Small Group Health Insurance

Written by Admin
Posted April 27, 2009 at 6:35 pm

The Hill's Blog Briefing Room » Reid: Bipartisan health reform is …
It is about the parent who cannot take a child to the dentist because insurance is prohibitively expensive. It is about the small business that had to lay off employees because it couldn’t afford skyrocketing health care premiums. … read more…

Small Business Administration: Office of Advocacy – Letter dated …
Employers currently comply with many federal workplace discrimination, health and privacy statutes, such as ADA, FMLA, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). … read more…

New plan promises affordable health care to all
Part of reform legislation may include a Small Business Health Tax Credit to assist small businesses trying to give their employees health insurance. Another possibility is to force large corporations to buy in more to their employees’ … read more…

From Google Blog Search

Low Cost Individual Health Plans – Where to Get Them
A group health insurance plan is always going to be your least expensive insurance option, but sometimes you just can’t get one and need a low cost individual health plan instead. How can you save on … read more…

Ohio Health Insurance Affordability EasyToInsureME
The affordability of offering health insurance ranks among the top issues on the minds of Ohio small business owners, according to a new survey of Ohio-based small business leaders released today.
Th… read more…

Medical Insurance in Florida: A Friend in Need
Today, as everyone knows that health care costs are on the rise, it is not possible for every person to afford these costs, especially in Florida where floods and other natural disasters are common… read more…

From GoArticles.com

Voting Question: At last the truth comes out Immigrants being used as scapegoats, group says?
Immigrants living in the country illegally have been blamed for everything from the financial crisis to siphoning money out of the federal stimulus package by Conservative media figures who have turned them into scapegoats, according to a report issued Tuesday.

Those are the conclusions of advocacy group Media Matters, a liberal not-for-profit that monitors what it calls “conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”

Another favorite target of such criticism, according to the report, is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, an advocacy group for low-income people, also known as ACORN, which is active in Orlando.

“At best, these scapegoats are tenuously connected to the issues those figures are discussing; at worst, they are entirely unrelated. In some instances, the media linked their scapegoats to major news stories using misleading claims, and in others, they advanced outright falsehoods,” the report said.

Some examples in the report:

The financial crisis has been attributed to excessive lending to undocumented immigrants and to ACORN “bullying” banks into lending to minorities. But the Department of Housing and Urban Development has denied that illegal immigrants held the bad mortgages and the lending program for minorities was smaller than suggested.
Some of the opposition to the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, also known as SCHIP, centered on claims that the bill would provide health benefits to illegal immigrants. The report says the bill language’s specified that its benefits were for people lawfully residing in the U.S.
Some media reports stated that undocumented immigrants would get tax credits under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but the bill’s benefits were limited to people with Social Security numbers.

Erikka Knuti, a spokeswoman with Media Matters, said commentators blame immigrants because they can.

“It’s about pointing to those who are disenfranchised as being the villains in these issues,” Knuti said. “It’s a cheap shot.”

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_hispanicaffairs/2009/04/immigrants-being-used-as-scapegoats-group-says.html

Resolved Question: hey obama supports President’s Plan to Charge Wounded Heroes for Treatment?
The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization says he is “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.

“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”

The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, “This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ‘ to care for him who shall have borne the battle’ given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm’s way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America’s veterans!”

Commander Rehbein was among a group of senior officials from veterans service organizations joining the President, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Steven Kosiak, the overseer of defense spending at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The group’s early afternoon conversation at The White House was precipitated by a letter of protest presented to the President earlier this month. The letter, co-signed by Commander Rehbein and the heads of ten colleague organizations, read, in part, ” There is simply no logical explanation for billing a veteran’s personal insurance for care that the VA has a responsibility to provide. While we understand the fiscal difficulties this country faces right now, placing the burden of those fiscal problems on the men and women who have already sacrificed a great deal for this country is unconscionable.”

Commander Rehbein reiterated points made last week in testimony to both House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees. It was stated then that The American Legion believes that the reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate that VA treat service-connected injuries and disabilities given that the United States government sends members of the armed forces into harm’s way, and not private insurance companies. The proposed requirement for these companies to reimburse the VA would not only be unfair, says the Legion, but would have an adverse impact on service-connected disabled veterans and their families. The Legion argues that, depending on the severity of the medical conditions involved, maximum insurance coverage limits could be reached through treatment of the veteran’s condition alone. That would leave the rest of the family without health care benefits. The Legion also points out that many health insurance companies require deductibles to be paid before any benefits are covered. Additionally, the Legion is concerned that private insurance premiums would be elevated to cover service-connected disabled veterans and their families, especially if the veterans are self-employed or employed in small businesses unable to negotiate more favorable across-the-board insurance policy pricing. The American Legion also believes that some employers, especially small businesses, would be reluctant to hire veterans with service-connected disabilities due to the negative impact their employment might have on obtaining and financing company health care benefits.

“I got the distinct impression that the only hope of this plan not being enacted,” said Commander Rehbein, “is for an alternative plan to be developed that would generate the desired $540-million in revenue. The American Legion has long advocated for Medicare reimbursement to VA for the treatment of veterans. This, we believe, would more easily meet the President’s financial goal. We will present that idea in an anticipated conference call with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel in the near future.

“I only hope the administration will really listen to us then. This matter has far more serious ramifications than the President is imagining,” concluded the Commander.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20090316/pl_usnw/the_american_legion_strongly_opposed_to_president_s_plan_to_charge_wounded_heroes_for_treatment

how does this make u feel