A New Year Brings Some New Resolutions! Happy 2016! CCA

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  Blessings for a wonderful New Year!

 With luck, I hope that your new year’s resolutions include attention to fitness and taking care of your own individual physical gifts.Of course, care of self doesn’t stop at the physical body but includes the mind, body and spirit.It is only with the unity of all three that we can truly achieve good health.With the constant stress of our modern world, it’s important to remember that preventative care, including a balanced diet, exercise, yoga, and meditation, is the key to healthy living.We must take care of ourselves in order to create a better tomorrow.  

Major changes in our 2016 market:

As of January 1, 2016, two major changes have occurred in the small group marketplace.First of all, the definition of a small business in California has expanded to include groups with 1-100 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees.Second, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Employer Mandate now requires businesses with at least 50 full-time equivalent employees to provide health coverage for their employees and dependents or face a tax penalty.To respond to these huge marketplace changes, the A+ team & myself are working around the clock to provide critical assistance to all of our new and existing clients. We leave no stone unturned in aiding businesses with all aspects of their health care plans.No question is too large or too small. We have it all wrapped up.I hope that by now you know that we are always here to help! 2015 was a tough year, due to the last quarter renewal cycles for Small Groups, Individuals, and senior 65+. The impossible volumes of work created by the market disruption and seasonality caused a huge delay on the part of the carriers and lots of mistakes were made.Our new healthcare system has brought us many changes including higher deductibles and higher out of pocket expenses. 

 Healthcare solutions 2016: 

Lowering health insurance premiums can majorly happen with our help,if we can all unify our efforts, as a population, we lower the costs of health care.“Population Health” is all about keeping yourself healthy and out of the hospital.The idea gained traction in 2015. Accountable Care Organizations and Bundled-Care Plans help link patients to a full spectrum of services, from preventive care to highly specialized hospital care and other methods of eliminating wasteful spending in our health care system. The key is that we need to take charge of our own health.It is never too late to start taking classes in yoga and learn how to meditate.Scientific studies have shown the many benefits reaped from both practices.Meditation is a powerful tool that helps to create a healthier and more positive lifestyle.The mind/body connection is an amazing, often untapped resource.If you listen to your own inner voice, you can actually learn how to heal your own body.Attention to diet is crucial. We are what we eat.The mind/body connection takes it one step further to say we are what we eat, think, believe and speak.Now is the time to open your mind and heal your body. I am sharing this guided meditation of how Cells can heal the body,as I find it very useful on my own journey to healing:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVqo5ncandk  

RX Medication:

Furthermore, prescription medication cost is the #1 driven cost of our healthcare system.As part of our unified efforts to lower overall healthcare cost in the U.S.,I recommend doing some online research when you are in need of prescription medication to find the pharmacy with the lowest prices for that specific medication.This quest to lower cost will benefit the system as a whole but each and every one of us  participates.For more information on this, please go to:www.goodrx.com *** This link will allow you to find the lowest cost for your prescription in your area.At this time, there are no easy solutions.Nonetheless, all of us must keep an eye on the constantly changing healthcare market in 2016.This will be a subject open to constant debate. 

Presidential Elections 2016:

In case you’ve been too busy to notice, the presidential elections are coming up in 2016.

Someone will inherit the challenges of either keeping or repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Recent surveys found that 85% of respondents said Obamacare will factor into their vote for the next president.

The polls are also evenly split on preferences on whether to keep or repeal the law.If repealed, the CBO estimates 14 million Americans would lose Medicaid coverage, 18 million would lose non-group coverage and about 24 million non-elderly U.S. residents would be uninsured.The CBO also estimates the cost of repealing the ACA would add $137 billion to our federal budgetdeficit over the next decade. No matter who wins the election, we are likely to see a rash of fix-it-up legislation and tweaking of existing laws.It’s going be huge! This is the time to get personally involved with your own health care.I will be updating you more often and you’ll be receiving more informative e-mails. I encourage you to do your own research to get familiar with what is coming our way.I am always here with the support of my team, working aggressively toward improving and maintaining the high quality of our client healthcare system. Chris Tomlinson recently touted a report by a colleague about how health insurance in the United States “is not enough” to protect from “a catastrophic health problem.” Tomlinson goes on to write that such conditions can cause serious financial problems and decries the existing insurance system in which, in spite of the ACA,“Americans...pay twice as much for health care than citizens of other developed countries where treatments are more successful and people are healthier.” Tomlinson cheers the idea of a single-payer system.He says that “we have socialized medicine in this country and it’s called Medicare. It works just fine and capitalism is still with us.”  

 2016 ACA enrollment update:

The Department of Health and Human Services announced that roughly 11.3 million Americans have enrolled in individual health plans through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges, including about 4 million people under the age of 35; that’s to say, the young and healthy population.The results may be influenced by rising penalties for non-coverage. We will continue to see growth in 2016 and the Department now says 26% of enrollees are between 18 and 34 years old.  More than 40% of the under-35 enrollees are new to the exchange or the private market. My own 2016 resolution as part of the A+ team is to continue our work and remain resilient and adapted to the changes in the same way that we handled the difficulties in 2015.Sometimes chaos creates new solutions and technology.Soon you will see A+ introducing effective new HR solutions, information, technology and updates.If 2015 has shown us anything, it’s that California continues to lead the country in innovation, technology, and policy.I am honored that you allow us to serve all of you and dedicated to working hard in 2016! May we all experience the love & light around us, Peace and Love from my heart to yours, Naama & the A+ team!

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