My Comments: I started my career in financial services 40 years ago selling health insurance policies. I’ve long since lost track of the number of individuals, families and businesses I’ve worked with to give them proper coverage. My alarming memory over the years, until recently, was the dramatic rise in premiums from year to year. …
Category: HealthCare
An Affordable Care Act Idea
My Comments: Based on my background in economics, finance and a professional interest in health insurance, on balance I have strong, positive feelings about the Affordable Care Act. Here is one reason why. Our culture has evolved to where instant gratification is in high demand, to where there is an assumption that any solution more …
PPACA and Premium Increases
My Comments: 40 years ago I cut my teeth as a financial advisor, selling health insurance policies to local families. Many of them were employed at the University of Florida and all paid exactly the same premiums. Older folks were effectively subsidized by younger folks, which meant that if what I sold was age sensitive, …
Health Care Spending to Increase Moderately
My Comments: There was little talk among the 17 candidates yesterday about trying once again to repeal Obamacare. Why is that? Once again, projected health care cost outcomes are moving in the right direction, downward. Yes, overall spending will increase, but by far less than happened before the PPACA. Just suppose, if over the past …
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PPACA Premiums to Rise 4% in California
My Comments: During my 40 years as an insurance agent, I sold my share of health insurance policies. Over these years, it became normal to see annual premium increases of 6% to 8% every year. These increases were driven primarily by Big Pharma (the drug industry) and by hospitals. For them it was the cost …
Who Now Pays for Healthcare?
My Comments: A fundamental shift being triggered by the PPACA (Obamacare) is the level of income earned by medical specialists and medical generalists. In order to make it more attractive for a medical student to focus on primary care, the idea was to compensate specialists less and instead redirect those funds toward those focused on …
Government Speak
My Comments: Many of us remember a simpler time, not just in politics but in medicine. As we grow older, we tend to interact more and more with the world of health care providers, who have a language all their own. The following comes from the June 2015 internet magazine published by MDPreferred. Doctors and …
Insurers Backed Obamacare, Then Undermined It; Now They’re Profiting From It
My Comments: Remember those frantic days right after the PPACA was passed? How soon would we see death panels? Could Grandma survive? The world would end very soon. In my writings, I've argued there are five primary stakeholders in the health delivery system here in these United States. 1. Insurance companies; 2. pharmaceutical companies; 3. …
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The Obamacare Curse: What If, This Month, the Republicans Finally Get What They Want?
My Comments: After 6 years and counting, I’m still waiting for a valid, alternate idea to come from the political right. As an insurance agent for 40 years, and having sold individual and group policies for many of them, I understand many of the dynamics involved. Why is it not in our best interest as …
Florida and Federal Money for Florida Citizens
My Comments: You may have read about this already. Or some version of it. I’m really not a fan of Rick Scott; I see him as a shill for the hospital industry who got himself elected governor. His ethics, values and focus are not consistent with mine. This was written by a Joan McCarter and …
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Helping Define Your Financial Future 