Health Insurance Providers across the state of Georgia will receive a larger incentive to promote Health Savings Accounts. On May 7^th, 2008 a bill was signed to grant tax advantages to health insurers when a new individual signs up for a Health Savings Account. Health Savings Accounts are designed as high deductible plans with low monthly premiums to give individuals and families and opportunity to save money. Savings Accounts are created specifically for health and medical issues. These savings accounts pass the tax advantages to the individual for an opportunity to save money without being taxed. These saving accounts can also be used for retirement savings.

            The bill that was signed by the Governor takes on a conservative perspective to promote health savings account across the state. The Health Savings Accounts have already proved to be particularly useful for the wealthy class to avoid taxes while capitalizing on the maximum savings allowed by the government.

            While the insurers will also receive a large tax benefit, the bill is intended to give consumers a larger choice of options for affordable health insurance coverage. If all goes as planned, this could create a trend for other conservative states to promote the health savings accounts that the Bush Administration set in place in 2003.

        

            San Francisco is attempting to follow the through with a socialized form of healthcare just as Massachusetts, Maryland, and Suffolk County of New York have been attempting. San Francisco has placed the burden of health insurance on the businesses of the city. The new law requires businesses to pay into health insurance depending on the amount of workers they employ. In San Francisco, 73,000 people are living without health insurance; half of those are currently working. The goal of the plan is to expand health insurance coverage by placing the responsibility on the businesses to fund it. While some of the businesses are covering the cost of health insurance, others are passing this cost onto the consumer. In some restaurants, the customer is being charged a “health insurance fee” to cover San Francisco’s new law.

            A restaurant group advocate took the new bill to court and won in the initial appeals. The law will be further examined in a higher court. But for now, many business owners are passing the responsibility to the consumer, claiming that the new bill is cutting into the company’s profits. Other business owners are concerned about the amount of employees they employ as the new Bill classifies employers into specific groups based on the amount of workers they employ. For a company employing just fewer than 100 workers, they will be reluctant to higher new workers and grow the business to refrain from moving into a larger size bracket. 

            Although many business owners are against the bill, 18,000 have been insured since it began. Many employees who receive a policy through a group health insurance plan claim they never would have sought a plan on their own, but with the new Bill set in place, they are able to obtain a plan through their employer without searching on their own. Regardless of the laws set in place, many people are not even interested in obtaining health insurance. One local business owner offered health insurance to 45 employees and only received feedback from less than 5%. The laws set in place differ from Massachusetts as they do not require citizens to obtain health insurance, only that employers pay for it.

        

            The Bush administration introduced Health Savings Accounts into the health insurance industry as a way to slow the escalating costs of healthcare. Health Savings Accounts have been adopted by more than six million people across the US and the number continues to grow. Although the monthly premiums are low, the barrier to entry is rather high considering the upfront costs of the program. Statistics show the average income of HSA enrollee’s is around $139,000; whereas the average health insurance enrollee is only $57,000. The huge difference between the two figures is mainly because of the tax advantages you receive when enrolling in an HSA plan. As a family, you can deposit $5,800 or as an individual, you can deposit $2,900 on a tax free basis. You can use this savings account to pay for future medical expenses or you can use the savings as a retirement savings account.

            The pros created by Health Savings Accounts can greatly outweigh the cons if you can afford an HSA account. Those who greatly benefit from are in generally good health and earn enough cash to deposit a portion into the savings account. HSA’s are very affordable, but it is difficult for poor or middleclass individuals to experience the full benefits. Those who have a difficulty benefiting from HSA accounts are those with a low income and high medical expenses. The Health Savings Accounts were created to offer people a chance to save when their medical care is minimal. In some large companies, they have noticed an increase in employees opting for an HSA plan. One company even reported a savings of $8 million dollars in monthly premiums since they began the Health Savings Account. The company has a total of 1,200 employees and 30% have already joined the HSA plans. Health Savings Accounts may offer a lower monthly premium but you should be aware of the other choices and options available when deciding on a new Health Savings Account.

        

            In the last few years, many hospitals have begun a new initiative to save money and limit the amount of debt the hospital accumulates. The new policy requires patients with inadequate health insurance to pay the up front costs for their cancer treatments. A recent case has made headlines in the press. Lisa Kelly, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006, she was referred to seek immediate care at the M.D. Anderson Cancer. The cancer center had already adopted their new financial policy in 2005 requiring patients to cover costs before treatment. The hospital requested that Kelly pay over $100,000 before they would begin any form of treatment or testing. 

            Kelly came from a family that could afford the treatment, but like most others, have their assets tied up in investments for their retirement. They just don’t simply have $100,000 in cash sitting around. The hospitals have dealt with a rise in uncompensated costs in recent years, which was the reason for implementing this new policy. The new policy helped the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reduce bad debt from $52 million to $33 million in one year. Many financial analysts in the hospitals rationalize that this is the proper way for the hospital to protect their own assets but this practice becomes questionable when the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center posted a net income of $310 million in 2007 with the hospital’s endowment totaling about $1.9 billion. As a “non-profit” hospital, with a steady increase of revenue and a net income over $300 million, you need to question their practices of decreasing their “Free Care” service to under $100 million in 2007.

            The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is considered one of the best cancer research and treatment centers in the United States and is also one of the most profitable hospitals in the United States. This is odd, considering it receives tax advantages as a non-profit hospital. Another issue to address is the compensation for the president of the institution who receives an annual salary of $1.18 million.

        

            The economy is down and the health insurance market is getting tough, but Aetna has proven that good things are still possible in this economic downturn. Aetna has shifted their focus of business to grow their memberships, while other company’s have had trouble holding onto customers. It’s no secret that Aetna is not the cheapest health insurance provider around; their member plans consist of a healthy range that appeals to many people. Aetna has even spent more on health related benefits than in the prior year. Aetna’s revenue rose 16% to $7.74 billion last year which equates to about 92 cents per share.

            With the cost of healthcare on the rise, Aetna adapts with the environment to ensure the can properly cover their clients. Aetna also received a large acquisition of clients from the Bank of America; they now host about 150,000 members from the bank. Aetna has raised its new member forecast by an additional 50,000 to a range of 850,000 to 900,000. While Aetna Health Insurance continues to grow, it eases the minds of current and potentially new clients of the risks involved with finding a trusted health insurer.

        

            In case you haven’t been following the candidates, there are still three standing. All three have completely different standing when in comes to the healthcare system. The three candidates have each developed a different plan that can appeal to 3 different types of individuals. 

            For instance if you are a complete liberal, love government regulations, and want to use your hard earned dollars to pay for others, than Hillary Clinton is your candidate. She has proposed a health insurance system that would create a government law that mandates that every single American citizen obtain health insurance. If you refuse, rather than just taking the risk of living without health insurance, you will also receive a fine of some sort. The system creates a huge benefit for health insurance companies. Their client base will grow drastically as a mandate would force individuals to purchase health insurance. Although the mandates would also restrict the health insurance companies from denying any person of coverage. I would assume this would have a common effect of other states that guarantee health insurance to all citizens. Such as New Jersey, New Jersey health insurance premiums are sky high compared to other states. 

            The Obama plan is somewhat less drastic than Hillary’s. His plan would only mandate that all children obtain health insurance. The mandates imposed by both democratic candidates would help to decrease the 47 million people living without health insurance but this would not necessarily create a more affordable version of healthcare. 

            The final version, a right winged version; will lift government regulations by allowing individuals and businesses to purchase health insurance across state lines. This will give those living with New Jersey Health Insurance an opportunity to buy a much more affordable Connecticut Health Insurance without living in the state of Connecticut. This plan will open up the market to a wider base of consumer, which in turn can create a frenzy of competition. States with low insurance rates will be fighting to grow their client base by covering citizens from other states. By limiting government regulations, John McCain hopes to create a free market creating more competition between health insurance carriers.

        

            For some time now, health insurance companies have been following a somewhat non-apparent rule. If clients who lie or commit fraud when applying for health insurance become ill for a specific reason, their plans can be canceled without warning. This leaves the ill or pregnant patient stuck with a pile of medical bills. This has been an accepted practice by insurance companies as a way to cut costs and minimize fraud.

            Now, I will agree with the insurance companies on one aspect of this. If a person knowingly lies when applying for coverage, they should not receive complete coverage from that carrier. It is up to the individual to be honest and submit all relevant information. But I do not agree with the complete cancellation of the policy. Perhaps, these individuals can receive a fine and a rate-up of their policy. This has been a great problem with our country, many people who seek health insurance are being denied due to prior conditions.

            States like Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont guarantee health insurance coverage. The guarantee of health insurance throughout these state’s drive up costs for individuals. This creates an even greater problem for these states. Since each individual is guaranteed a health insurance policy, prices need to be very high to cover the costs of high risk insurers. This means that a 25 year old male or female who is extremely healthy will still have high rates to cover those who are unhealthy.

            Health insurance coverage for a low risk individual becomes high when states have “guaranteed issue” for health coverage. In one perspective, this is bad for most people throughout the state because individuals are stuck with extremely high rates. In the opposite perspective, this is great because you are guaranteed a health insurance policy no matter what your medical history is. You can imagine the problems this creates for California Health Insurance companies when citizens become upset by their cancelled plans. The insurance companies are viewed as the enemy even though they are just protecting the rates of their other clients. Which ever way you view it; these insurers are simply trying to control the cost of healthcare while protecting the interests of the stock holders. After all, health insurance companies are businesses and their interests lie within the stock holders.

        

          While the democrats continue to fight for a candidate, the republican presidential candidate has taken his free time to confront the issues our great nation is facing. The US recession is a fear that is becoming a reality and most will agree that the fear of if and when is now shifting its focus on how we are going to get out of a recession. Well, John McCain has begun to develop his resolution for the US economic problem. McCain’s new plan covers areas that take on a diverse approach from a Republican Candidate. But were in a time were Republicans and Democrats alike are adopting values that aren’t solely Republican or Democratic. Our country and political system is ever evolving and our political parties must evolve with the times so their decisions benefit our great country.

          The McCain economic revival plan focuses on a few key categories which will cut deficits and allow our countries great corporations an opportunity to reinvest their earnings within the company. A corporate tax brake of 10% will give corporations across the country a significant amount of retained revenues in which they can reinvest within their organization.

          McCain has also proposed other tax breaks within his plans to lift our country out of the recession. A focal point of his plan will concentrate on scraping discretionary spending. The plan to freeze discretionary spending for one year will save a significant amount of cash while giving us an opportunity to analyze which plans are necessary or unnecessary.

          Another important aspect of the plan will focus on Medicare. The changes will affect the wealthy seniors who do not have difficulty affording their prescription drugs. The proposed plan will increase premiums on the wealthy class of seniors in the Prescription Drug Program just as the wealthy classes of seniors are required to pay higher premiums for Medicare Part B. McCain feels that “those who can afford to buy their own prescription drugs should be expected to do so.” McCain does not agree that taxpayers are paying for the medications of the Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffet’s of the world.

        

            The United State’s Healthcare System has recently been accused of overspending by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Now, this may not be a surprise to most, actually, I would consider that most intelligent people would already know this to be a fact. But, the unsettling analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers has estimated that we are currently wasting $1,200,000,000,000. (I could have simply stated $1.2 trillion in excess expenses but I thought the zeros would add a nice affect.) Now, we must understand how PwC classifies this waste, it is classified as waste in efficiency. In other words the internal practices of our healthcare system are the reason why we are wasting so much money every single year (and since the cost of healthcare is ever increasing, we are not improving the efficiency of anything we do.) 

            Some would assume that healthcare should know no expense, that’s quite simply put if you can afford it, but for the rest of our country, we should be concerned that our healthcare system is making up a great percentage of our GDP. There are many areas where PwC considers that we are wasting huge sums of money. One area they consider to be a huge waste is what they refer to as ‘behavioral waste.’ They characterize this as the cost of obesity and overweight and it accounts for 17% of the total $1.2 trillion. From my understanding, this would attribute to the additional illness and expenses spent on treating patience that develop their illness primarily because they are overweight or obese. Another strange category in PwC’s audit is labeled as ‘defensive medicine.’ Defensive medicine is defined as treatments or procedures that are ordered to protect doctors from liability and malpractice. Generally, these procedures do not benefit the patient and can even expose the patients to unnecessary risks. Defensive medicine is a loose term and the tests and procedures doctors carry out are not all classified under this term, (which is the reason PwC claims the waste in efficiency ranges from $21 to $210 billion.)

            This should not be a surprise to anyone who has glanced at a newspaper or watched the news in the last 10 years. We are all aware of this growing problem in our country and the presidential elections of 2008 should develop this into a main topic. This, of course is the topic of cutting healthcare costs. The focus on providing healthcare access to more American’s should be viewed as a completely different topic; although I’m sure some politicians will twist and turn their views to make that the focus.

        

            WellPoint Incorporated, the largest health insurance company in the United States has created an Anthem Insurance Company in Beijing, China. WellPoint is the parent company of the Anthem Health Insurance Company in the United States. WellPoint is taking their company global by extending their services and products to China. WellPoint is focused on providing the Chinese market with expertise while building strong relationships with the other health insurance carriers in China.

            The Chinese health insurance market is expected to expand three times ($17 billion) by 2015. WellPoint is creating a first mover advantage being one of the first US companies to expand into the global market. In the US, WellPoint insures 35 million people with the companies they currently own. WellPoint hopes to impact the Chinese marketplace by improving the overall quality life by making health insurance accessible to more Chinese citizens.