Stay Tuned...

With apologies for being absent...I am currently reading the newly passed healthcare reform bill. Yes, I said reading...I am on page 322 of 1990 pages. As the bill is filled with double talk and ambiguity, I should finish in about a week...or have an aneurism. However, I do feel it is important to obtain a first hand account of the bill to formulate my own opinion rather than spout off the regurgitated opinions of the media.

If you care to form your own educated opinion, here is the link to the actual bill: http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf . Happy reading and beware of aneurisms (listed as a rare but serious side effect of reading government material).

As a preview, I can tell you there are a couple of positives in the way of gaining control of healthcare providers. However, I believe the penalties imposed on the individual as well as businesses will prove negative*.

Small businesses will take a significant financial hit and will have no choice but to pass the costs to the employee somehow, either in reduction of other benefits or reduction in salaries. Additionally, we the people are being chunked into yet another government run program that will cost us more money (it will... just wait). The government was a bit sneaky this time, they did not raise taxes but they stuffed some unpleasant surprises in this bill that affect the tax breaks we have now (FSA program Sec. 9005*).

Here is a very brief summary (my eye is twitching from the reading) of what stands out in the first 322 pages. Individuals will have to pay a 2.5% (of salary) penalty for not having "qualified" healthcare. I am at crossroads about this penalty. I absolutely hate to be forced into anything, however; I understand that someone has to cover for the folks who do not have insurance. Those folks are still being seen by hospitals. I do not think we needed a new bill for this, we have Social Security that we are forced to pay. Overhaul the Social Security program; make it solvent again and segment of a piece to cover the uninsured.

I have yet to see anything that will specifically lower healthcare costs. In fact, some of the restrictions they are imposing on healthcare providers will force the providers to increase costs. In fact, they have put some restrictions on the healthcare provider that will make it fiscally impossible for costs to decrease. For example, providers cannot rescind coverage without proving fraud. Therefore, if a group plan has catastrophic claims that have forced the provider to pay out more in benefits than they have collected in premiums, they will still have to insure the group. This is a good thing for people on a group plan and anyone who is suffering from a debilitating disease with current insurance. In fact, as a benefit administrator facing a potential denial of insurance in 2011 I think it us great. However, from a financial perspective, if the carrier is forced to continue to pay out high benefits without gaining from the premiums, they will have to recoup the costs somewhere. I am not saying the restriction should be lifted but the outreach of the tentacles should be further analyzed. The carriers will get their money…the question is how.

Anyhow, my pre-opinion is that this bill seems to be a waste of energy and time. We have Medicare and Social Security that should have been modified to fit most of the issues covered in the bill. I am sad to think that we are again forced to pay even more of our hard-earned money for yet another program that will surely be botched in ten years time.

If I can avoid the brain exploding aneurism, I should have more details in about a week (to cover the "*"'s).

Stay tuned and healthy (for the love of Pete...please stay healthy)…