In the last few months we’ve seen a lot of Health Care Reform rulesregulations being introduced by the HealthHuman Services Department. Every time that happens, the media gets hold of itall kinds of articles are written in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times,the TV network news programs talk about it. All the analysts start talking about the proscons,what it means to businessesindividuals.
The problem with this is, many times one writer looked at the regulation,wrote a piece about it. Then other writers start using pieces from that first articlerewriting parts to fit their article. By the time the information gets widely distributed, the actual regulationsrules get twisteddistorted,what actually shows up in the media sometimes just doesn’t truly represent the reality of what the regulations say.
There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what is going on with ObamaCare,one of the things that I’ve noticed in discussions with clients, is that there’s an underlying set of myths that people have picked up about health care reform that just aren’t true. But because of all they’ve heard in the media, people believe these myths are actually true.
Today we’re going to talk about three myths I hear most commonly. Not everybody believes these myths, but enough do,others are unsure what to believe, so it warrants dispelling these myths now.
The first one is that health care reform only affects uninsured people. The second one is that Medicare benefitsthe Medicare program isn’t going to be affected by health care reform. And then the last one is that health care reform is going to reduce the costs of healthcare.
Health Care Reform Only Affects Uninsured
Let’s look at the first myth about health care reform only affecting uninsured people. In a lot of the discussions I have with clients, there are several expressions they use: “I already have coverage, so I won’t be affected by ObamaCare,” or “I’ll just keep my grandfathered health insurance plan,”the last one –this one I can give them a little bit of leeway, because part of what they’re saying is true — is “I have group health insurance, so I won’t be affected by health care reform.”
Well, the reality is that health care reform is actually going to affect everybody. Starting in 2014, we’re going to have a whole new set of health plans,those plans have very rich benefits with lots of extra features that the existing plans today don’t offer. So these new plans are going to be higher cost.