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For those seniors who missed the Part D open enrollment period in 2012, please remember that it's a once a year opportunity, but we'll be keep you apprised when the next one comes around.

Some of you may be receiving this newsletter for the first time. We have been expanding our outreach efforts, but by all means, if you are not interested in receiving future newsletters, please click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page. If we haven't spoken in a while and you have concerns about health insurance that we can help you with, please let us know.

Please ask about additional services and value-added products such as HR administration and online policy management tools. 

"Your expert advice is always appreciated. I literally don't know what I would do without you. You give me the most valuable gift of all: time."    --Scott Gordon 

Health Care Reform Timeline 2013

There are some minor but important changes coming this year on the way to the paradigm shift of 2014.

• FSA Health Care Contributions: Limited to $2,500 a year; indexed for inflation.
• Medical Expense Itemized Tax Deductions: Thresholds for claiming itemized tax deductions for medical expenses rise from 7.5% to 10% of income.
• Medical Device Manufacturers: Industry to pay 2.3% sales tax on medical devices; devices such as eyeglasses, contact lenses, and hearing aids exempt.
• Employee Notifications: Exchanges, premium subsidies and free choice vouchers.
• New Taxes on High Income Earners: Individuals making $200,000 a year / couples making $250,000; Increased Medicare payroll tax of 2.35% on earned income up from the current 1.45%; New tax of 3.8% on unearned income, such as dividends and interest also added.

In 2014, individuals and groups of all sizes will be eligible to be covered, regardless of preexisting conditions. State-based exchanges will come along early in 2014 to provide a useful and ideally more straightforward insurance marketplace for individuals and businesses. We will be qualified to work with these exchanges and help you find the best options for your needs.

What Lynn and Gabriel Did For Clients in 2012

In 2012, we provided expertise and problem solving for our full body of existing groups and helped more than 20 new groups attain company-sponsored policies. We helped more than a hundred individual and family clients obtain good coverage. We also helped dozens of seniors sort through the difficulties of signing up for competitive and useful Medicare Supplement policies. 

In short, we've worked through more knotty problems than we could hope to count without spreadsheets. 

We will continue to do the same for you and for all of our new clients. 

Ask What Services Cost

Because individual health care costs are so high, individuals are being forced to take high deductible plans and absorb a higher percentage of the cost of claims themselves. Most insurance companies no longer offering plans with deductibles under $1000 or $2000.

A client was justifiably upset because he had to pay $2500 for a CT scan he did not really need. What he hadn't thought about was whether he should go along with the provider recommendation saying "We'd better get a CT scan to see what is going on".

There is no business where costs are less well known than in health care. They vary dramatically from facility to facility and, because of various insurance write-offs, even within the same facility. We all need to be informed consumers and ask what services are going to cost.  We can use that information to shop around or decide if we want the procedure at all. In our client's case, the test showed nothing. Had he known the cost, he would have waited out the symptoms a little longer to see if they abated.

How Long Will You Live? 

About Caffrey Insurance Solutions