You can now get a online quote for Assurant Health coverage at web site at http://ronlively.mymedicalquotes.com

Please call me about the details of securing an HSA (Health Saving Account).  I am appointed as a general agent with Assurant Health.   I believe this is one of the essential solutions to help transform our weakened health care system.  So does our President as evidence of the attention he gave in some of his state of the union speeches.  This is one of the ways I am seeking to help support our family and the overall costs of our ministries. 

I can be reached at 615-238-4035. 

Thanks. 

Ron Lively

Per Time Insurance / Assurant Health: 

HSAs Triple in 10 Months – Are You Getting Your Share of this Business?

Over 3 Million Enrolled in High-Deductible/HSA Plans

At least three million consumers currently receive health coverage through high-deductible health insurance plans offered in conjunction with health saving accounts (HSAs), according to preliminary results of a new study by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).

According to the study, enrollment in the new insurance policies eligible for HSAs has roughly tripled since last March when a similar AHIP survey found that 1,031,000 people were covered by HSA-compatible insurance policies.

“HSAs are a remarkable success story and they are proving to be especially attractive to many who might not otherwise be able to afford coverage,” said AHIP president and CEO Karen Ignagni.  “Consumers and employers have quickly embraced HSAs as a valued option in the suite of products offered by health insurance plans.”

The study is based on aggregated responses from AHIP member companies, which represent nearly all the health insurance plans offering HSA-eligible plans. The preliminary findings also show that the market for HSAs is becoming broader, with companies offering HSAs in more markets and to a wider array of large group, small group and individual customers.

AHIP anticipates that complete results and analysis will be available in several weeks. 

The Time Insurance Portfolio Offers: 

One Deductible Plan – HSA-qualified plan with the industry’s most user-friendly online “HSA Tools”

RightStart HSA - low-cost HSA-compliant Plan to make funding the HSA easier 

Programs available exclusively through Time Insurance: 

         Supplements to help your Individual Medical clients pay their HSA deductibles

§      Accident Medical Expense benefits from $2,500 to $10,000

§      Accident Disability Income benefits up to $250/week – 52 week benefit

§          Critical Illness benefits from $2,500 to $10,000

§          No additional check, application, or underwriting for SuiteSolutions supplements

§          Benefit options starting from $19.95 per month - regardless of age, gender, location, or industry

         Interactive HSA vs. Conventional Plan Comparison Software

§      Compare total cost of an HSA to any conventional medical plan for any amount of medical expenses

§         Create “what-if” scenarios with various premium levels, medical costs, and tax brackets

January 29, 2006

Bush pushing health care to top of national agenda
By Robert Pear
The New York Times
January 29, 2006

WASHINGTON -- More than 12 years after President Bill Clinton unveiled his plan to remake the nation's health-care system, President Bush is expected to push a series of health-care proposals in his State of the Union address Tuesday.

Where Clinton was driven by a desire to guarantee health insurance for every American, Bush is focusing primarily on health costs, which he says are swamping employers and threatening economic growth. Where Clinton favored a larger role for government, Bush has a fundamentally different philosophy, built on the idea that placing more responsibility in the hands of individuals will create market pressure to hold down costs.
The long-running debate has taken on new urgency as more and more companies find themselves struggling to pay for employee health benefits. Health-care costs have been a big factor in the troubles of the domestic auto industry, among others.

But some policy experts, Republicans and Democrats alike, say the Bush proposals, which are built around tax breaks, may further drive up health spending and costs by fueling the demand for health care.

The White House has indicated Bush will propose tax deductions for out-of-pocket medical expenses, rules to encourage the use of health savings accounts, and incentives for small businesses across the country to band together and buy health insurance, exempt from state regulation.

Regina E. Herzlinger, a professor at Harvard Business School, said, "Insuring the uninsured is a fine objective, but how will this control the health costs that are hobbling our global competitiveness? Health savings accounts will increase coverage, and that's great. But they are being touted as a way to control costs, and I very much doubt that claim."

Democrats see the Bush proposals as a pastiche of old and new ideas that falls far short of what is required to tame the explosive growth in health costs.

Many economists, especially those with a free-market bent, say the tax code, by subsidizing the purchase of health insurance, has fostered excessive use of health-care services, driving up costs. Rather than proposing any limit on this subsidy, Bush wants to make it more widely available, to people who buy health care and insurance on their own.

Under current law, employers who pay health insurance premiums for employees can deduct the payments as a business expense on their tax returns, and the payments are not counted as taxable income for the employees. But such subsidies are unavailable to people who buy insurance themselves. Bush sees that difference as unfair.

Allan B. Hubbard, assistant to the president for economic policy, said, "Health care purchased by an employer is done on a pretax basis, before your payroll taxes, before your income taxes. If you work for an employer who cannot afford to provide health insurance and so you go out and buy it, you have to use after-tax dollars."

People use health savings accounts to pay routine medical expenses and buy high-deductible insurance policies to cover larger expenses. Bush says this encourages people to take more responsibility for all aspects of their care, including its cost.

"It's the opposite of federal control," Bush told a group of small-business owners this month, in a preview of his speech to Congress. "It is patient control."

In Bush's first term, the number of people without health insurance increased more than 1 million a year, to 45.8 million in 2004, the last year for which official figures were available. The cost of health insurance for a family of four reached $10,880 last year, about 70 percent more than in 2000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Posted on Fri, Jan. 27, 2006

Bush's health care plan proves controversial before it's been offered

By Kevin G. Hall and Tony Pugh
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to use his State of the Union address Tuesday to propose using the tax code to create incentives for more Americans to seek health care coverage.

The president calls it "consumer-driven" health care, and it's part of his vision for an ownership society, where individuals, not the government, take greater responsibility for their health, wealth and retirement income.

Critics call it a fig leaf that will allow employers to further push the rising cost of health care onto employees.

Few topics are more controversial, and more resplendent with conflicting interest groups, than health care. It's sure to be a top issue in this year's congressional elections and during the next presidential race.

The White House has signaled that it would propose that all, or at least more, of out-of-pocket health-care spending be tax deductible. Currently, only medical spending exceeding 7.5 percent of income can be deducted.

Bush sees this as a fairness issue because employers get tax deductions for providing health plans - a break that was worth $188.5 billion in 2004, according to a study by the Lewin Group, a Virginia-based consultancy.

Meanwhile, covered employees aren't taxed on the value of their health plans and often can set aside pretax dollars for flexible spending programs. But the working poor and uninsured must often pay out of pocket for insurance and they get little tax relief.

The centerpiece of the president's proposal will be expanding the use of tax-free Health Savings Accounts, which are growing in number.

HSAs are patterned after the flexible-spending accounts allowed in many employer-sponsored health plans. An HSA allows an enrollee to put pretax dollars in interest-bearing accounts that, unlike flexible-spending accounts, can be rolled over each year and used for future medical, vision and dental care needs. If a contributor stays healthy, the account keeps growing.

Americans' spending on health care increased 7.9 percent to almost $1.9 trillion in 2004, the latest full-year figures available. That easily outpaced inflation and wage growth, and it accounted for a record 16 percent of the nation's gross domestic product - the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity.

An estimated 45.5 million Americans were uninsured in 2004, up 6 million since 2000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan research organization. And the number of employers providing health plans to their workers fell from 69 percent to 60 percent since 2000. For a family of four with employer-sponsored health plans, premiums have risen to an average of $10,800, or 73 percent, since 2000.

Against that backdrop, Bush is also expected to push anew for proposals that he failed to get through Congress, such as "association health plans" which would allow small businesses to join together and leverage the cost of providing health plans to employees.

He'll also call again for caps on medical malpractice lawsuits. Bush wants to cut down on "defensive medicine" - the practice of doctors ordering excessive medical tests to minimize the chance of being sued later for negligence.

"I don't think any seasoned health economist believes that if you lower malpractice (settlements), it's going to cut down on defensive medicine," said Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton University economist.

But debate is likely to center on Bush's push to expand HSAs, which can be set up in banks, credit unions and with Wall Street brokerage firms.

HSAs are already open to adults under 65, and they're required to work in tandem with high-deductible insurance plans. Participants accept deductibles of at least $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for families, compared with average deductibles of $300 and $600, respectively, for conventional employer-provided health plans. In exchange, they pay lower monthly premiums, which is appealing to younger, healthy workers.

For 2006, pretax HSA contributions by an individual or an employer on his behalf are capped at $2,700. Contributions for families are equal to the medical plan's family deductible, or $5,450, whichever is less.

HSAs were introduced in 2004. By March 2005, 1 million were established. America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, said Thursday that at least 3 million consumers are enrolled in HSAs.

"I think everyone is surprised by the robustness of this number. We had a sense, but we had no data," said Karen Ignagni, the group's president.

It will be another month before details are offered on age, income, demographics and how many participants in HSAs were previously uninsured. Research last year suggested that 38 percent of those enrolled were previously uninsured.

That's something the White House is touting.

"Forty-five million Americans are uninsured, and that's too high," said Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman.

Critics such as the National Coalition on Health Care argue that HSAs won't do much to significantly reduce the number of uninsured. Instead, they say, HSAs offer employers a chance to pass on to employees the rising cost of health care. Higher-deductible plans are now offered in a menu of choices, but over time they could be one of fewer options given workers.

"I think employers are going to be looking for cover, and by expanding the use of HSAs, it may provide some incentive to switch employees into high-deductible programs," said Joel Miller, a senior vice president for the coalition.

The White House rejects that charge.

"This has nothing to do with trying to undermine the employer-provided health care system. This is to build on it, to complement it," Duffy said.

No one disputes employers' interest in HSAs.

Philadelphia-based consultant Mercer Health and Benefits found in its annual survey of large companies last year that 35 percent offered HSAs.

UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation's largest health insurers, reports 1.5 million enrollments of individuals or employer groups in its high-deductible plans. About 654,000 of those were tied to HSAs at the start of 2006. Some 11,526 employers now offer HSAs through UnitedHealth Group, more than 10,000 of them smaller companies.

Large employers with 5,000 or more employees are interested, too.

"Entering 2006, fully one-third of our large employer clients are offering a (high-deductible plan) ... and we're hearing a lot more interest in total replacement strategies," said UnitedHealth Group spokesman Daryl Richard.

DiamondCluster International, a Chicago-based management consultancy, estimated that 15 million Americans will enroll in HSAs and high-deductible health plans before the decade's out.

"We see in this phase of the market's evolution the growth of HSAs is driven by small businesses, the uninsured and large employers that are just testing the waters," said Aamer Baig, a partner. "In the future, we see high-deductible plans and HSAs becoming quite mainstream" because employers are seeking ways "of reducing the health care burden themselves."