HSA Blog

A walker costs $60 at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart. You know, the place with the lowest prices on Earth.

How much does Medicare reimburse for that same walker?

Would you believe, about $110?

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Read the article from New York Times

COMMENT:
None needed–the absurdity speaks for itself.

Many employers report their intent to drop group coverage all together if prices go up another 15%.Read the story from Seattle Times

COMMENT:
Won’t be long before most of those employers drop coverage (if they’re serious). This is part of a growing trend — less group, more individual coverage.

Our nationwide agency specializes in individual health insurance coverage in many states.

If you’re like me, you may have presumed that if you’re in a really bad accident and need to get to a hospital F-A-S-T, the sound of the med evac chopper might be music to your ear, but those choppers have been crashing at an alarming rate.  In a somewhat surprising article, we learn that ground ambulances typically get patients to hospitals just as fast and much safer.

“[Some] trauma-care specialists say studies show that regular ambulances often get patients to the hospital just about as fast and that patients who go by ground have about the same chance of surviving as those ferried by helicopter. . . .”

Read the article from the Austin American Statesman

COMMENT:
The cost of air evac choppers can be staggering. In some cases, a single flight may cost $7,500 or more.

Many health plans do not provide full coverage for air ambulance. In fact, this is sometimes a key difference between two otherwise equal plans.

Given that ground ambulance is just as effective in most cases, and statistically safer, it seems that the extra risk associated with air flights may not be worthe the additional cost–or risk–except in the most extreme situations.

The IRS has issued regs outlining the mechanism whereby an individual can transfer funds from his/her IRA into a health savings account, penalty and tax free.

Click here to learn more and find the IRS link for even more details

COMMENTS:

This is cool.

Here’s a troubling story from the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. A man who asked to see a physician ended up seeing someone who looked the part of a physician but in fact was not even a nurse or a physician’s assistant. In reality, he had no certification whatsoever to be “practicing” medicine–yet, he was, and at the Mayo Clinic at that.
Fake “docs” at the Mayo Clinic

COMMENT:
Remember the battle cry folks: Caveat emptor.
Never make ANY presumptions about the practitioner you are seeing for the first time.

In this article from the New York Times, we learn how one insurance company is opting to DECLINE women all together who have had a prior c-section (within certain guidelines). Peggy Robertson, a Colorado resident, was declined by Golden Rule Ins. Co. (Indiana-based insurer) solely because she had had prior c-section deliveries. This forced her to keep her current coverage which continues to escalate in cost. Plus, as Ms. Robertson stated, a decline from one company makes her look uninsurable to other companies down the road.

Read the story here-free subscription may be required

COMMENTS:
Not every insurance company in Colorado tries to hide behind the law. Golden Rule claims that a decline for prior c-sections is essentially mandated by Colorado law, but other insurers would accept her with an exclusion for future c-sections (or other complications of pregnancy).

DISCLAIMER: Our nationwide insurance agency does not represent Golden Rule Ins. Co.

The FL governor has signed into law a bill that allows insurance companies to offer low cost plans without many of the benefits mandated by law in regular plans.

Here’s the article from Forbes:

No frills plans approved in FL

COMMENT:
Key term to notice in the article: Insurance companies now allowed to write plans without the “USUALLY REQUIRED COVERAGE.”

This is moniker for “mandated benefits,” and I’m here to tell ya folks–Florida has more than its share of mandated benefits.

Mandated benefits are ones that the all-wise, all-knowing Legislature has determined *MUST* be included in health plans.

Question: If a health plan MUST include a benefit to visit a witch doctor once a year, does it make your health plan premiums higher, or lower? (regardless of whether you actually choose to take advantage of that mandated benefit)

Health plans in some states are dramatically higher than the same plans in other states merely because overzealous legislative bodies have mandated way too many benefits.

Morons.

It’s no secret that the tax advantages of health savings accounts contribute significantly to making them the lowest net cost healthcare option for many Americans. Tax advantages include:

• 100% “above the line” deduction for each dollar contributed
• tax-deferred growth
• tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses

The value of those tax benefits is likely to increase in the future, as Money’s Janice Revell explains in this excellent article:
Why your tax rates are likely to rise in the future

Although the article does not focus on HSA accounts, the implications for HSA participants is clear: As tax rates rise in the coming years, the value of an HSA plan will increase by a proportionate amount.

Today’s a good day to get started saving with a health savings account!

More and more Americans aged 50+ have a new objective in mind when it comes to healthcare — just make it over the hump baby!

“Over the hump” means making it to Medicare — relatively unscathed.

Health plan premiums increase as you get older, and the oldest group consists of those folks aged 60 to 64, just prior to reaching Medicare age (65). Their health plan premiums are outrageous!

The next most outrageous group is age 55 to 59, and so on. The real slap in the face tends to hit somewhere around age 55 for most people. At that point, the cost can become too much to handle, forcing many people to start thinking in different terms.

Oh, like a health savings account plan?

Precisely.

Here is an article from the Dallas Morning News that does homage to the problem.
Scary costs for those approaching Medicare

COMMENT:
Once you hit Medicare age, health plan premiums revert to a level not seen since your 30’s, relatively speaking.

For this reason, we have advocated the “make it over the hump” approach for years. Today, it makes more sense than ever. Forget about the frills. Just make it over the hump.

Get a health savings account plan with a high deductible health insurance policy and stash away as much cash as possible to make those golden years truly golden.

If you have been following this story, you already know that one particular clinic has been shut down in Las Vegas for “assembly line” colonoscopy work, the after-effects of which are just beginning to come to light.

This article indicates that at least 77 hep-c cases–a potentially fatal disease–are linked to that clinic. Over 40,000 people were thought to be exposed to contaminated equipment after the low-life doctors who owned that facility instructed employees to reuse the same equipment over and over on different patients.

And we thought used-car salespeople and insurance agents were deserving of their spot at the bottom of the reputation list?

Not the kind of diagnosis you want to hear

COMMENT:
People sometimes fail to take my advice when I recommend one plan over another based not on deductibles and premiums, but on exclusions and limitations. One particular plan on the market that is wildly popular happens to have a one-year carte blanche exclusion for HIV/AIDS if it develops in the first policy year.

Undoubtedly, some poor souls will end up contracting AIDS or HIV out of this debacle. And what exactly would they have done to contract that disease? They went to the doctor–to have a test done.

The moral of the story from this angle is straight-up: Be very cautious about the policy you buy! Read the fine print and understand it. Buy the best policy you can afford–and if you can’t afford the lower deductibles on the best policy, stick with the best policy but go with a higher deductible. Health insurance is for “just in case,” and you just never know what all that entails.