MedBlogger John Schumann, an internist and educator at the University of Chicago, hosts this week's celebratory round-up of the best medblog posts. Come for the fireworks, stay for the great info.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE
For all the working advisors and professionals, professional indemnity insurance comes as a tool to provide a much required cover for financial difficulties. In today’s litigious world, it is extremely important to take necessary steps to protect your interests and that one step is buying appropriate professional indemnity insurance as it covers you against any sudden and untoward situations that may claim your financial assets.
Professional indemnity insurance serves all the needed requirements like covering the claims and legal fees to defend the case so that you can run your business tension free. Whether you are a lawyer, n accountant, a doctor, engineer, journalist or any other professional, you must take professional indemnity insurance. There may be instances where your clients may feel that you have cheated them or have not provided them good services, so they may drag you to the court and file a claims case against you. In a situation like this, indemnity insurance will protect you from going bankrupt by paying all the required claims money up to the predefined limit mentioned in your policy and also cover the legal fees that you may incur during defending your case in the court of law.
Professional indemnity insurance serves all the needed requirements like covering the claims and legal fees to defend the case so that you can run your business tension free. Whether you are a lawyer, n accountant, a doctor, engineer, journalist or any other professional, you must take professional indemnity insurance. There may be instances where your clients may feel that you have cheated them or have not provided them good services, so they may drag you to the court and file a claims case against you. In a situation like this, indemnity insurance will protect you from going bankrupt by paying all the required claims money up to the predefined limit mentioned in your policy and also cover the legal fees that you may incur during defending your case in the court of law.
ObamaCancel©?
Well, well, well:
"Sixty percent (60%) of voters nationwide favor repeal of the recently passed health care law, including 49% who Strongly Favor repeal."
For those keeping score at home, that's a significant majority of folks who want this train wreck derailed, and a sizable plurality that really, really, really want it to just go away. A smaller plurality understand that it's a major job-killer, which seems to indicate that folks are beginning to do the math.
On the other hand, most of us are (understandably) skeptical that the erstwhile minority party can (or will) pull off that repeal: "just 41% believe the law is even somewhat likely to be repealed." Still, momentum is on the angels' side in this.
Exit question: How do you think those Town Halls will go this summer?.
[Hat Tip: Ace of Spades]
"Sixty percent (60%) of voters nationwide favor repeal of the recently passed health care law, including 49% who Strongly Favor repeal."
For those keeping score at home, that's a significant majority of folks who want this train wreck derailed, and a sizable plurality that really, really, really want it to just go away. A smaller plurality understand that it's a major job-killer, which seems to indicate that folks are beginning to do the math.
On the other hand, most of us are (understandably) skeptical that the erstwhile minority party can (or will) pull off that repeal: "just 41% believe the law is even somewhat likely to be repealed." Still, momentum is on the angels' side in this.
Exit question: How do you think those Town Halls will go this summer?.
[Hat Tip: Ace of Spades]
The Internet Makes You Dumb
For all the wealth of information that can be found on the internet, people have become dumber, not smarter because of the web. No, this is not a scientific survey, just my personal observation. But it repeats itself over and over.
Let me prove my point.
Yesterday I received an email from a woman who wanted a particular health insurance plan and an HSA. She told me the plan she wanted and informed me her HSA would be with a brokerage house.
In responding to her request I informed her the plan she had picked out would not allow her to establish an HSA.
She came back and told me she had studied all there is to know about HSA's and she knows the rules by heart. She then said she would be willing to look at another plan, from the same health insurance company.
My reply was that plan would work but I asked why she wanted a group health plan when, for many people, an individual health insurance plan is much less expensive.
She sent another response, telling me she had minor pre-existing conditions (high blood pressure) and her "partner" also needed coverage and had asthma. She then proceeded to complain about health insurance in general and tell me she would only buy coverage if I could produce a plan to her exact specifications.
It became quite obvious that she had all the answers and did not need me, so I simply said I did not know anyone who could help her and opted to end any future email exchanges.
The next situation occurred less than 24 hours later. This morning someone visited Georgia Insurance Shop looking for information on health insurance plans. I decided to give the woman a call and see if I could help.
She is relocating from New York and her COBRA will not travel with her. She is overweight, a tobacco user and diabetic.
No one will issue coverage and I told her so.
She did not believe me.
I suggested she go ahead and apply for coverage with any health insurance company, it didn't matter which one since all will deny her. When she has the denial letter she can then apply for PCIP.
Her response was to tell me she was in the medical field and she already knew she would not qualify for that plan and that I did not know what I was talking about.
Actually I do, but I saw no reason to argue since she already had all the answers and I had better things to do than talk to a doorknob.
So as you can see, in spite of all the information and resources available to us the internet makes some of us dumb. Some days I hate Al Gore for inventing the internet.
What Happens to Health Care Now?
Once the government assumes full control of health care in the U.S., what happens then? The Patient Protection and Unaffordable Health Care Act (Obamacrap) will eventually control every aspect of health care and health insurance. The new PCIP program technically began on July 1 but more or less entered with more questions than answers.
The biggest question should be, how will this be funded?
Of course the obvious answer is it will come from taxpayers. The government doesn't have any money other than the IOU's they print and the money they take from the wage earners, savers and investors.
When the government orchestrated takeover of health insurance was being cobbled together much was said about how much more costly health care is in America vs. other countries. At 16% of the GDP vs roughly 10% or less for other developed countries. One has to wonder what the game plan really is for reducing the cost of health care by 40%.
One solution, at least with regard to providers who treat Medicare patients, is to simply pay them less. This is already in the works but the problem lies in how does the government force doctors and hospitals to accept 40% less for services rendered? There is already a cumulative 22% cut in provider payments that is part of Obamacrap but it has been "fixed" with a temporary patch whereby Congress simply decided (by separate action) to delay any cuts in order to appease the medical providers.
This is called kicking the can down the road so you don't have to address it now.
It doesn't fix anything and it only affects the cost (if they ever implement it) for 40 million of us. Problem is, there are another 280 million or so that aren't (yet) in that system.
The new mandates do nothing to make health insurance more affordable. In fact, just the opposite is true as premiums will increase significantly as Obamacrap is phased in. Already we are getting indications of what is to come as health insurance companies are raising rates in anticipation of the new rules. At least one Georgia health insurance company has increased premiums three times since the first of the year. Others have dropped maternity options and at least one no longer writes children's health insurance policies.
A few smaller health insurance companies have announced they will no longer write new policies. Others have discontinued popular plans and are now pushing "low cost" alternatives that do not cover brand name prescription drugs.
In September children who apply for coverage cannot be denied coverage and the policy must cover any pre-existing medical conditions. This provision will not affect the cost of health care but it will dramatically increase premiums for children's health insurance. It will also impact the total dollars spent on health care for children.
Obamacrap does nothing to reduce the cost of health care but does and will stimulate demand for health care. We already have a utilization problem. Obamacrap will make it even worse.
When taxes are levied on anything that is not nailed down (and some that are) to subsidize the cost of health insurance for everyone the result is not going to be pretty.
In 2009 tax collections by the federal government were 15% of GDP. How much tax rates and tax collections will have to increase to feed the Obamacrap beast is the subject of speculation. At a minimum, tax collections will have to increase by 50% and probably more. That is just to cover the cost of subsidizing health insurance for the bulk of the population. It doesn't even count the deficit or interest on the national debt.
The next few years are not going to be pretty. What we can say with a degree of certainty is this. Health care as a percent of GDP will not subside but continue to grow. Funding for health care will come in the form of more and higher taxes and many of those tax burdens will be shared by those under age 50 or so. The baby boomer generation is already ageing out of the workforce and they are ready to collect their entitlements.
Baby boomer's are expected to live longer than their parents (the greatest generation) which will put even more strain on Social Security and especially Medicare.
For all the political rhetoric, Obamacrap has done nothing to reduce the cost of health care which means premiums and taxes will continue to grow like Kudzu.
Sliding into Obamalivion
Looks like Harold & Kumar will have to find a new place for eats:
"The White Castle hamburger chain fears that a health insurance reform law adopted earlier this year will put its profits on a downward slide ... [ObamaCare©] levies a $3,000-per-employee penalty on companies whose workers pay more than 9.5 percent of household income in premiums for company-provided insurance."
As of 2014, our national health care train-wreck will make it nearly impossible for the home of the "slider" to stay in business:
"White Castle, which currently provides insurance to all of its full-time workers and picks up 70 to 89 percent of their premium ... will likely end up paying those penalties. The financial hit will make it hard for the company to maintain its 421 restaurants, let alone create new jobs..."
The late-night bastion of belly-bombs currently employs some 10,000 nationwide, including over 1200 here in its home state. That's likely to change in a few short years, since that $3000 per employee hit will make it nearly impossible for the chain to show a profit. That's because these are part-time, often minimum-wage jobs - you know, the kind that Barry, Harry and Nancy tout as being the major beneficiaries of ObamaCare©.
And White Castle's far from an outlier here:
"(T)he National Council of Chain Restaurants ... says the entire restaurant industry will have trouble dealing with costs the bill imposes in 2014, including a $2,000-per-worker penalty that companies with more than 50 employees must pay if their workers end up purchasing federally subsidized insurance rather than getting insurance from their employers."
The other side of that coin, of course, is that that $2000 "hit" is actually much less expensive than what health insurance premiums are likely to be under the new, draconian coverage regime. As we've predicted many times, the most logical and financially sound choice will be to eat that fine rather than continue to pay premiums.
Bet a "slider" still tastes better than that.
[Hat Tip: Ace of Spades]
"The White Castle hamburger chain fears that a health insurance reform law adopted earlier this year will put its profits on a downward slide ... [ObamaCare©] levies a $3,000-per-employee penalty on companies whose workers pay more than 9.5 percent of household income in premiums for company-provided insurance."
As of 2014, our national health care train-wreck will make it nearly impossible for the home of the "slider" to stay in business:
"White Castle, which currently provides insurance to all of its full-time workers and picks up 70 to 89 percent of their premium ... will likely end up paying those penalties. The financial hit will make it hard for the company to maintain its 421 restaurants, let alone create new jobs..."
The late-night bastion of belly-bombs currently employs some 10,000 nationwide, including over 1200 here in its home state. That's likely to change in a few short years, since that $3000 per employee hit will make it nearly impossible for the chain to show a profit. That's because these are part-time, often minimum-wage jobs - you know, the kind that Barry, Harry and Nancy tout as being the major beneficiaries of ObamaCare©.
And White Castle's far from an outlier here:
"(T)he National Council of Chain Restaurants ... says the entire restaurant industry will have trouble dealing with costs the bill imposes in 2014, including a $2,000-per-worker penalty that companies with more than 50 employees must pay if their workers end up purchasing federally subsidized insurance rather than getting insurance from their employers."
The other side of that coin, of course, is that that $2000 "hit" is actually much less expensive than what health insurance premiums are likely to be under the new, draconian coverage regime. As we've predicted many times, the most logical and financially sound choice will be to eat that fine rather than continue to pay premiums.
Bet a "slider" still tastes better than that.
[Hat Tip: Ace of Spades]
