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Reform law puts patients in control of their health care

Posted on July 29th, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Health Insurance | No Comments

THREE years ago, Taylor Wilhite, of Marblehead, Ohio, was diagnosed with leukemia. Like many other American parents, Taylor’s mother and father assumed their affordable health-insurance coverage would get her the care she needed. Unfortunately, the Wilhites’ family policy came with a $1 million lifetime cap. That sounds like a lot of money, but patients with serious illnesses can easily spend that much or more.

Three rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant put Taylor into remission, but she was approaching her policy’s spending cap. Although her insurance company extended her coverage, Taylor’s parents still can’t get her the follow-up care her doctors recommend because they fear exceeding the cap.

Like most other families, Taylor’s parents have paid their insurance premiums every month, in good times and bad. It’s basic fairness that their insurance should be there when they need it. Fortunately, the new Affordable Care Act will give Taylor and her family, and other families like them, much-needed peace of mind. These new consumer protections will help
For most plans starting on or after Sept. 23, new rules under the Affordable Care Act stop insurance companies from denying health coverage to children based on pre-existing conditions. By 2014, these protections will apply to all Americans. No unjustified cancellations of coverage. Today, insurance companies may cancel the policies of people who become sick just because they or their employer made an unintentional mistake on their insurance paperwork.
Under the health-care reform law, insurers may no longer rescind anyone’s coverage, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact. Americans who pay their premiums and act in good faith will have the security of knowing that their health coverage may not be taken away from them when they need it most.

No lifetime limits/restricted annual limits on coverage. Health plans now may limit care through annual or lifetime limits. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies no longer will be able to limit the care that Americans such as Taylor need. The law also will phase out annual dollar limits on coverage over the next three years.

Individual Plans Already Is Affecting Insurers, Broker Commissions

Posted on July 28th, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Florida Health Insurance | No Comments

A rule that will require health insurers to maintain a medical loss ratio of 80% for their individual and small-group products already has caused some health plans to restructure they way they pay brokers and agents. Other insurers have decided to scale back or exit the individual market. One health plan has said it will [...]

President Signs Fin. Svcs. Reform; Insurers Turn Focus To Regs

Posted on July 26th, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Florida Health Insurance | No Comments

WASHINGTON—President Obama has signed financial services reform legislation, setting in motion an intense effort by interested parties to shape the regulations that will implement the bill to their liking.
In signing the bill—H.R. 4137, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act—President Obama said, “For years, our financial sector was governed by antiquated and poorly [...]

Texas will need more plans for health care

Posted on July 22nd, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Health Insurance | No Comments

Demand has been artificially suppressed because of the state’s top-ranked uninsured rate. According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 32 percent of non-elderly Texas adults were uninsured in 2009. They generally only see a physician when they have to.By 2014, the Affordable Care Act will change that. Expanded Medicaid, insurance exchanges and the individual [...]

Small businesses can claim health tax credits

Posted on July 20th, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Individual Health Insurance | 1 Comment

The new health care reform law is designed to help more businesses provide their employees with individual  health insurance. The law works through a combination of tax breaks and cost-reduction strategies. One provision aimed at small businesses — those with 25 or fewer employees — kicks in this year. Many of those businesses will be [...]

Universal Life Insurance

Posted on July 16th, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Life Insurance | 1 Comment

NEW YORK - AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, a leading U.S. life insurer with a 150-year history, has introduced Athena Indexed Universal Life Insurance, a new permanent life insurance policy with enhanced cash-value accumulation potential and downside protection. Athena IUL offers interest crediting linked to the movement of three major market indices with a built-in [...]

Old Mutual leads impressive charge in life insurance

Posted on July 14th, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Life Insurance | 1 Comment

The life insurance index has gained 87.9 percent since bottoming out in March last year thanks to Old Mutual’s share price performance, which shot the lights out after the company improved its capital position.  Neil Young, a portfolio manager at Coronation Fund Managers, said Old Mutual had gained more than 150 percent since March last [...]

Insurance collections prepared in Some States

Posted on July 12th, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Health Insurance | 1 Comment

The Obama administration is poised to award contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to about 20 states to run new insurance pools for people with serious medical problems. In another 20 states, where local officials chose not to participate, the federal government will run the pools through a private nonprofit entity.
Colorado, Maryland and North [...]

Colorado health plan cover pre-existing conditions now

Posted on July 8th, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Health Insurance | 1 Comment

By Jennifer Brown - Coloradans denied health insurance because they are deemed too sick will soon have access to coverage through a new state program.Temporary coverage for people with pre-existing conditions will become available Tuesday — five days after Thursday’s national deadline — and then phase out in 2014 when federal reform bars insurance companies [...]

Insurance Query Corner

Posted on July 6th, 2010 by mahir
Filed under Health Insurance | 1 Comment

Insurance is a form of risk management to protect dependents from loss of income. Surprisingly neither you nor the agent who sold the insurance policy to you appears to have viewed insurance from this angle. Individuals with no encumbrance hardly require life insurance; your primary requirements should be health insurance, accident, critical insurance and protection [...]