OK Folks Here is Our Chance to Be Heard. Lets Help Trump

[pahealthquotes]

If Trump gets health care wrong... boy oh boy there will be hell to pay.

1. Lets get some good ideas flowing to lower the costs of health insurance

2. ALSO Lets get some good ideas going to lower the cost of accessing health care and pharma.( something Obama and his cronies never addressed )

1. One year Pre-existing exclusion unless you have credible coverage letter
2. Make maternity benefits optional
3. Make mental health benefits optional
4. make rx benefits optional
5. SET UP high risk pools for those with sever chronic conditions that govt will subsidize.
6. Options on lifetime max 1 mil,2mil or 5 mil
7. Make health insurance tax deductible for all
8. Transparency on Medical costs. Never understood how you can go to a doctor or hospital and not actually know what it costs. This has got to change!

Please feel free to add to this list... As Agents We need to get a movement going! We cant get this wrong!

Joe Copson

 

[SamIam]

I agree except for the mental health and they make sure it's in there because of all the wackjobs out in the world. They also have to figure out a way to get a control of drug prices. The rest of what you came up is exactly what I thought.

 

[somarco]

My suggestions

1- Ask for a letter of creditable coverage
2- Rx included in all plans, subject to major med deductible (no copay's).
3 - Rx prices are "out of control" because consumers don't have any skin in the game. Also DTC advertising fuels the fire
4 - Cap on lifetime benefits is great if you are selling in 1980.
5 - Price transparency works if you eliminate networks and copay's then return to the 1980's when comprehensive major med was the norm and everything was subject to a deductible

 

[pahealthquotes]

Shouldn't doctors , hospitals and pharmacies have prices listed as you enter? I mean cmon they have been getting away with bloody murder for decades now and it's got to stop. If I bring my car in for service the mechanic has his hourly wage listed in plain sight for me to see. If I want to purchase gas the service stations must have the prices boldly displayed. It needs to be consumer driven, let me decide where I can access health care based on price and service.

 

[somarco]

Drop your insurance and you are free to negotiate all you want.

Eliminate all networks and you will have price transparency.

 

[HealthGuy]

Why does RX have to be included on a major medical plan ? How about keep it separate and have a buy into Medicare D if and when you need expensive drugs ??!?!!?

Why couldn't this LOWER the cost of insurance greatly?

AGREED - Many care providers over charge massively!
There has to be an easy way to shop price for services !

We also need higher deductible options for families and individuals.

 

[yankee466]

Here's my 2 cents after a day of discussing ObamaCare with clients (aka bad mood)

First of all, let's agree you can not help everyone.

1. Expand Medicaid in all states....ACA plans today mostly help poor people anyway. But let's also try to bring enough jobs back into this country so not everyone has to be poor. Poor people have no options to buy anything at any price...and HSA tax breaks do not help them unless you fund it for them.

2. Terminate all ACA plans on 12/31 2017, if not sooner. Send all the navigators and extra IRS agents home, and shut down the website.. Allow people to purchase fully underwritten and affordable plans like we had 6 years ago. Little need for any lifetime caps, as most people never spend more than $30K (aka Mega/MidWest sales pitch). If you want to cap it at $100K, $500K, $1M, etc..that's fine if it offers cost options, but they are on their own if exceeded, and in most cases way better than nothing. Obviously no fines for anything.....if they don't want insurance..thats fine. if they want to buy Short term or CHS, thats fine. Keep in mind that no real insurance company ever dropped anyone for using the insurance.....only for falsifying the ap to get it in the first place.

3. Use the old Assurant (for ex) model of both surcharge and exclusions if need be to reign in costs....but use a little more common sense maybe. Absolutely maternity extra...complications of pregnancy were always covered. If you can't afford $6K to have a kid, you certainly can't afford to raise it properly. (Harsh, I know) For example, on pre-ex....people with well controlled diabetes should still be able to get insurance of some form if under control...but maybe with some clauses. Underwrite the policy before issue, and not after.

4. All those considered 100% uninsurable, and assuming not Medicaid, would move to a high risk pool of some sort. Maybe with some $ means testing..and that can include assets, not just income.

5. Wild idea.......Optionally consider Medicare available as an option at an earlier age, maybe 60/62...but with all new supplement letters (X, Y. Z) and deductibles and means testing. If carriers want to offer supplements for a $2500 Part B deductible, etc so be it. Put more $ burden on the client, not the government. Maybe the rates are higher than age 65 rates too...but manageable.

6 No one cares if kids stay on parents policies until they turn 26...it costs nothing IMHO.

7. Dump all the expensive regulations and fines on the large group plans so the companies can go back to making more of a profit. No one complained about group plans before this started. I'm not a big group guy...so I am out on a limb here.

8. Quit whining about birth control. Supply limited formulary only, or tell them to buy condoms (again, harsh)

9. You do not have to include annual wellness if you don't want to.....Christain share plans assume you'll pay for it on you own...because they assume the intelligent Christian person is smart enough to take care of it on their own....but that leaves out maybe 50% of the American public. (ouch) That of course opens up a whole discussion of catching it before its too late....so it depends on what it really costs. At least keep all colonoscopies preventative, even if they find a polyp if you do.

10. Keep HSA options...and maybe some other tax breaks for self employed paying for the insurance.

11. Women get cheaper life insurance because they live longer, but have to pay lot's more for LTC coverage because they die slower. Maybe, if they have more complicated plumbing than men at certain ages, they should pay more. Just saying.....or maybe men should pay less instead...sounds better.
Absolutely stick it to people crazy enough to smoke...maybe they'll get the message and quit. (I am a non-smoker...so easy for me to say)


and, thinking selfishly of course...

Pay insurance agents a decent wage for doing their clients a service.


We'll see what happens.

 

[taterpeeler]

There is only one way to fix it... and take this advice, don't challenge me, you will show your ignorance..... insurance is nothing but a line of credit carried to pay off your debt.... remember that as i tell you the Peeler Plan...

Here it is... how to fix health care, if you disagree you are a stupid clown.... CONTROL THE SOURCE OF EXPENDITURES..... meaning control what the providers can charge.... done, problem solved...

 

[kgmom219]

1. Expanding Medicaid isn't going to happen (I live in TX. Its not happening. We just cut benefits to disabled kids)
2. Don't EVER say that condoms are enough. Oral Birth Control OTC. (That's a chick answer)
3. The maternity answer is bogus, but whatever. It sounds good, so do it. 50 year olds don't pay for maternity, it just seems like they do. The rates are already built based on it.
4. Price transparency is NEVER, EVER going to happen. Somarco is right. You have 10 surgeons at the same hospital, in different offices and I guarantee that they all get paid a different price for the same appendectomy from the same PPO. And I disagree with the "make it easier" argument. I don't buy a car without shopping around. Why would I deliver a baby, with a $5K pricetag, not shop around? Does every hospital need a Level 4 NICU? No. And if you want pay double for it, go for it.
5. Allowing Medicare buy in at age 55 is good for everyone. The 30 year olds in the pool will stop having to pay for the 55-65 year olds and the 55+ group can get a better plan. (I have ZERO idea what this looks like from an actuarial perspective though)
6. Allow for the States Lines thing. (Like Georgia). It will do absolutely NOTHING to lower rates, but I am tired of hearing about it. Just do it. Watch it fail.
7. Drug prices started skyrocketing with the Part D legislation. And I agree on the skin in the game.
8. The idea behind wellness is that if you go once a year, a little problem doesn't evolve into a big problem. (And since women tend to go once a year, its also why they are healthier, live longer, etc)
9. Mental Health stays in. I don't want to deal with nutjobs, who don't have access to mental health, but can also go buy a gun every weekend. (Again, I live in Texas. And there is always a gun show within 30 minutes every Saturday)
10. He's already said Pre-Ex and Age 26 is staying. There went the high risk pool idea.
11. There IS going to be hell to pay. The rates are not going to crash in 2018 and that's what people expect. The midterms are going to be a giant *****-slap. Just like Clinton, Dubya and Obama got.


Here's my bombshell answer:

ELIMINATE EMPLOYER SPONSORED COVERAGE

Put all Americans, under age 65, not food stamp eligible, in the same pool.

You want a huge deductible, here ya go.

You want a $10 copay and $1K OOP, here ya go.

You want a New York Co-Op while you live in Florida, be my guest.

If you don't have coverage, you pay a penalty. A REAL ONE. I am tired of responsible people with health insurance paying for the uninsured to show up at the ER.

(Obviously, this isn't an electable position. And the insurance lobby will go nutso. It won't ever happen. But that's the long term solution, before we get dragged into a Single Payor hybrid)

 

[jbage007]

No free rides.

Dude said he was gonna repeal it. Lock, stock, and barrel. Said it over and over and over.

I'm holding his feet to the fire.

Repeal the damn thing, Mr. Know-it-all.