Most people won’t have a Cadillac health care plan. The threshold for Cadillac taxes to kick-in are fairly high at 180% the average individual plan total premium level or 180% average family plan coverage. Cadillac taxes don’t start until 2018, so everything right now is speculation dependent on plan design choices as well as aggregate …
Relax and keep the knees up
This advice is applicable to both Victorian brides on their wedding night and pedestrians who are about to be hit by a car. It is also applicable to companies that are worried that they will need to start paying the Cadillac tax in 2018 on high cost health plans. United Health Care has a nice …
Mining the Mountaintops
One of the interesting questions that will fuel more than a single dissertation is the impact of local political factors on PPACA acceptance and utilization. The obvious answer is that states where there is uniform elite political support for PPACA will see higher public acceptance compared to states with uniform elite PPACA opposition. We’re seeing …
Michigan Medicaid Madness?
Last fall, Michigan approved Medicaid expansion with a few minor local modifications that the federal government approved. The vote passed the Michigan Senate with a coalition of all Democrats and a minority of Republicans. Under Michigan law, a law can only go into immediate effect if there is a supermajority. The Medicaid expansion passed with …
2015 Exchange changes
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released their final rules for next year’s open enrollment last week. There are a couple of big rules that will have significant impact. Default Enrollment Options A QHP that was certified in 2014 and that is recertified in 2015 can maintain the same plan and HIOS identification …
Don’t be a fool and put your heart in a travelin’ man
Kay (not the front pager) asked a good question about out of area/out of network benefits: What happens if you have an HMO or EPO and are injured/become ill while traveling? I have gone with the more expensive PPO for my employee coverage because my son lives in another state and we visit fairly often. …
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Oh My God — insurance works to reduce financial stress
Stop the printing presses, the obvious has been confirmed. Getting more people with decent health insurance has tended to reduce financial stress. This is amazingly obvious but important news: Academy Health: Examining Massachusetts and using different methods and data, a new working paper by Bhash Mazumder and Sarah Miller (ungated) comes to a different conclusion than Himmelstein …
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