Health Care Reform Bills Impact HSA’s
Is your HSA being impacted?
Congress will soon vote on health care reform legislation that could harm the more than 8 million Americans who have a health savings account (HSA) and restrict those who want to purchase HSA coverage in the future.
Starting this week, the House of Representatives will begin debate on the Affordable Health Care for America Act, and the Senate is expected to finish work on its version of health care reform shortly.
Both the House and Senate bills make major changes that would impact people with HSAs:
- Both bills mandate benefit levels for most health plans that could eliminate HSAs as an option.
- Both bills prohibit you from using any money in your HSAs to buy over-the-counter drugs such as allergy medications that you now get without a prescription.
- The Senate bill may place a tax on high-value health plans, so-called “Cadillac” plans, by taxing the cost of such coverage, including employer contributions to your HSA.
- Both bills raise the penalty for the use of HSA dollars for non-qualified medical expenses from 10% to 20% of the reimbursement.
It is important that you take the time to contact your members of Congress and let them know that you depend on your HSA for affordable coverage and the flexibility to set aside tax-free dollars to pay for your health care expenses.
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Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you.
IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance.
© IQ Financial Group, llc.
Two Steps To More Affordable Health Insurance
There’s no need to wait around on Uncle Sam-he can’t help you anyway. Only you know what’s best for you and your family.
Read entire article by Dave Ramsey.
Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you.
IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance.
© IQ Financial Group, llc.
HSA Tool For Employers And Their Employees
STREETWISE HSA is a great tool for employers and their employees to maximize the benefits of Health Savings Accounts (HSA). Click on the logo above and check out all of the tools and information available. Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you. IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance. © IQ Financial Group, llc.
Private Lab Testing At A Significant Discount
MyMedLab, is introducing the public to the future of health care through private diagnostic lab work. This new solution brings the same comprehensive lab testing, once only available to doctors, directly to the public and at a cost that is as much as 80% less than what doctors and local hospital labs charge.
In addition to lower cost and direct access, consumers receive results that are completely confidential and never become part of their permanent medical records unless they provide them. This new approach is set to fundamentally change the way that wise consumers will educate themselves and their families about their health.
David Clymer, President/CEO, explains the MyMedLab concept: "Our mission is to remove the barriers keeping consumers from learning more about their health. The first and most obvious barrier was cost. Even routine testing for conditions like Diabetes and Heart Disease can cost consumers hundreds of dollars in lab fees. This is in addition to the cost of the office visit doctors require to order testing.
MyMedLab allows consumers nationwide to order and purchase their testing as part of a group of thousands instead of a party of one. This negotiated group rate means the exact same tests costs 50%-80% less and eliminates the cost of the initial doctors office visit." Visit MyMedLab to begin saving today.
Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you.
IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance. © IQ Financial Group, llc.
Traditional PPO Plan Compared To HSA PPO Plan
The following comparison was done for a family of four who was currently covered by a traditional PPO plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona.
Blue Cross PPO plan
$2500 individual deductible
80/20% coinsurance
With this plan your family could have a maximum out of pocket of $17,000 not including any copays you incurred during the same year ($2500 deductible x 2/family members=$5000; 20% coinsurance with an individual maximum of $3000/member x 4 family members=$12000). Obviously this would be a worst case scenario if all of you maxed out the benefits in the same year.
United HealthOne/Golden Rule HSA 100 Plan
$5000 family deductible
100% coinsurance
With this plan your family could have a maximum out of pocket of $5,000 total because all of your expenses during the year count towards meeting your family deductible ($5000 family deductible=$5000; 100% coinsurance after that means your maximum out of pocket for the year cannot exceed the $5000 family deductible). With this plan the deductible can be met by one member of the family or by any combination of family members with claims totaling $5000.
As you can see from an out of pocket stand point there is no comparison between a traditional PPO plan with copays and an HSA plan. The next thing to compare would be the premium. Current plan with Blue Cross the premium is $850/month. The above HSA plan premium for your family would be $433/month saving you $417/month ($5004/year) of which you could contribute all or a part of to a health savings account to use for your out of pocket expenses.
In this example if you deposited all of the premium savings to a HSA you would have enough in the first year to cover your total out of pocket exposure on the HSA 100 plan.
In summary by making this change you would be reducing the out of pocket exposure by several thousand dollars per year ($12,000) and using the same dollars you are currently spending on premiums to not only pay premiums but also pay your out of pocket expenses for several years to come.
Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you.
IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance.
© IQ Financial Group, llc.
Kneale: Save ObamaCare – By Killing It
Published: Monday, 21 Sep 2009 | 12:41 PM ET
President Obama’s health-care revolution is dying before it hits the House floor. Now killing Obamacare is key to saving any semblance of health-care reform.
Instead of whipping this dead horse, the Obama Posse should wage a broad retreat and return with a spare, stripped-down, less-is-more plan.
Especially worrisome for the rookie in the White House, this ailing health plan has ignited a far broader and higher-stakes fight over how much government we really want, and what kind.
Do you really want the feds forcing you to buy insurance and taxing your family almost $4,000 a year if you refuse or decide you can’t afford it?
That’s what happens when health coverage–a personal responsibility of each of us–is transformed into an obligation of government, which now supposedly must provide it for all of us.
We simply can’t afford it. Rather than aim at all 300 million of us, an ObamaLite overhaul should narrow the target to two groups:
First: The 15 million or so Americans who are the Truly Uninsured: they want coverage, can’t afford it and don’t qualify for government help. So let’s give them some help.
Second: the 12 million who buy individual freelance policies rather than get coverage on the job. They need easy online access to a newly formed marketplace with interstate competition among the nation’s 1,300 private insurers.
Wait a minute–we have 46 million uninsured, based on the latest U.S. Census data. Why help only that first one-third? Because, among all the uninsured, one-third are people who could afford insurance but elect to take the risk of going bare.
Which is their right–until Bam & Co. take it away as the Baucus bill would do.
Another one-third of the uninsured already qualify for government help a la Medicare (for the aged) or Medicaid (for the poor). They just haven’t signed up because they’re too proud, lazy or clueless–or they are illegal aliens.
This scandalizes Democrats, the notion that two-thirds of the uninsured are partially at fault for their own going-bare status.
The other night, two liberal Democratic congressmen, Anthony Weiner of New York and Robert Andrews of New Jersey, accused me of passing along bogus statistics on this score.
They called the figures “hearsay” and “made-up.” But it turns out the figures come from Congress’s own non-partisan Congressional Research Service. Take a look at how Rep. Andrews responded (in the video); suffice it to say he refused to apologize.
It would be one thing if Obamacare’s universal, mandatory coverage would actually lower health costs. But it won’t. Covering more people will simply result in higher costs for more drugs, more devices, more surgeries and more visits to the doctor and the hospital.
That’s why the less-is-more plan should hold sway.
After narrowing Obamacare at the start to just the Truly Uninsured–the 15 million lower-income folks who want coverage but don’t qualify for government help-we also should make them pay some portion from their own wallets.
For them, Obamacare could cover, free of charge, catastrophic care and chronic care (for five often preventable diseases that pose over half of all costs: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and pulmonary disease).
That “doughnut” would leave recipients to cover the hole in the middle: regular doctor visits for routine ailments and maintenance.
One big cost problem we already have is a function of too much insurance.
Some 50% of all healthcare costs already are paid by government. Employer health plans cover the other biggest chunk. And only a sliver of the total cost is paid directly out of our own pockets.
If that personal portion went up, only then would we behave as tougher, smarter shoppers and worry more about keeping our own expenses down.
© 2009 CNBC.com
Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you.
IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance.
© IQ Financial Group, llc.
Arizona Department Of Economic Security (DES)
The Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) in coordination with Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) offers several programs to assist individuals and families in Arizona with their healthcare needs. Click to be directed to AZDES.
Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you.
IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance.
© IQ Financial Group, llc.
Arizona Department Of Insurance
The mission of the Arizona Department of Insurance is to faithfully execute the state insurance laws in a manner that protects insurance consumers and encourages economic development. Click to be directed to AZDOI.
Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you.
IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance.
© IQ Financial Group, llc.
Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS)
Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) is Arizona’s Medicaid agency that offers health care programs to serve Arizona residents. Individuals must meet certain income and other requirements to obtain services. Click here for more information about AHCCCS.
Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you.
IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance.
© IQ Financial Group, llc.
WebMD Better Information. Better Health
WebMD provides valuable health information, tools for managing your health, and support to those who seek information. Click here to begin accessing information.
Get quotes for individual/family health insurance in Arizona here. Contact us today at 602-510-7507 to find out how an HSA can benefit you. IQ Financial Group, llc. is a licensed insurance agency in the state of Arizona. We offer a complete selection of health insurance, term life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and supplement plans to individuals, families, self-employed and small businesses throughout Arizona. We offer the best in Arizona Health Insurance.
© IQ Financial Group, llc.