A Dr. Seigel said the other day that the number one question he is asked lately is whether or not his patients will be able to keep their health insurance as promised by President Obama. According to the HHS report released yesterday the answer is no. This is because existing groups will lose their grandfathered status once they change deductibles, etc. to help control costs. Once they lose this status the will have to buy a federally approved group health insurance policy. Same is true for individual and family health insurance policies. These approved health insurance policies will have lower deductibles and many more mandates, meaning they will be very expense. The premiums will keep increasing because of the lower deductibles. lower deductibles mean more trips to the doctor for no good reason. So the group employer will simply drop their group medical insurance plan and pay the fine instead, it will be cheaper. The individual and family will do the same, simply drop their health insurance benefits and pay the fine, knowing that they can always buy a policy if and when needed thanks to policies being guaranteed issue by 2014. https://higginscompanies.com/health-insurance/all-bcbs-of-az-plans/
This has been the dirty little secret all along though. get everyone on the government plan and force private insurers out of business. It’s coming.
Michael Higgins
602.405.8769
An Arizona health insurance agency.