Category: Health Insurance
-
Aetna oddities
News is emerging that Aetna attempted to strong-arm the U.S. Justice Department last month before pulling out of the individual health insurance exchanges. That doesn’t seem like a smart strategy under any circumstance and of course it did not work. I recall sitting in an Aetna corporate strategy presentation in the late 1980s and recognizing…
-
Number of uninsured rises; self-employed most affected
Update: The Kaiser Family Foundation published a detailed update on this topic with 2017 data. The number of people without health insurance is rising again after declining with the massive funding of insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The federal government says that 29 million Americans were uninsured at the beginning of 2016 and this…
-
Health marketers resort to word spin
Have you noticed the spin on words in recent marketing of health insurance? Beware of terms like “Health Spending Accounts” and a myriad of other intentionally deceptive marketing creations. It may sound solid but you won’t find these terms in any authoritative source. Sign up at your own risk.
-
Tax traps remain for small business health plans
I had a no-charge telephone consultation today with a successful small business owner in California who has a very reasonable business plan to have his small business pay the substantial out-of-pocket medical expenses on a pre-tax basis. The tax savings can add up to $5,000 to $10,000 per year for a high income person with high…
-
Advice on emergency medical insurance
A digital video producer in Dallas, Texas wrote to me yesterday for advice selecting an emergency medical insurance plan. There are two main advantages of enrolling in an emergency insurance plan rather than paying these medical costs as out-of-pocket or through a small business reimbursement plan. First the insurance can be fully tax deductible where, in…
-
Insurance company logo dispute
When insurance companies have disputes about branding and logos, they need to settle those issues themselves before making demands on their distribution systems, online exchanges and agents. Agents of an insurance carrier do not have the authority to modify a brand, trademark or insurance product logo.
-
You don’t need a social security number to buy health insurance
The long version and the short version of videos that provide the same information to a question I receive at least several times each week: you do not need to have a social security number to buy health insurance! This is true whether you are in the U.S. or not in the U.S. Citizenship, passport status…
-
Section 105 medical plan for self-employed’s spouse
Is anybody still marketing Section 105 medical reimbursement plans to self-employed people? IRS made it a point to highlight the restrictions in recent years and it seems that most self-employed people and their advisers got the message. But today I received a call from a guy who says that some reputable firms including an ex-IRS lawyer are…
-
A dark day for Christianity
Today we have compelling reasons to be ashamed of elected officials claiming Christian values. Yesterday a group of Christian clergy connected with Moral Movement Tennessee staged a demonstration at the Tennessee state capital. The clergy object to Tennessee state lawmakers claiming Christian values but blocking expansion of health care for the state’s poor under the Affordable Care…