Health Reform Explained Simply: VIDEO

Health Benefits US Inc is a leading industry expert on Health Care Reform. HBUS Inc is helping individuals and businesses understand the new rules so they can actually benefit from them.   Contact HBUS Inc today to start saving money while getting the best health coverage available.

Confused about how the new health reform law really works?

This short, animated movie narrated by Cokie Roberts -- featuring the "YouToons" -- explains the problems with the current health care system, the changes that are happening now, and the big changes coming in 2014.




Video Written and produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Narrated by Cokie Roberts, a news commentator for ABC News and NPR and a member of Kaiser's Board of Trustees. Creative production and animation by Free Range Studios.




Trouble Viewing this Video?  Try this Link Health Reform Hits Main Street - Kaiser Health Reform

Exploring Ways Employers can Lower Health Care Costs

Employers are continuously faced with the challenge of the escalating costs of health insurance and providing a comprehensive employee benefit plan to their employees.

According to a recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2009 the average annual premium for employer sponsored health insurance was $4,824 for single coverage and $13,375 for family coverage.

We know it hasn’t gotten any cheaper to offer traditional group health plans…

To address the cost of health insurance, employers have responded with any of the following strategies:

1. Adjusting the premium cost share,
2. Increasing the cost for health care services (deductibles, co-payments, or coinsurance),
3. Restricting eligibility for benefits, and/or
4. Introducing a tiered physician and/or hospital network

It is without question that adjusting an employee's cost share for health insurance or their access to health care services does not provide a long term solution toward reducing the cost of health insurance - it is simply a temporary solution.

For employers to have a long term impact of the cost of health insurance, they must recognize that an average of 85% of health insurance premiums is paid to health care providers(physicians, hospitals, etc.).

As a result, for employers to have a lasting impact on health insurance premiums - a focus on health care costs will provide the employer with a more effective solution.

Employers must consider that over 70% of health care costs are the result of preventable health care conditions and an estimated 66% of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. It is imperative for employers to embrace the opportunity to improve the health of their employees and their dependents to reduce the cost of health insurance.

Comprehensive wellness programs have proven successful to reduce expenses influenced by the health and wellness of employees, improve productivity, and reduce absenteeism. A study by the Center for Prevention and Health Services shows that employers get back $3.48 in reduced health care costs and $5.82 in lower absenteeism for every dollar invested in employee wellness.

For any wellness plan to be successful, it must include certain key elements.

Contact Health Benefits US Inc for a complete copy of this post with wellness program recommendations.

Employers Saving 20 to 40% on Health Benefits Offered

If there was a way that you could provide great benefits to your employees and control and fix that cost, would you want to know about it? Well of course you would. I'm Rob Ferguson, I own Health Benefits US. January 1st of 2009 brought about significant tax law changes, which allows you as a business owner to provide your employees a defined contribution. This can be used to purchase their own individual plan; this can be done in a very strategic way and we're often finding that employers are cutting their costs by as much as 20 to 40 percent. So I challenge you today to visit our website and learn more.

Study: How Many Small Businesses are Likely to Offer Coverage by 2014?

Note: None of this should be taken as legal or tax advice.

More than half of small companies who currently offer health care plan to drop their coverage for employes by 2014.  But of the small employers that are likely to drop health coverage, 100% also said they would continue to provide coverage to employees if a "tax-excluded contribution" solution existed...

Employers take note - the tax-excluded contribution solution exists via defined contribution health plans!

Call us today to learn more...we are helping companies in NC, SC, VA, GA, FL, MD and D.C. with their health care reform programs.

The Study

In July 2011, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) released a new study, "Small Business and Health Insurance: One Year After Enactment of PPACA", focused on the affect health reform has had on employee health benefits. The study predicts that less than 25% of small businesses will offer group health insurance in 2014.  

According to the study:

• 42% of small employers offer group health insurance today.
• 57% of those small employers are likely to drop health coverage by 2014.  
• 100% of the small employers that are likely to drop health coverage, also said they would continue to provide coverage to employees if a "tax-excluded contribution" solution existed (the tax-excluded contribution solution exists via defined contribution health plans).

Click here to read the full NFIB report.

Federal Cobra Subsidy Phasing Out Means Increases of 186% for Insured

The federal COBRA subsidy, introduced in March 2009, covered 65% of the cost of COBRA health insurance premiums for up to 15 months. In order to qualify for the subsidy, recipients must have originally become eligible for COBRA as the result of an involuntary termination of employment occurring between September 2008 and May 2010. The subsidy's last group of recipients -- those who began receiving assistance in May 2010 -- roll off the subsidy in August 2011.

As a result, they face a 186% increase in their monthly COBRA premiums...

Unless they are eligible to enroll in a new employer-based health insurance plan, former subsidy recipients who do not wish to go uninsured may opt to pay their COBRA premiums at the increased rate for an additional three months, until their COBRA eligibility ends.

Alternately, they may search for more affordable options in the individual & family health insurance market.

Insurance is designed to protect your risk financial risk., some plans are better than others for you and your family's health insurance needs.

The best thing we can do is to make sure you are equipped with the right questions, and assist you in finding the right plan for you and your family with multiple health insurance quotes.

Contact  Health Benefits US Inc today and see insurance in a new way - a way that saves you money, a lot of money compared to COBRA, without reducing the benefits your family is accustomed to receiving.