Examples Of Offer Financial Incentives

An employee can help reduce the cost of health cost by doing several things. There has been an outcry from organizations due to the rising number of competitors with high expenses catering for health benefits during employment periods and on retiring. The employee can be of great help by being participative in the programs set by their employers to benefit more from other advantages far from health costs (Kerzner, 2013). Some of the choices an employee may consider to help control health costs are by boosting consumerism, use technology to manage benefits, and indulge in fitness and health programs.

Money plays a huge role in access, therefore it is a vital issue to discuss. Within the current system, lack of money results in lack of health care, which leaves thousands of people without any health care coverage. Between 2001 and 2005, the number of people paying for health insurance increased 30%, however income only raised 3% (Health Care Problems). Adequate income is a necessity and unfortunately that is not present. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the average annual premium across the country is $16,000. Currently, the average annual income in the United States is $51,107. Mint Money Management suggests that about 4-6% of one’s total income should be spent on insurance, including life, disability, and health insurance. However, the averages in the United States show that the average person spends about 31% of their income on health insurance, which is not financially beneficial. When this rise in health insurance is not parallel to the inflation of income, innocent people are left without a method to achieve health care. There is a program for those who can’t afford health insurance out of pocket nor have access to it, and that is called Medicaid. Issues still exist with the program. There is only so much funding, which leaves many still uninsured. Additionally, people with Medicaid have difficulty

Rising health insurance premiums have made healthcare unaffordable in the United States. Health insurance premiums in this country have undergone a steady rise over the past few years while incomes have remained the same. More than 50% of individuals with low incomes holding private insurance in the United States are unable to afford their healthcare costs (Collins, Gunja, Doty & Buetel, 2015). In addition, costs related to healthcare are equally unaffordable to 25% of working-age individuals who hold private health insurance policies (Collins et al., 2015). According to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research and Educational Trust (Kaiser/HRET) survey on employer health benefits, employer-sponsored health insurance plans have also had moderate rises in premiums in 2013 for both individuals and family coverage (Claxton et al., 2013). While

The Affordable Care Act has made many positive changes for uninsured and underinsured citizens. With the addition of a program called Health Insurance Marketplace, it is now possible for uninsured people in every state to purchase private insurance plans, those making under 400% or less of the Federal Poverty Level will be able to have tax credits making insurance more affordable (Lathrop & Hodnicki, 2014). Insurance companies are no longer allowed to cancel a policy or raise rates when a client gets sick. Insurance companies cannot refuse coverage to individuals with preexisting conditions such as cancer (“Quality Improvement,” 2015). Insurance companies now must cover preventive care and screenings allowing diseases like cancer to be caught early (“Quality Improvement,” 2015). Research has shown that through health screenings

Health insurance is provided by Medicaid and Medicare to elderly and disabled people and poor children. People working for large companies receive health insurance through their employer. Unfortunately, people working for small businesses, those self-employed, and the working poor are left without options to purchase health insurance at an affordable cost. This creates a divide between the haves and have-nots in terms of health care. Those who have health insurance will access the care they need, but those who do not have insurance will go without. This may include primary care interventions such as immunizations and regular health screenings. Rising health care costs have a direct effect on the number of uninsured individuals and, therefore, a direct effect the number of individuals that can access care.

Another downside to High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) is the apprehensiveness to use the insurance, even the benefits that are free or at a low cost. “Enrollees in high-deductible health plans are likely to reduce the preventive care use and are largely; because they are unaware of the fact that preventive care benefits are free or at a low cost (Dolan February 2016).” Recent analysis showed that low-income workers were more likely than higher earners to avoid certain kinds of care when they were enrolled in high-deductible plans coupled with savings accounts. The analysis from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, found that low-income people even skipped free preventive services like flu shots and cut back on doctors’ visits. Primary and preventive

Despite the improvements made toward health reform, there are still problems that need to be address. There are still cost related access problems among insured adults, particularly among people with lower incomes. According to the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey of 2014, 33 percent of adults who had been insured all year with incomes under 200 percent of poverty and 25 percent with incomes above that level said they did not get needed care because of costs in the past 12 months (Collins et al., 2015). The high deductibles and cost sharing in both employer and individually purchased private plans lead many adults to delay or avoid needed care (Collins et al., 2015). Also there is still a large share of adults who were insured all year but still struggle to pay their medical bills. People with lower incomes reported these problems at the highest rates. One third (34%) of adults with incomes under 200 percent of poverty who were insured all year

The ACA also introduced certain incentives for applying for insurance such as subsidies as well as mandates that penalized those who refused health insurance with a tax. However, for those individuals who would see at least 8% of their income go towards insurance, are exempt from the penalty. The law requires insurance providers to accept any applicants and prohibits discrimination from preexisting conditions or sex. It also requires that insurers provide all patients with ten essential health benefits. Provisions also prevent insurers from subjecting preventive care and vaccinations and to co-payments. Annual and lifetime coverage caps on the aforementioned essential benefits were also banned by the ACA. The Centre for Disease Control reported a steep drop from 16% to 8.9% in individuals lacking health insurance from 2010 to 2016. States that chose to expand Medicaid had roughly a 7% uninsured rate compared to those that did not expand. Despite the positive effect of the ACA, it is not without its demerits, Conservatives in particular took offense at the increase in both taxes and insurance premiums needed to expand coverage to those with prior conditions as well as benefits. Several new taxes help provide funding for Obamacare such as those on pharmaceutical sales, as well as the higher income bracket. Thus there is opposition with the fact that the wealthy are in part subsidizing insurance for the poor.

Notable items include raising the dependent children age to 26 with no caveats regarding college attendance, eliminating the insurer’s right to refuse coverage of pre-existing conditions, abolishing cost limitations of patient care, mandating rebates of unused premiums, and offering preventative patient exams and physicals at no expense to the sponsor. An unpopular provision is the 40% excise tax employers, or insurers will pay for plans where the premiums exceed $10,200 per person or $27,500 per family in a year (The White House, n.d.b).

The propose of this article is to present the advantages and disadvantages of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare which make all Americans insurable, by requiring insurers to accept all applicants at rates based on population averages regardless of health status. The ACA increases coverage by allowing states to expand Medicaid (the social healthcare program for families and people with low income and resources) as well to cover everyone near the poverty line, and by subsidizing private insurance for people who do not get workplace coverage (Mark A Hall, Richard Lord, 2016)

“But insurers in many counties are offering such a dizzying array of health insurance plans with so many subtle differences that consumers have struggled to determine which plan is best for them” (Pear, 2015). One of the attractive features of affordable coverage is the low monthly premium. With these attractive numbers, some people might even choose to give up their employer coverage to save the extra money. Naturally, consumers would most likely be fond with the low premiums rather than the quality of the plan. However, low premium is only worth the price that is paid for. The high deductibles lie within these low cost plans could cost the patients a fortune when they receiving the care. As this happen, the Affordable Care Act is no longer serve its purpose in helping to increase the quality and affordability of health insurance as well as reducing the cost of healthcare. Instead, the Obama Care only succeeds in reducing uninsured rate of the population. The lack of understanding about the healthcare coverage could become financially burden to the consumers’ family if they choose to use the plan.

Healthcare coverage is a contentious issue for the United States and affects everyone, those with low income and individuals with higher income. The common complaint among individuals is the cost of care. The US is notorious for having a higher cost for medical care than other developed countries. Up to this point finding, suitable plans have been fruitless therefore it’s time to explore other options. Universal health coverage is indeed to beneficial to the country. According to Herzlinger, Richman & Boxer (2017), The main reason for a delay in the implementation of affordable universal coverage is that of the high costs to treat individuals with a pre-existing condition since they are accounting for a significant portion of health care spending

According to World Health Organization, “Universal Health Coverage means that all people and communities can use the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship”. (WHO.int) By doing so, we give the people the opportunity to be equal to the rest of the society. Since the cost of a healthcare plan is beyond most people’s budget in the United States, the average person spends more money on healthcare insurance than groceries and housing together. This condition leads many to have no coverage at all. In fact, there are over 45 million uninsured residents in the U.S. in it

With universal healthcare being more affordable, everyone gets equal access to medical health care. This can lead to a reduction in the number of medical issues suffered by our society. According to Howard K. Koh, M.D., “we can ‘absolutely’ expect for overall public health to improve if we provide quality, affordable health care coverage for all Americans.” (Cohen, 2009) This means people would miss less work and/or school. This also means that more people could be seen for some of the most basic ailments such as colds,

Access to preventive health care should not be definable as one of life’s luxuries, yet that is what is has come to be for the approximately “50 million Americans” who have no health insurance (Turka & Caplan, 2010). Clogged emergency rooms and “preventable deaths” are just two of the consequences associated with the lack of health insurance that would provide access to preventive care (Turka & Caplan, 2010). We as a nation are depriving our citizens of one of our most basic needs—being healthy.