Friday, October 29, 2010

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

Thursday, October 14, 2010

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.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

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