Here is a press release from United Healthcare communicating the new annual contribution or election amount for health care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA).
Health Care Reform
Flow Chart for Employers
Below is a flow chart for all sized employers. Â The flow chart is an easy configuration to determine whether or not your employer will pay a penalty if they don’t offer affordable coverage.
Remember, your employer doesn’t have to offer coverage, the employer can still decide that it’s in their best interests to pay the fine than to offer coverage.
President Obama’s claim that insurance premiums ‘will go down’
This article was taken from the Washington Post from their fact checker blog. Â Interesting stuff…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/president-obamas-claim-that-insurance-premiums-will-go-down/2012/08/09/424048f2-e245-11e1-a25e-15067bb31849_blog.html
New Investment Tax Starting in 2013
With the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is Constitutional, we will now probably have daily updates on some of the new laws that this massive bill has implemented. Â One of these is the new investment tax starting in 2013.
“The new tax, which Congress passed in 2010, affects the net investment income of most joint filers with adjusted gross income of more than $250,000 ($200,000 for single filers). Starting on Jan. 1, 2013, the tax rates on long-term capital gains and dividends for these earners will jump from their current historic low of 15% to 18.8%, assuming Congress extends the current law.”
Please click the link below for the whole article:
http://www.smartmoney.com/taxes/income/prepare-for-the-new-investment-tax-1341248241206/
Remember what our good Congresswoman from California said – “We must first pass the bill before we can see what’s in the bill!”
So, PPACA, the gift that keeps on giving!
Medical Loss Ratio Rebates
A few points to mention:
- This represents less than 10% of private health insurance consumers
- The average rebate is $151/family
- A small percentage will actually see a check b/c if you currently acquire your health insurance through your employer, the employer will get the insurance rebate check – however, most carriers are not wanting to issue checks, so they will be offering future savings instead of individual checks
The following was taken from healthcare.gov website
On June 1, 2012 health insurance companies nationwide submitted their information in regards to Medical Loss Ratios. Â Below is what this amounts to.
Because of the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies now must reveal how much of premium dollars they actually spend on health care and how much they spend on administration, such as salaries and marketing. This information was not shared with consumers in the past. Â Not only is this information made available to consumers for the first time, If an insurance company spends less than 80% of premiums on medical care and quality (or less than 85% in the large group market, which is generally insurance provided through large employers), it must rebate the portion of premium dollars that exceeded this limit.[1] This 80/20 rule is commonly known as the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) rule.
On June 1, 2012, insurance companies nationwide submitted their annual MLR reports for coverage provided in 2011 to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Based on this data, insurance companies that didn’t meet the 80/20 rule will provide nearly 12.8 million Americans with more than $1.1 billion in rebates this year. Americans receiving the rebate will benefit from an average rebate of $151 per household.
Under the new health care law, rebates must be paid by Aug. 1 each year. As a result, 12.8 million Americans will see one of the following:
- a rebate check in the mail
- a lump-sum reimbursement to the same account that was used to pay the premium if it was paid by credit card or debit card
- a direct reduction in their future premiums
- their employer providing one of the above rebate methods, or applying the rebate in a manner that benefits its employees.
Appendix II: Total Rebates by Market and State for Consumers and Families: Table shows state by state rebate data for the individual market, small group market, and large group market.
To see full results, here’s the link:
http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/reports/mlr-rebates06212012a.html