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Understanding Health Care Reform

May 07
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State Pensions Healthcare Cut Medicare

State Health Benefits for Retirees Being Slashed: What You Need to Know

By Making the Most of your Medicare, Understanding Health Care Reform

Many states are making significant cuts to healthcare options for retirees as the costs of medical care raise, a new article from the Wall Street Journal reports. The article, released on May 1st., 2019, highlights the issues many states share when it comes to fulfilling promised pension benefits that include healthcare coverage. History of State and Federally Covered Healthcare Benefits Historically, pensions were a savings vehicle for employees to plan their retirement, including healthcare coverage once they left the workforce. Pensions were available in both private and public sector jobs, only becoming less attainable by companies and organizations once vehicles like 401(k)s emerged as attractive options. If states were formerly employed by either the state in which they reside or the federal government, those entities would provide coverage for retirement benefits and even cover healthcare to some extent. How the 2008 Financial Crisis Impacted Retiree Healthcare Following the financial crisis…

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Sep 08
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What to expect for your 2017 Obamacare Plan

By Obamacare, Understanding Health Care Reform No Comments

Fixing the insurance exchanges By Bob Herman | August 6, 2016 Like basketball players who are sick of losing a game, many health insurers who ventured into the new marketplaces are sending a clear message: We’re taking our ball and going home. And if the government wants them to play again, they want more of the rules changed. The large publicly traded insurers wrapped up second-quarter results last week. Adverse selection continued to weigh down the finances of health plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. More companies are dropping enrollment to satisfy investors. But many health policy experts say the Obama administration will alter the still-nascent exchanges to make them more financially palatable for insurers. The marketplaces also will shift to even more high-deductible, narrow-network plans that are common in managed Medicaid. “I do remain bullish on the marketplaces,” said Katherine Hempstead, a senior adviser at the Robert Wood…

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Apr 24
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Big retirement mistake: Boomers with no estate plan

By Making the Most of your Medicare, Uncategorized, Understanding Health Care Reform No Comments

Many Baby Boomers are neglecting a key part of their retirement plans — creating an estate plan. And while death is not a pleasant thing to think about, death without an estate plan can create havoc for your surviving family members, financial planners warn. “I think that on a list of things to do, it’s at the bottom, if it even makes the list,” says Nicole Hart, director of trusts and estates at Sontag Advisory, a New York-based wealth adviser. It’s important not to look at financial planning in a vacuum,” says Manhattan estate planning and elder care attorney Ann-Margaret Carrozza. “Estate planning is intertwined with the financial plan.” “If you are looking at Baby Boomers, they are looking at what their cash flow will be in retirement,” says Carol Kroch, managing director, wealth and philanthropic planning at Wilmington Trust in Wilmington, Del. “Can they do the things they want…

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Jan 12
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“Dallas Buyers Club” Missouri’s “Right to Try” law

By Making the Most of your Medicare, Uncategorized, Understanding Health Care Reform, Wellness Wednesday No Comments

Whether it’s colon cancer, pancreatic cancer or other variation of terminal illness many clients who exhaust their treatment options now have a beacon of hope thanks to a new law that went into effect last year. Missouri became the second state after Colorado to put a “Right to Try” law into effect. The Right to Try “RTT” bill (HB 1685) empowers terminally ill patients the right to try medications that have not been approved by the FDA. The RTT bill aims to hasten access to unapproved drugs by eliminating the FDA’s role in the process. Since the 1960s, FDA has mandated  that medications go through a rigorous three-stage investigation before doctors can prescribe them.  RTT laws will help patients running out of time to expedite this process to obtain medication that may otherwise take as long as a decade to receive FDA approval. Read more on experimental therapy and how other…

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Jan 04
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The Liberation of Growing Old

By Making the Most of your Medicare, Understanding Health Care Reform No Comments

  Great read on Ageism! If we make the world better for old people, we make it better for everyone! The best part of my job is working side by side with people 65 and older: parents, grandparents…even great grandparents. A few weeks back one of my clients, an astute 95 yr old, told me stories of what it was like to grow up in the 30’s and 40’s. He was born in Italy and came over to the States upon which he met his wife and started his own business. He had extensive travel experience with plenty of ups and downs in his business affairs. All of which, he shared. Since it was nearly lunch I decided to change the subject to something a bit more saucy. Italian Food. I wanted his take on the Italian food scene in Saint Louis. Specifically, who has the best lasagne. His answer:…

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