November 2010
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The elections are over and supporters of the Republican surge are hoping for major changes in Washington. Will that include alterations to federal health care reform? Probably not, according to Karen Timberlake, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
In a guest column for the Tillmar Connection, she points to similar debates that revolved around implementation of Social Security and Medicare.
"The vast majority of legal scholars predict that the various pending legal challenges will ultimately prove to be unsuccessful, and most agree that even a newly reconfigured Congress will not succeed in repealing the Affordable Care Act," she writes.
Read Her Column Here
Four Wisconsin insurance associations want to see market options, transparency and more clarity regarding state health insurance exchanges that will be a key feature of national health care reform. They are urging their members and constituencies contact state legislators and urge them to support their positions.
A letter they drafted for the cause asks legislators to make sure a Wisconsin health exchange system:
provides consumers with real choices
maximizes competition between health insurance carriers
controls costs to consumers
uses agents and brokers to assist employers interested in using an exchange
does not increase the size of state government
I was honored to be part of the independent committee that developed the principles. The associations that came together for this endeavor are the Independent Insurance Agents of Wisconsin, the Professional Insurance Agents, the Wisconsin Association of Health Underwriters, and Agents for Change.
You can read the key parts of the letter here. Let’s hope state lawmakers take the letter to heart.
Federal health care reform as spelled out in the Affordable Care Act requires that a host of preventive services be part of policies that began after Sept. 23. The items must be covered without the policyholder having to make a co-payment or co-insurance or meet the deductible, when services are delivered by a network provider.
Take a look at the list to see what preventive services are covered.
Popular perceptions that it will be less expensive for employers to drop health care coverage and pay a subsequent fine under the Affordable Care Act may be wrong.
An Oct. 25 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article noted that employers who drop coverage will lose that tax deduction and could face other new costs. Those could include higher wages as compensation for the benefit loss, higher employer taxes, and higher Social Security and Medicare payroll charges, the Journal Sentinel reported. That would be on top of the $2,000 per employee fine the company would face.
Commentators have suggested that employers would drop health care plans and pay the fine, with the employee option presumably being a government health care plan.
This is a complicated piece of legislation, and the election results could lead to changes that will lead to further confusion.
The process of creating health insurance exchanges in response to the Affordable Care Act is well under way in Wisconsin. Exchanges will be a key component of national health care reform. Can they be set up to assuage some of the negative aspects of the Affordable Care Act? That's what two Resident Fellows of the American Enterprise Institute suggest in a recent Wall Street Journal commentary entitled "How to Reform ObamaCare Starting Now; States should steer the mandated health-insurance exchanges in a pro-market direction and dare Washington to stop them." We like their approach. Read it here.
Don’t be surprised if you see some downsizing going on at Wisconsin Athletic Club! The number of clubs may be growing, but participants in their new weight loss program are looking forward to ringing in the New Year in a small way … with slimmer waistlines and smaller clothes sizes. WAC’s BodyBudget program uses a plan developed by Registered Dietitian, Kim Flannery, nutrition director for eight years. Appropriately named, the plan is based on a budget concept and emphasizes personal choice and lifestyle changes for manageable and sustainable weight loss.
We're engaged in the program and are happy with the results to date. Read more about the BodyBudget program.
Don’t be surprised if you see some downsizing going on at Wisconsin Athletic Club! The number of clubs may be growing, but participants in their new weight loss program are looking forward to ringing in the New Year in a small way … with slimmer waistlines and smaller clothes sizes. WAC’s BodyBudget program uses a plan developed by Registered Dietitian, Kim Flannery, nutrition director for eight years.
Appropriately named, the plan is based on a budget concept and emphasizes personal choice and lifestyle changes for manageable and sustainable weight loss.
We're engaged in the program and are happy with the results to date.
Click here to read more.
Read our Fall 2010 issue of Tillmar Connection
Read our Summer 2010 issue of Tillmar Connection