Morning Headline Roundup for 10/11/2010

Quotebroker gets you caught up with today's healthcare stories in our morning article roundup.  What's making headlines today?

•  The self-employed moved closer to bridging the healthcare gap on businesses in 2010  says AOMID news.  Healthcare premiums are now deductible as a business expense. However, this benefit may be short lived.
•  Deducting healthcare expenses is easier than ever ....in Canada, according to the New Brunswick Business Journal.  Should the USA take another cue from our neighbors to the North?
• Al Franken believes healthcare reform has benefitted...Minnesotans, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. 
• One of health care reforms biggest supporters agrees to ax the bill...if it cannot be fixed, says UPI.  Is this a campaign tactic or a legitimate change of heart?  As more and more politicians distance themselves from healthcare reform, it begs the question- should we review portions of the bill or even perhaps the entire law?
  

Health Care Bill Contains Real Estate Tax

Democratic lawmakers decided on a new 3.8 percent tax on the net investment income of high-income persons. But the claim that this would amount to a $15,200 tax on the sale of a typical $400,000 home is false.

Individuals with incomes over $200,000 a year ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly) will be subject to it. And even for those who have such high incomes, the tax still won’t apply to the first $250,000 on profits from the sale of a personal residence — or to the first $500,000 in the case of a married couple selling their home.

This provision begins on page 33 of the reconciliation bill that was passed and signed into law. and it does say the tax falls on "net gain … attributable to the disposition of property." That would include the sale of a home. But the bill also says the tax falls only on that portion of any gain that is "taken into account in computing taxable income" under the existing tax code. And the fact is, the first $250,000 in profit on the sale of a primary residence (or $500,000 in the case of a married couple) is excluded from taxable income already. (That exclusion doesn’t apply to vacation homes or rental properties.)

The Joint Committee on Taxation, the group of nonpartisan tax experts that Congress relies on to analyze tax proposals, underscores this in a footnote on page 139 of its report on the bill. The note states: "Gross income does not include … excluded gain from the sale of a principal residence."

The sort of people affected, might include:

• A single executive making $210,000 a year who sells his $300,000 ski condo for a $50,000 profit. His tax on the sale of that vacation home would amount to $1,900, in addition to the capital gains tax he would have paid anyway.
• An "empty nester" couple with combined income of over $250,000 a year who sell their $1 million primary residence to move to smaller quarters. If they cleared $600,000 on the sale, they would be taxed on $100,000 of the profit (the amount over the half-million-dollar exclusion). Their health care tax on the sale would amount to $3,800 over and above the usual capital gains levy.

For the vast majority, the 3.8 percent tax won’t apply. The Tax Foundation, in a report released April 15, said the new tax on investment income (including real estate) "will hit approximately the top-earning two percent of families" when it takes effect in 2013.

The Internal Revenue Service says that to qualify for the $250,000/$500,000 exclusion, a seller must have owned the home and lived there as the seller’s "main home" for at least two years out of the five years prior to the sale.

Health reform bills allow insurers to charge older people more.

Health reform bills allow insurers to charge older people more.

The Los Angeles Times (11/9, Oliphant) reports that "the far-reaching clampdown on insurers" in the health reform bills "leaves one highly controversial element untouched: the issue of charging higher premiums to older policyholders than to younger, presumably healthier consumers who are less likely to file costly claims." Both the House and Senate bills allow insurers "to charge middle-aged consumers at least twice as much as they do younger customers. And depending on the ultimate language of the Senate bill, insurers could be allowed to demand four or five times as much." While "advocates for older Americans argue that age rating amounts to discrimination," the "insurance industry argues that age rating is necessary to make coverage affordable for younger people, whose participation in the system is critical to keeping the overall costs of insurance down for everyone."

As Healthcare reform makes it's way through the House and Senate, online insurance quoting traffic is increasing. QuoteBroker.com reports that insurance companies continue to change public plan options and new plans are being introduced monthy, compared to annually, before Heathcare Reform was introduced earlier this year. QuoteBroker.com provides individual health insurance, family health insurance and business employee benefits; allowing customers to use their free online health insurance quoting tools. With this system you can instantly shop insurance companies insurance premiums, benefits and apply online for coverage.

Keep informed and bookmark this link for more information or to compare health coverage options.

Healthcare Reform Unlikely in "09"

The last two weeks financial crisis has Washington insiders expressing their concerns that there will not be any significant health care reform in the next year or beyond. Some political strategists have suggested that we may see "baby steps" or small health reform changes over the next twelve months.

Meanwhile the House Ways and Means Committee has introduced a Health Information technology bill that will encourage insurance providers to invest in electronic systems. These systems will be necessary to better improve the customer and insurance carriers need to provide accurate and vital information. Such a measure will especially be useful in potentially cutting the cost of prescription medications by avoiding over prescribing medications if more than one healthcare provider is used, as well as providing the ability to share information to provide better medical care.

Online insurance broker's have already started to adapt to the new technology wave by allowing individuals the opportunity to shop for affordable health insurance plans online, using the same information systems that were formally only available to insurance insiders. Instantly shop, quote and compare plans online 24/7. There is even a feature to allow you to apply online or download a paper application.

Universal Healthcare - A political promise without legs

This evening I was watching TV and almost every prime time commercial in California was a political ad positioning candidates for Super Tuesday. Hillary's commercial screamed " Everyone should be talking Universal Healthcare ".

We all agree that affordable Healthcare is important, however the government is not an entity with a proven track record of success in the fiscal or administrative systems for running another agency. Look at Social Security, Medicare, Medi-cal, Welfare, the IRS, Immigration or the local DMV. All of these government programs would be considered a financial mess, highly abused and dis-functional. Unfortunately the government is not an agency that can run a Universal Healthcare system, nor is a Universal system the answer.

Look at your local association health plans. Although they are marketed as a "Group Plan", they are often over-priced. This is due to the fact that unhealthy people flock to these plans to secure health insurance coverage. Healthy individuals join because they are under the impression that "Group is Cheaper". An association plan usually has very poor participation, with the healthy subsidizing the sick, or uninsureable. Once the rates exceed the cost of private health insurance plans on the open market - the healthy leave, the sick remain and the plan becomes unprofitable for the insurance carrier.This is called a polluted pool.

There are already systems in place for the poor that need to be improved. The focus should be to provide tax incentives for all Americans and Business owners that purchase private health insurance plans. The increase in plan participants will spread the risk, improve plan profitability and increase competition in the marketplace. If you belong to an Association Health insurance plan - take 5 minutes and compare your plan against the marketplace. Instantly compare all major insurance carriers providing coverage in your area. Click Here

California Healthcare Reform Shot Down

Healthcare reform goes down 7-1. Citing concerns that the plan could worsen the state's $14.5 billion budget deficit and unpredictable long term costs, the California Senate Health Committee voted 7-1 against the health care reform bill negotiated by Gov. Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez. Schwarzenegger vowed to continue his efforts to overhaul California's health care system.

Individuals & businesses in the Pacific and Southwestern states can review all state health insurance policy comparisons online at QuoteBroker