I just wanted to let everyone know that I just finished my training and certification to represent Genworth Financial and sell their Long Term Care Insurance Policies. I personally own a policy and I feel this is the best insurance policy I have. We all insure our home, car, life and health. But, LTC is one of the greatest risks we face and the one that can deplete our assets quickly. The US Department of Health and Human Services www.longtermcare.gov states that 70% of people over 65 will need Long Term Care Services. So, if you are thinking it won’t or cannot happen to you the statistics are surprising. Of course, once the need arises you cannot purchase insurance.

The last thing I want to do is use my savings for assisted living and/or late in life nursing care or burden my family with care. Medicare doesn’t cover LTC and Medicaid only covers when you are broke ($2000 left).

Long Term Care Insurance basically brings the resources to a person’s home so that they don’t need to go to a home or assisted living and they can “stay home” and not self-fund at $60-90k per year. If you have or know someone that has gone through the emotional or financial pain or caring for a family member you may have experienced these costs and burdens 1st hand?

This product fits really well with financial planning too.

If you would like to learn more and understand your options please give me a call or visit my web site at CaliforniaInsuranceFinder.com

Don Ariosto
877-840-0554

The cost of health insurance is a significant issue for business owners, employees and families that purchase their own coverage in California.  I often receive information outlining costs and industry trends.  I thought it would be helpful to share some f this information to point out the cost drivers.

-Medical price inflation is driving 51% of the growth in medicare care spending

-Doctors in the US earn 2-3 times as much as other industrialized nations.

-More doctors are becoming specialist which charge twice as much as general and family doctors.  As an example between 1997 and 2006 compensation increased 97% for dermatologists, 78% for gastroenterologist and 65% for radiologist.

-Between 1997 and 2007 prices for prescription drugs grew at a rate of 2.5 times the rate of inflation.  There are some cancer drugs that cost $100,000 per treatment.  In the US half of the entire population takes at least 1 pill per day!  7% take 5 or more and 2/3 of all patients that leave a doctors office leave with a prescription.

-Life Style Factors: 10% of all claims are do to obesity; 25% of Americans smoke and 10%  all claims are due to smoking related illnesses. 60% of all Americans don’t exercise

Sure we can all blame the insurance companies for raising our rates. But, maybe we need to look at ourselves as part of the cause and the SOLUTION?  Remember that the health insurance model is based off the healthy people’s premiums cover the sick folks because their premiums are often nullified by claims.  If there are too many sick the carriers need to raise premiums to cover claims and have required government mandated reserves.  Blue Shield and Kaiser are non-profit and their rates are rising as quickly as the “for” profit carriers.

-Government regulations and mandates forcing carriers include comprehensive benefits without cost sharing.  For example preventative care is covered 100% without a co-pay. Prior to Health Care Reform it was a co-pay benefits.  The member would pay $30 (or whatever their co-pay is) and the carrier pays the balance. Now it is 100% carrier and times 350 million people that is a lot of money which then must be passed on to the rate payers to cover the claims.

Hope this helps. If you still have questions you can always call my office at 877-840-0554

Don Ariosto-Owner

CIF Insurance Agency Inc.

Many people call and email me asking  how do I find the best policy for the lowest premium?  Although this is the “million dollar” question and there is not a “one size fits all” approach there are a few secrets.  Let me try to break it down for you.  Most people are looking for catastrophic coverage. In other words, they are looking for a major medical plan that will keep them out of bankruptsy if a major medical event occurred.  I agree with this approach.  When looking for the right plan consider these factors:

1-Deductible-when will the insurance kick-in? Once a member has met their deductible then…..

2-C0-Insurance-  This is the % split between the member and the carrier after their deductible is met.

3-The MOST important # is called the OOP-Out of Pocket Maximum.  Once the member reaches their OOP or co-insurance maximum they are covered 100%.  Basically this is your “STOP LOSS”.

4-Bet on your good health and the event not occurring.  So, lean towards the higher deductible and keep your premium low.

Let’s look at a traditional policy with a deductible of $900, 60/40% co-insurance and an OOP of $3900.  Let’s say an insured broker his/her leg and required surgery and the bill came to $8,000.  They pay their deductible for the surgery which leaves a balance of $7,100.  Of that amount they are responsible for 40% or $2,840.  So, the cost to the member is $2840+$900 or $3,740.  They have almost met their $3,900 for the year.

Many of the plans only offer 2,3 or 4 office visits per year. These are the best plans for sale in the California Health Insurance market because these plans have the lower deductibles and OOP.  The plans with unlimited doctor visit co-pays have higher deductibles and OOP.

Lastly, most plans have generic Rx coverage without a prescription deductible to meet.  These are the less expensive plans. All plans in California that have brand RX coverage have a deductible of $500 before the co-pay applies.

If you have questions or want to review how your plan stacks up against plans for sale in today’s market give me a call at 877-840-0554 or visit my site at www.CaliforniaInsuranceFinder.com  Don Ariosto

Folks-check out my new FaceBook page at http://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaInsuranceFinder?ref=ts.  On this site I will be posting daily California and National Health Insurance news.  If you like the FB page please click on “LIKE”. 

You can also always visit my web site at www.CaliforniaInsuranceFinder.com if you are shopping for an individual or family quote.

Or go to http://www.californiainsurancefinder.com/Group-Health-Insurance.asp for group quote or http://www.californiainsurancefinder.com/life-insurance.asp for life insurance information and quote.  You can also reach me live at 877-840-0554.

Thanks

Don Ariosto

CIF Insurance Agency Inc

Huntington Beach, CA.

The Top 5 Things to Consider when buying Health Insurance:

1-Don’t just look at the deductible-look at the out of pocket maximum.  Most plans have co-insurance after the deductible is met.  Once a member reaches his/her deductible and is paying co-insurance what is the maximum out of pocket for the member. This is also called a stop loss. You can go to my web site at California Insurance Finder and compare health insurance plans in California. 

2-Office Visits: The 2011 trend is that most plan have a limited amount of office visits the member can pay a co-pay for the year.  These are really great plans for healthy people because these plans have low deductible and Out of Pocket Maximums.

3-Carrier Network:  Remember that when you have a PPO you can go in and out of the carriers network.  Please remember that going out of network greatly exposes your out of pocket expense.  So, check with your agent or the carriers web site to see if you doctor is “in” or “out” of network.

4-Prescription Coverage: Most plans have generic only coverage and the plans that have Brand Medication Coverage has a separate deductible (just for Brand Name) of $500

5-Ask you agent or broker if the carrier are offering a rate lock. A rate lock holds your premium for a specified amount of time. With all the Health Care Mandates and new legislation rates are going up faster than ever before.  A rate lock can really save you a lot of money.

If you have questions visit my site at www.CaliforniaInsuranceFinder.com or give me a call at 877-840-0554

Don Ariosto

CIF Insurance Agency Inc

Huntington Beach, CA.92648

Anthem Blue Cross policyholders in California are facing rate hikes that will average almost 15 percent. According to Anthem these policy holders are not the same that received the previous rate increase.

Although no rate hikes are good their appears to be a trend in California that rates may be leveling?  At this point no one knows if this is due to previous large rate hikes compensating for claims or if health care costs are leveling? Only time will tell.  However, everyone agrees that health care costs are still raising faster than the rate of inflation and the true cost of the Health Care Reform Law are still  in question and to be determined by the policy holders actual claims.  At this point most industry experts agree that the bill will not deliver lower rates-as promised.

Anthem anticipates this rate hike to affect about 150,000 policy holders.  An Independent actuary found that the rate increase to be merited and reasonable to compensate for actual claims and to meet federal and state insurer reserve requirements.  The latest hike is scheduled to take effect May 1.  This recent rate increase does not affect the California Small Group Market.

If you are in California and wish to shop other carriers or consider other Anthem plan my web site at www.CaliforniaInsuranceFinder.com and a great resource or you can call me direct at 877-840-0554.

Don Ariosto-CIF Insurance Agency

Huntington Beach, CA.

Folks

We continue to stay on top of all the new legislation that is shaping how Califonrnia Insurance and other states will be affected.  Check out the new video we have prepared.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soblzLmw1Zk

Thank you

Don Ariosto-President

CIF Video

877-840-0554

Well, it appears that it is-for now. With the public speaking out via the election in Mass I believe Obama and the Dems will need to pull back on their agenda.  However, without some type of “reform”, which was one of Obama’s campaign platforms I think Pelosi and Reid will not give up and they will try to re-work the bill in a much more centrist format.

Let’s wait and see what the version of “health care reform” brings us and how it will affect the California Health Insurance Market-both individual, family and group health insurance.

Your comments are appreciated and welcome.

OK so Obama is stating the his program is revenue neutral.  For those of you who believe that-please allow me to present a few facts and opinions.

1-The Senate Finance Committee “carefully” drafted a bill that assumes that cuts in Medicare will save $200 billion with cuts to the “Sustainable Growth Rate” cuts to Medicare spending through 2012 and beyond.  (Sound the trumpets please)…  These same requirements drafted by the CBO have been in place since 2003-and every year Congress has vetoed these same cuts. The assumption that Congress will all of a sudden get financially prudent is silly and certainly not realistic to budget savings accordingly.

2-Another similar analysis applies to the other 200 billion that the government seeks to cut from fraud, waste and abuse from Medicare and other federal health care spending. Well, hasn’t the government been promising to do this since my parents were born? Every now and then a little “fingernail” get’s trimmed.  But, the last time I checked the spending keeps rising and proportionately fraud and waste follow right behind.  Please explain how this pattern is now all of a sudden going to change?

3-It also worth noting that the Baucus bill includes more spending than cuts.  The biggest is the 40% tax on health insurance plans in excess of $8,000 for individual and $21,000 for families-the “Cadillac” plans.

So, to sum this up provided that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east I think the Obama care health care bill will be (1) deficit neutral, (2) be on budget and (3) reduce the budget-as stated.