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Health Insurance Hurt By Recession in California
Posted by | Posted in Personal Health | Posted on 18-07-2010
California health insurance is being greatly affected by the long run of this current recession according to a UC Berkeley report. Jobs being lost are the primary reason, in addition to employers reducing their benefit packages for employess. Health insurance is very expensive even if the employee is paying part of the premium.
Unbelievably, 500,000 California residents have seen their health insurance disappear since November 2007. This is the Berkeley report begin date of this recession, reported by the San Francisco Gate. There has been a decrease in the number of employers offering health insurance since the year 2000.
Of all the Americans who lost health insurance coverage during this recession, 13.5 percent of those call California home. There are a total of 3.7 million Americans who have lost their health insurance since the beginning of the recession. The numbers are conservative according to the Berkeley researchers.
If the present trend of increasing health costs and decreasing employer participation continue the future is looking dim for health insurance coverage. Even if the economy recovers the report estimates an additional 600,000 in California and 4 million nationwide may become uninsured reports the researchers.
Your insurance coverage needs to grow as you increase your assets through your sweat equity. It’s necessary to have an excellent health insurance plan to protect you and your family with high percentage coverage.
Policy interventions excluded, the recovery will not happen from this point forward. The population explosion along with this continual decline of numbers of people with insurance coverage, uninsured persons total will increase according to Ken Jacobs, co-author of the report and Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education Chairman.
Watch the video related to personal health insurance
The Freedom Tower has been lost prior to its completion. Symbols can be telling things. The World Trade Center was a symbol of vision; in contrast what does One World Trade Center tell us? It is a symbol of limitation, insecurity, and government-corruption. The base of the tower which has been built to be indestructible rests on a national foundation rapidly moving into oligarchical-fascism and thus destruction.
Help answer the question about personal health insurance
What is the best option for personal health insurance?I am recently coming to the end of my COBRA 18 month policy that I took after ending my last job. I am my own boss, and I am wondering how to go about seeing which providers would be a good fit. I currently have Blue Cross/ Blue Shield. Is there a way to keep the same policy and just pay a normal premium?
You can easily check your minimal health care rates in internet, for example here – health-quotes.talk4fun.net
Way to go Dave! Thanks for standing up for us!
Is this an S-corp or a C-corp?
If it's an S-corp, the premiums are included in the wages on the W-2, but then excluded as an adjustment on the front of the 1040. It wouldn't make a difference on collecting EIC.
Edit, as 100% owner of the S-corp, he *can't* deduct it any other way. The IRS will figure this out on an audit and then BOTH of you will owe the excess refund back.
See page 15, column 1 and column 2 of the 1120s instructions. Specifically the part about insurance being included in box 1 of W-2 and deducted on line 29 of the 1040.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1120s.pdf
And no, it doesn't come out the same for EIC.
Claiming $30K in wages vs claiming $33K in wages and subtracting $3000 in premiums is a difference of $2447 in EIC vs. $1816. The excess $631 is illegal.
Since you've already identified the issue–that the bogus calculation makes you eligible for EIC when it shouldn't, don't sign.
As long as you keep asking these vague questions, you'll never get intelligent responses.
They try to do it in thirty days, however, it can take longer due to obtaining the necessary doctors reports. I have seen it done in fifteen days and as long as five months. It also depends if you are going on a group plan or as and individual…Good Luck….
You need a trusted adviser to help you through the process of purchasing health insurance so that you understand what you are purchasing. Some may suggest going on line to get a quote but you probably already know that there is much more to health insurance than price. Some might even suggest a discount plan which is not insurance at all.
Ultimately, you are the one who determines the affordability of your health insurance plan by deciding how much you will participate in sharing the cost of your health care with your insurance company.
If you choose a plan that covers everything i.e. doctors office visits, prescription drugs, preventative health benefits, maternity coverage as well as low deductibles and low copays your monthly premiums will be significant.
On the other hand if you are reasonably healthy and use the health care system infrequently you could consider a plan that covers only the major health catastrophe which will result in a relatively low monthly premium. You then can use the monthly premium savings to pay for the occasional doctor visit and still come out ahead.
You might also consider a temporary health insurance policy if you anticipate getting another job with benefits.
Check with the agent that writes your home or auto insurance he/she can provide you a health insurance proposal that takes into account your budget and health situation. They can answer questions as to what is and is not covered by the policy, explain deductibles and copays and show you the hospitals and doctors that participate in the network.
Use the Internet to educate yourself but use an agent to purchase the coverage.
YOU need to obtain it from your prior insurer.
Unfortunately, affordable for someone 54 isn't likely. Well, I guess affordable is a relative term.
It depends on your geographic location. I assume that you're in CA. If so, your best bet is to apply for coverage through a group (in CA a group is 2 or more people). If you don't have a group, create one with a friend or colleague. If I'm not mistaken, groups cannot be denied coverage. The insurance companies don't have to make the coverage cheap but they have to provide it. Best of luck!
My husband is a retired Marine, so we use Tricare for our insurance. We pay only $115 every quarter, so we are very fortunate to have insurance for such a low cost. This price includes all family members, including kids until they're 21, or 23 if they're a student full time. The only problem I've had and many people have gone through the same thing is that they've switched formularies several times on some medication I take, forcing me to switch to another brand or I would have had to pay a much higher co-pay. And one time I had to have a procedure done and they made me go to a military base to have it done instead of going to a regular doctor out in town. If you're within so many miles of a base and need something done, they will probably make you go to the base. We lived farther away than the maximum miles, but I still had to go to the base.. It wasn't no big deal, but I would have liked to have stayed with a local doctor. We previously used Aetna with my husband's former employer because my employer didn't take Tricare (a doctor's office) and our co-pays were written off since we were employees. I never had any problems with Aetna.