by Tom Barrett | Apr 10, 2018 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Insurance, National News, Uncategorized
In a CMS press release the Trump Administration announced yesterday, as expected, that beginning in 2019 individual states will have more control and greater flexibility in regulating the individual health insurance market and the Obamacare Marketplace (aka the...
by Mike Barrett | Oct 23, 2017 | Employer Issues, Healthcare Costs, Uncategorized
The ACA imposes a maximum dollar limit on employee contributions to health flexible spending accounts (FSAs). Although the ACA set this limit at $2,500, the limit is indexed for cost-of-living adjustments each year. On Oct. 19, 2017, the IRS announced that, for...
by Tom Barrett | Oct 16, 2017 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Insurance
Some folks may think that Friday’s Executive Order did away with Obamacare subsidies altogether. It didn’t. There are two subsidies. One was cut. One wasn’t. In a nutshell, one subsidy lowers the cost of premium (aka premium tax credits) for those qualified...
by Tom Barrett | Mar 31, 2017 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Insurance, Uncategorized
“……We are seeking to empower states with new opportunities that will strengthen their health insurance markets.” Thomas E. Price, M.D., The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), A Letter To Governors, dated March 13, 2017 On March 13, 2017, the...
by Mike Barrett | Jan 25, 2017 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Insurance, Managed Care - Group Health
What do we see? Our opinion was that if Hillary Clinton had won, ACA would have gotten the heavy lift it would have needed to advance. The difficult regulations would have been imposed (vs delayed further) and the money would have been allocated from general funds to...