available for you. I think the term she used was it is the first website that you can compare plans on. It looked remarkably the same as my website, www.isellhealth.net. You can compare plans and get the exact same pricing, I have had my site for at least five years, maybe more. So I am curious what was so good about it. The one difference is mine only has premiums for the States I am licensed to sell in (Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and New Hampshire).

Also, what I find interesting about the new law is all of the preventative services that are FREE, well we will say free as there is no deductible or no co-pay, but there is an added premium.

I was listening to John Goodman, the president of the National Center for Policy analysis this morning, he had found a study from DUKE UNIVERSITY from I think he said 2003, in which all of the preventative services that are required now, as recommended by the United States Preventative Care Task Force, assuming every American took advantage of these services, Every doctor would take 1773 hours of their year to treat these patient. If I understood these numbers correctly, and I might have missed something, but I do not think I did, That takes each doctor 8 hours a day 221 days a year to treat nothing, but preventative services. I think the average person works 220 days per year. Our doctors will now have to work more to service more. One out of Five Americans, are already living in an area that is under served by doctors.

How will this affect us in the years to come. I guess we will not know,but I have a feeling your wait in the doctors office will increase.

I hope I have my math wrong!!!!!!

Thanks for reading.

Eric Wilson is an insurance broker in the Chicago area. He can be reached at 888-448-5370.

AND IT'S ONLY BEEN SIX MONTHS...

So here we are six months after the passage of what will be called "OBAMACARE". We are seeing the first affects of this historic bill.

Now all plans written after September 23rd of the this year, come with Preventative Services without a co-pay. All lifetime limits have been removed, and children cannot be denied coverage.

So here is the "aftershock" of the plan. These benefits mentioned above seem to have added between 6% and 9% to the premium as far as I can tell. Insurance companies are no longer going to write CHILDREN ONLY POLICIES, at least many of them have stopped. Group insurance could be going away. 3M Corporation announced it would eliminate it's private insurance plans for retirees. McDonald's, you know the hamburger chain has been in the papers almost everyday this week, considering dropping 30,000 employees on their franchise plans. I would guess that Burger King would follow them as that seems to happen a lot.

Insurance carriers are going away too!! Principal Financial is leaving 31 states, after sixty years of service.

I have also seen some other carriers do some unique things. In New Hampshire, the state told Celtic that they could not be in the state and drop Child only policies, they said great we will leave the State. I saw Celtic pull out of Maryland as well, though I do not know if that is the reason.

YOUR INSURANCE MIGHT BE AT RISK. Just a warning, please be prepared.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Wilson is the president of I Sell Health, Inc. a midwest insurance agency. The write business in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and have just added New Hampshire to their portfolio. He can be reached toll free at 888-448-5370 or online at www.isellhealth.net. The email address is isellhealth@gmail.com

I Hate to Say I was RIGHT!

I spent a week in March, before the Health Care Reform Bill was voted on, calling Congressmen and Senators across the country telling them to vote NO on the bill. They would ask why, and I would site the page that I was opposed to stating that will increase my premium by roughly $200 per month. They all disagreed, or did not respond. I am guessing that they had not read the bill which I had read. I specifically remember Senator Burris of Illinois' office stating, Oh you have not interpreted the bill correctly, it will reduce costs. If you go back and read the blog of mine written to Senator Durbin of Illinois, when he responed to my letter to him, you will see where I challanged everything he said.

Well here we go. On October, 1 2010, we are seeing rate increases, larger than normal, to pay for the new federal mandates. Most insurers, that I have researched have stated they need 9% just to pay for the mandates. Most carriers go up about 4% per quarter, so I would expect 13% next month.

Karen Ignagni,President of America's Health Plans,the insurance industries lobbying group states, "Anytime you add a benefit, there are increased costs." That makes sense, kind of like when you add pepperoni to your pizza. I have been saying for years the industry and companies should make Health Insurance more like car insurance, meaning if you get your oil changed your insurance does not pay for it. Our new health law requires a ZERO DOLLAR CO-PAY for prevenative services, would that be like an "oil change" for your body.

So on ward and up ward we go. A new law that INCREASES cost of health insurance, and I think you will see companies dropping group health insurance so it might even INCREASE the number of uninsured Americans.

To anyone who runs for office, please try to take politics out of the discussion and do some research.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Wilson can be reached toll free at 888-448-5370 or online at www.isellhealth.net.

ERIC

Is this the end of my Profession??

Merrill Mathews, wrote an article this week for Forbes magazine entitiled " Health Insurance Agents RIP" Yes RIP still stands for Rest In Peace. It is what I have been saying since "Hillary Care" was discussed in the 90's.

Mr. Mathews does a great job of stating that the first Casualty of Obama Care are the Health Insurance agents. I think he is correct. However, who will help Tina Sawa??

On Tuesday August 24th, I met with a referred client of mine named Tina Sawa, in Palos Park, Illinois. Let me tell you, her health affairs were a mess. I spent THREE HOURS with her on that day. I could have spent more, but it was my kids first day of school, so I wanted to get home to greet them at the bus stop.

I the three hours I learned about her families medical conditions, how much she is currently paying for her insurance, how much she spends a month on medical care on top of her premium. I realized that she really needed me.

I set my second appointment for yesterday August 31. I spent another two hours with her. Now, I, like probably every other insurance agent in America, do not charge for my time. I was her FREE CONSULTANT, for FIVE HOURS, plus about 40 minutes of drive time each way ( twice). Ok so I have let say six and a half hours of drive time with this client.

Mr. Mathews writes in his article "Health Insurance agents help individuals and employers work through the maze of available health insurance policies to find one that meets their clients needs."

He continues to write the Democrats 17 years ago and still today saw the demise of the health insurance agent as an acceptable, even a desirable loss.

If this is what the Democrats want, and I do not disagree with what Mr. Mathews is saying, who helps Tina Sawa?

For what it is worth I advised Mrs. Sawa, to have her husband stay on the plan and have her and the children come with me. What is crazier, is that now under the health care reform bill, insurance carriers have advised us that they do not know what they are going to pay us going forward, so I spent 5 hours with this client and I have no idea what I am going to make on this. Would you go to work ( or would our Congress go to work) not knowing what you were going to get paid.

Well I did and I would do it again to help a customer. So, I hope for the Tina Sawa's of the world, there are people like knowledgable Health Insurance Agents to assist her.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Wilson is President of I Sell Health Inc. Located in the Chicago Area, he services clients through out the midwest. You can visit him online at www.isellhealth.net. You can reach him toll free at 888-448-5370

IS THIS THE END OF GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE

Caterpillar of Peoria, Illinois has said the new health care reform bill will cost them over $100 million per year, once it is implemented. General Motors, back in 2005, said that the cost to insure their employees added $1500 to every vehicle. In 2005, they spend $5.2 Million on health insurance.

With the new law that goes into effect corporations will be required to pay 85% of their employees health insurance costs, and 75% of their families health insurance costs, or be fined.

Caterpillar, has floated the idea of dropping health insurance and pay the fine, it would save them millions of dollars. The other option, and this is my thought and not the opinion of caterpillar, is to reduce your work force and build your equipment in some other country. Yes, we could support another countries economy in the process.

I purchased Paul Zane Pilzer's book back in I think 2005 "The New Health Insurance solution", on the first page he reccomended that everyone purchase and individual policy rather than a group policy. The reason was it is SAFER, you do not loose your insurance if you loose your job. He goes on to say that loosing job related insurance is how ONE MILLION AMERICANS every year end up in Medical Bankruptcy.

This was in 2005, now is the BEST TIME to purchase your individual health insurance plan. Until 2014, you still need to medically qualify, but do it now. You will see companies dropping thier group health insurance in 2014. It makes economic sense to do so. Also, when companies started to provide health insurance, it was a hiring benfit, to make their company more attractive to a perspective employee. Now with the costs of health insurance, the new rate structure that is in place, and the economy, many companies, will not be able to afford to pay for insurance.

GET IT WHILE YOU CAN!! You will probably never be healthier than you are today.

thanks for reading.

Eric Wilson is the President of I SELL HEALTH, INC. He is also a licensed insurance producer in Chicago, serving Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana. His website is www.isellhealth.net. He can be reached toll free at 888-448-5370.