Health Reform for REALTORS®, Explained

This is timely news for us, as my husband's COBRA will soon be drawing to a close.

One thing is for sure... "You will absolutely be able to keep your current coverage as long as you like" doesn't apply to us...  Thank you Mr. President. 

Thanks for the details on health reform.  Good read.

Thanks for posting the link to the Web session. Hopefully it will be informative.

This is PRIVATE insurance folks.  The government isn't taking over anything.  For those of you who are not insured - ARE YOU CRAZY????  A simple appendicitis could leave you bankrupt.  Going uninsured a good way to destroy everything you've built.  Way too many healthy and young people are rolling the dice.  They had to be forced onto policies.  There are many reasons for this:

1. When you roll the dice - you are doing so with OUR money...Taxpayer money that is. Our laws are clear - a hospital MUST accept and treat an emergency patient.  Period. If you are uninsured, although the hospital and doctors will try to recover the money, those who are insured and the taxpayers will probably end up paying a good portion of your freight - after you are bankrupt that is.

2. The very people rolling the dice are in the low risk pool (Which is why they were gambling that they would stay healthy)  Having these people on the insurance rolls lowers the risk pool - and premiums along with it.  It is one of the few ways available to control costs.

3.  For reasons sighted above - NOT having insurance is giving people the liberty to "sponge" of the system that is being supported by the insured.  You might want to call having insurance a form or PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and a responsibility that you have to society. 

The alternative is to leave accident victims and people having heart attacks out on the street to die if they can't prove they are insured.

Also, I do not see how forcing insurers to cover pre-existing conditions is a bad thing...nor how it is a bad thing to allow  young people who are having a very difficult time finding work remain on their parent's policies a few more years.

Thanks for the heads up- I will definatly catch that webinar!

This bill will do nothing for Realtors.  Nothing in this "reform" does anything to lower the cost of healthcare or health insurance - it just forces people to pay for it.  Since we already pay for health insurance, this bill is likely to cause premiums to rise (even though the government says it won't - the math doesn't add up).  In a few years, the cost of insurance and taxes will get out of control and we will be begging for a public option.  That is when the government will really take over (like they wanted from the onset).

~Lisa

I'm sure it will end up as complicated and idiotic as our tax code.

This is one big Cluster ----!  Perhaps the NAR should have done more to fight this.  I would not count on this law lasting long.

A response to the group and especially Ruthmarie #16:

- Forcing people to buy healthcare is at the point of a gun....it's enforced by the IRS and yes IRS agents carry guns. That's not my idea of America...

- Obama already stated in his campaign speeches (prior to being elected) that this is just the first round. By the time this thing is in full effect for a few years, the gov't will be the single payer. Yes they make billions, but insurance companies have a NET profit of less than 4% - one of the lowest profit margins of any industry. Meddling and mandates by gov't will only add to the complexity and cost of healthcare and reduce quality. I don't buy the argument that adding folks to the pool will lower costs. Gov't never made anything cheaper.

- Your 26 YEAR OLD "child" can be on your plan??? I already owned my own home and payed for my own insurance by the age of 26. GROW UP PEOPLE!

- The "LOW-RISK" people are mostly 20-somethings that have iPhones and Cancun vacations instead of insurance. If they get sick, I'm not overly interested in helping them - sell your Beemer and pay up. The people really putting the pressure on the system, at least in Arizona, are illegals - over 450,000 in our state alone - who show up at the emergency rooms for the sniffles.

- Last but not least, is the cost-shifting mandated by the bill - an estimated $11 billion in costs shifted from the Feds to our state (AZ). Where are we going to come up with that??? We're already $2 billion in the hole and just had to raise our sales taxes AGAIN, already some of the highest anywhere.

Health care and insurance is one to the main things I worry about for the future.  I don't think I can ever retire.

Most agents I know have no health coverage of their own (unless the spouse has a plan from work) and fall on the government to help them when they do become ill. Most of the senior citizens I know have no plan and relie on the Medicare and Medicade programs - run by the government. Most of the hospitals are now privately owned and supply little for emergency room service to the local population. Most of those crying here don't seem to know what they are crying about. Maybe they should attend the seminar?

I've very thankful for the healthcare reform because now my 19 year old son will have reasonable health coverage under my family policy (courtesy of Uncle Sam as I'm retired military) until he's 26 now! 

Dan #22....Thank you..

If we had not created all these "programs" people would still be trying to take care of themselves and not expecting to be taken care of....I would rather make my OWN decisions than to have the government making them for me!  Freedom of Choice...

They went too far trying to fix what was not the real problem. I say it's time for a good old fashioned recall election.  Good concise info though, thanks for sharing.

Are you all truly not aware of the fact that the dems stopped bills that would have allowed us to purchase health insurance across state lines? Having the ability to form a group and do that would have benefitted real estate agents and many other groups. If, as so many seem to STILL believe, the government wants to 'help' us lower costs via private insurance, why did they defeat that bill?  I've asked this question many times, and NO ONE has answered it!

I pay for my insurance every month, I don't know why everyone else can't do the same thing.

If your single your new ins will cost for taxes $10,800 per year, family of 4 cost for taxes will be $23,600 per year to be set by the the new Federal Commissioner of Ins.

I just read these comments and I cannot believe the BS I am reading.  If people do not understand what is really going on with health insurance they really should not comment.  It is one thing to have an opinion, but another to say something that is completely untrue because of your politics.  We already have a monopoly with health care in this country.  It is not run by the government, however, but by big Pharma, the insurance companies, & the AMA.  If anyone actually wants to have a real non political conversation about this so you can understand how and why this is, feel free to give me a call.  Or, just Google any related terms and start reading.

Jiruis,

Thank you for calling out those blinded by their political alliances.  To those questioning why NAR didn't do something about this... When I was on the board of directors, one of our top priorities every year was to get an association health care bill passed.  It always got mired down and killed in committee by those with big pharma dollars in their campaign chests.  I do think they could have done a lot more effective job of fixing the problem than they did but I still think it's better than what we had.