Excellent information and analysis, Dana. Interesting point about the label "Obamacare" and how it implies a national health care system, when it is not. Also, it's not a common point of discussion (but should be) that we pay for health insurance and only sometimes receive the medical care we need.
One other aspect that's becoming even more of a problem with the increase in remote work: insurance is organized at the state level.
When I first set up Wanderwell's group plan years ago, I spent months trying to find someone that would help me figure out how to support remote employees in other states. The standard answer was "you don't have to provide insurance to your employees, and you can't insure out of state employees anyway"... and that was it. Because I didn't have to, I shouldn't (and they were wrong about the out of state thing).
I finally found a broker who could think creatively, and figured it out...but since I moved the business to a new state, we've lost the group plan-- so I'm back to figuring out options all over again, and VT is waaaay more expensive than PA for the same exact plans through the same insurer. What's more, out of state employees need to obtain PPO plans and mostly see out of network providers, all of which is more expensive.
I haven't seen this issue talked about much anywhere, but it seems like something that's going to become a bigger problem as certain workforces are more distributed.
Nice clarifications. It’s always been my opinion that the biggest winner in the ACA were the insurance companies. It is great that we can all purchase coverage, yes, and have you seen those prices?
I love that you're tackling the terms we use when we describe "health care".
This is such an important big picture look at the US health insurance landscape.
Excellent information and analysis, Dana. Interesting point about the label "Obamacare" and how it implies a national health care system, when it is not. Also, it's not a common point of discussion (but should be) that we pay for health insurance and only sometimes receive the medical care we need.
And thanks very much for the newsletter mention!
One other aspect that's becoming even more of a problem with the increase in remote work: insurance is organized at the state level.
When I first set up Wanderwell's group plan years ago, I spent months trying to find someone that would help me figure out how to support remote employees in other states. The standard answer was "you don't have to provide insurance to your employees, and you can't insure out of state employees anyway"... and that was it. Because I didn't have to, I shouldn't (and they were wrong about the out of state thing).
I finally found a broker who could think creatively, and figured it out...but since I moved the business to a new state, we've lost the group plan-- so I'm back to figuring out options all over again, and VT is waaaay more expensive than PA for the same exact plans through the same insurer. What's more, out of state employees need to obtain PPO plans and mostly see out of network providers, all of which is more expensive.
I haven't seen this issue talked about much anywhere, but it seems like something that's going to become a bigger problem as certain workforces are more distributed.
Nice clarifications. It’s always been my opinion that the biggest winner in the ACA were the insurance companies. It is great that we can all purchase coverage, yes, and have you seen those prices?