How to Lower Health Care Costs

So what is it actually going to take to lower health care costs?  Legislation isn't the only thing that can work.  In fact it is probably making it worse.  Health care as a whole is going to take a massive nationwide mindset change to improve our outlook for medical and healthcare expenses.

The infograph above indicates that many doctors office visits could be avoided.  The first thing people think when they are sick should be to treat themselves with OTC drugs, then treatment from a doctors office.

If those 10% of visits were avoided and managed at home, over $5 billion according to calculations from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) would be conserved in health spending.

 

Imagine the savings here if a fraction of these costs were cut.  These are the figure we should be focused on at the legislative level and not the healthcare management.  Leave the private insurance companies to their own.

Fraud and abuse alone account for over 100 billion in funds.

An entrenched system is hard to change. Hospitals currently have little incentive to keep patients healthy. On the contrary, fitter patients would mean lower volumes and smaller margins, says Michael Nugent of Navigant Consulting, an expert on ACOs. Nevertheless, the current system is clearly unsustainable.

Benefits of a Local Agent – How to Find Them and What to Ask

Choosing individual health insurance from a local independent health insurance agent allows you to settle a deal face to face. This human aspect of purchasing insurance is quickly depleting, but you can still make use of a personable agent who can literally sit down with you and find the coverage you need. There are a number of benefits of working with a local independent health insurance agent.

Filing an insurance claim when you have a local agent is much easier as well. Even though no one imagines they will need to file a claim, it’s always a possibility. With an agent on your side, you have someone to defend your rights instead of going up against the insurance company all on your own.

Insurance coverage can be expensive, and with a local agent, you can save money. Ironically, the opposite—that working with a local agent is more expensive—is often assumed. If you find the right agent, this assumption is absolutely false, especially when you consider the personal attention you receive to secure the perfect coverage.

How to find them

• A local independent insurance agent is what you will be seeking for the best insurance buying experience possible. Ask friends and family members who they have worked with on a local level and what their experience was like.
• Outside your social circle, you can conduct your own research online. Check out the Alpine Agency and what they have to offer in terms of individual health insurance, guaranteed issue health insurance, Medicare supplement plans, and life insurance. Getting started with a local agent here is easy.

What to ask

• Before you settle with one agent or another, inquire about their experience and training. If you get a negative feeling from anyone you talk to over the phone, continue your research until you find the perfect local agent for you.
• Along with assessing the agent’s credentials, you need to find out more about the coverage you can receive when choosing individual health insurance plans. Ask about your right to choose your own doctor or hospital, how specialist referrals work, what the exclusions are, specific benefits of one plan over another, and of course what the premiums, deductibles, and co-payments will be.

Individual Mandate is a Serious Crime

Who said the Individual Mandate is not evil.  What exactly will our punishment be if we don't comply.

Health Insurance Blog

I hear crazy stuff from people every week about what good a health insurance blog will do.  Well the biggest reason I promote my own health insurance blog is that it gets results.  I first started blogging about 2 years ago and when I did it was because I read a get rich quick article and started a blog.

I made one post and then stopped for a long time.  It wasn't until February of this year that I picked up the health insurance blog again, and even then I wasn't sure what to write about.  I was posting on every thing under the sun, like real estate, funny videos and articles, and even politics.  Lately I've been seeing the benefit in specializing in a niche on my blog.  Hence the recent change in this website.

Health Insurance Blog

The comments I've been receiving haven't all been roses and chocolates either.  In fact, my boss isn't very thrilled that this website is doing better than the advertising she's been spending on our website that's been in development for the past 3 months.  Some say that I'm wasting my time and that there is no known value in a website of this nature.

All I'm saying is that this health insurance blog has been getting moderately good results.  I have had several folks email and call about what kind of insurance would work for them.  We chat about their situation and discuss a method or plan out which type to purchase.  It's all very simple and when we've finished I have satisfied customer and it's all because they read a very simply put health insurance blog.

On top of all that the website itself is making money.  There are a couple of well designed and modified advertisements all over this page that when clicked generate income.  I have paid nothing for this site except for time and effort and energy, I'm getting paid and I'm producing prospects that turn into clients.  Not bad for free, huh.

My health insurance blog (and I do emphasize my) is a self sustained lead generating site that is all my own.  I do not think that there is an easier better way of do that.  It is work and it has taken a while to learn but I have only been doing this for several months and I'm already seeing profits.

New Alpine Agency Video

Reasons Why You Should Have Health Insurance

When someone calls me and asks me for a quote I am very glad to help them.  It lets me know two things right away about the person calling.  1.  You don't have health insurance and 2.  The price is how you will determine which plan you will choose.  Insurance by definition means the transfer of risk in exchange for payment.  I have a continually growing list of people who call to get quotes and don't necessarily balk at the price but don't call back.  Here are the biggest reasons to have and keep health insurance.

A.  Health insurance helps to ensure that you and your family are protected against the financial hardships that may result from health care costs.  More that 60% of bankruptcies are due to medical bills.  Do not take the risk of going uninsured and having a truck take you out.  You cannot predict the future.

B.  Just by owning an insurance plan your costs will be less than individuals who do not have it.  Most providers and hospitals will negotiate their fees with the insurance company.  On average BlueCross BlueShield, South Carolina's largest network, can negotiate 48% lower fees than those without coverage.

C.  Health Insurance means healthier people.  If you have insurance you are more likely to see a doctor before the condition worsens and is more expensive to treat

D.  Hospitals can put liens on your home if you haven't paid your bills.

I think these are the most important reasons to have insurance.  Do your homework and see for yourself but if you have any questions see me here.

— 

Brandon Vincent
Alpine Agency

T: +843.532.8367 
F: +843.971.1813
http://b-nice-intime.blogspot.com
Find me here too:

Posted via email from bniceintime's posterous

When you can't get insurance...

My wife found out today that she cannot get health insurance through BlueCross BlueShield.  They mentioned many conditions that she no longer has symptoms of and some she feels are mistaken.  She was taken aback and felt that she had done something wrong, but how can someone think that going to the doctor because your body is not behaving normally is something wrong.  In her situation I reassured her that she is eligible for Cobra and that we will be able to find some insurance that will cover her.  

I don't know if we can find another carrier that will insure her but I told her that and we will try to find one.  The reform bill will allow for pre-existing conditions, but that won't take affect until 2014.  There will also be a guarantee issue mandated then so I am not too worried.  She is though because she wants to try for another baby next year so this throws a wrench into those plans.  Our plan is to contact her doctor and see if he can update her file and possibly remove some of the undesirable, or incorrect diagnoses then maybe the insurance company will cover her.

   My thoughts go out to other families who didn't have a choice to go with Cobra, and their last option would be  SCHIP (SC health insurance pool) which is health insurance for folks who can't get insurance anywhere else.  The problem with the health pool is that it is really expensive because folks who are higher health risks are the ones who are in the pool.  Therefore, you have much higher rates.  So if we didn't have a choice for Cobra, we would have to get coverage under SCHIP and pay through the nose.  Many people have to go this route and this is what I see reform becoming.  A big giant pool of high risk health patients who like to go to the doctor more than usual.

     So you see the dilemma of the insurance company.  They have to make money to stay in business but the person without insurance is the one who suffers.  This is what reform was attempting to fix.  How well will it work, only time will tell and in the meantime I thank God for my health and pray my wife and child stay healthy.

Infinite Banking Concept and Whole Life Insurance: YOUR Money and Health Care

Mr. McFie ties health insurance with the Infinite Banking Concept I mention on my life insurance page. Very interesting correlation but most folks are probably not happy to hear that the IRS is getting bigger.

Infinite Banking Concept and Whole Life Insurance: YOUR Money and Health Care

What's in store for her?

     My daughter will be five months old on Sunday.  She is so beautiful and is growing so fast.  My heart skips a beat the moment I get home and see her toothless grin smiling when I come home.  A thought has been sitting in the back of my mind for a while, "What is she going to have to deal with 25 years from now"?  Will DC get their act together by the time she's an adult or will she have a broken system to fix?

     You see I believe there are stronger forces in play here than what we can see and hear.  The bible says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose"(Romans 8:28 KJV).  How can you not know that things are going to work for your good if you love God then?  I was very worried about this reform bill prior to the election in Massachusetts.  Once Scott Brown won I thought that Washington would come together and rethink the health care issue.  Ehhhh, not so much.

     The vote for this bill is eminent and for some reason we are being forced to swallow this bill hook, line, and sinker.  And I am not worried.  I pray for our nation daily, and I pray for President Obama.  Like it or not he is our leader and authority was granted to him from God the Father and He did so for a reason so who am I to judge Gods will?  Therefore it is not for me to decide or control.  I know it will work for the good no matter the outcome.

     So I will tell Zoe one day, I prayed for this nation and God has blessed it.  You do the same, daughter, and tell your child you prayed too.

My take on Health Insurance

     Since I have been selling insurance, the most popular question people ask is, "What is going to happen when/if the Health Care Reform bill is passed"?  To them I reply I have no idea because no one can definitely say.  I have heard many folks attempt but it still leaves so many unanswered questions.

     Even my sponsor Larry Baker of the Alpine Agency says the best of the best doesn't even know what to expect.  There are just too many variables to consider and it is just too much legal jargon that the folks in Congress can manipulate it to suit their future needs.  The facts remain that when taking on something as big as Health Care, there are no right or wrong ways to approach it.  Some decisions will make many angry and other will bode well for others.  Here we'll look at some possibilities to think about.

    Do you remember a few years ago when the Real Estate bubble burst.  The market was saturated with bad mortgages and big banks had their fill with as many of these "bad" loans as they wanted because mortgage companies were giving these away to anyone with a pulse.  Several of these banks failed and many had to be bailed out.  Well some say that what led to the bad mortgages was when congress made way for them by allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (government home mortgage lenders) to write semi quality slash sub prime business.  This was done during the Clinton administration and the reason they used was that, "everyone deserves the american dream of owning a home".

     Whoa hold on a minute.  I love the respect and props to America, the land of the free, its history of free men and all but everyone doesn't deserve a home.  If one were to become a home owner you must demonstrate responsibility and discipline not only over your finances but in your community and family.  So let's say I give you an opportunity to own a home but you didn't prove your responsibility with your job and money like yours neighbors did.  What happens is the folks who did deserve the American dream suffer at the market slump that their neighbors foreclosure has caused and no one wins.

     This brings me to Health Care Reform and some are saying everyone deserves health care.  If Washington passes this reform bill, that eerily sounds like the changes the gov did to Fannie and Freddie by regulating a free market system, do you think we could see the same kind of market response in the insurance sector as we did in the housing market?  Keep in mind the insurance industry is one of the few strengths of the big banks now and the free market system has allowed for this to happen.

     We do need change.  There is no getting around that.  Nearly 50 million people do not have health care coverage and for America that is not acceptable.  I don't like this bill or the reasons Washington gives to force us into another mess.  My prediction is that if the bill is passed, it could ignite a fervor of activity for insurance companies.  We will see a surge of business but then maybe 10-15 years from now, companies will start dropping like flies because they cannot keep up with the prices the government is demanding and yet again we will see the market affected by big gov.

     So there is my two cents but if the bill is passed I should be making a little more than that.  Haha thanks uncle Sam.

What I do

Some of my colleagues have been asking, "B, what exactly are you doing these days"?  As of right now my primary focus is on Health and Life insurance.  The health market is exploding and BlueCross BlueShield is the best known and most covered insurance company in the state.  Life insurance is the single best option for those who simply find themselves without health insurance.

Ask me how you can plan for death expenses, mortgages, and income protection.  Email me for your free kit on how to earn money with life insurance.

Also:

Ask me how you can become a real estate agent.  Take your test and become an agent at the best agency in town.  What are you doing trying to find a job working for someone else when you could be your own boss?  As a former real estate agent with AgentOwned Realty, I can show you how the market is beginning to shift and how you can capitalize on the swing here in Charleston.

There are plenty of opportunities out there you just have to be willing to look for them.