More Cannon Fire

Cato Institute Director of Health Policy Studies (and FoIB) Michael Cannon summarizes most of ObamaCare's broken promises and failed metrics.

Here's a quick summary, courtesy of Americans for Prosperity:

And now for something....

Completely different:



[Courtesy Ace of Spades]

Chag Chanuka Sameyach!

This evening marks the first night of Chanukah 5777 (2016). To help us get into the spirit, here's inspirational new music from Nefesh Mountain:

The Christmas That Almost Wasn't

Hard to believe, but a Christmas favorite for young and old almost never happened.

Charlie Brown and all the characters of the comic strip Peanuts have been loved by children and adults for years. The complex personalities, dialogue and carefully crafted stories brought to life in a few frames on a printed page are sheer genius.

Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts, offered this synopsis of the comic strip. “All the loves in the strip are unrequited; all the baseball games are lost; all the test scores are D-minuses; the Great Pumpkin never comes; and the football is always pulled away.” - Smithsonian Magazine

But through all the disappointments there are triumphs and lessons in life. Peanuts offers intriguing insight into the human psyche through the eyes of children.

Until 1965 Christmas themed television shows consisted mostly of old movies with a smattering of cartoon shows aimed at children. The animated "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" had been a hit for years. But was the TV viewing audience ready for a Christmas show with Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy and the gang?

When the show aired for executives at CBS they were underwhelmed. The voices weren't right. The story didn't fit their idea of what a children's Christmas cartoon should look like.

And then there was the closing scene.

As Lucy and the gang walk off the stage leaving Charlie Brown to exclaim "Doesn't anyone know what Christmas is about?", enter Linus, stage left. Out of the mouths of babes come wise sayings. Linus' 60 second soliloquy sums up the meaning of Christ's mass, or what we refer to as Christmas.

From our house to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas. Blessings.

Making a Difference

As I wrap up another year in the insurance industry I would like to share a story with IB readers about why we do what we do in our “real jobs”. The story highlights the highs and lows we go through with our clients. It’s a story that most people never see because it’s the behind the scenes work that doesn’t make headlines or front page news. In fact, the likelihood is slim that this story would even be reported on. So, I’m asking you to please read on. If you enjoy the story, please share it with others.

I am blessed to have strong support staff that I work with every day. They are a huge part of a team that integrates benefits administration, human resource assistance, claims management services, and wellness coordination programs for our clients.

In July, we set up another wellness challenge for a client in coordination with their insurance renewal. These challenges have been very successful in the past and with this challenge we created a competitive environment with teams battling each other for a prize at the end (which I agreed to provide). The challenge ended at the end of August and the winning team of ten employees was looking forward to an evening at a comedy show.

Then came news that nobody could have imagined. One of the employees on the winning team had a family emergency. The employee’s daughter had an apparent emergency gall bladder attack. She was away at college when it began. That night, during the surgery, they found out this young 19-year-old had cancer. That was September 2nd. On September 5th, she was told that the cancer was in her abdomen and extremely aggressive. Treatment began right away. But unfortunately, just 31 days later the young lady passed away.

This is a very close employer with just over 60 employees in a small town. The wellness challenge was put on the back burner. That prize became irrelevant. The focus was now on helping one of their own. And we were there. Helping in ways that most employees didn’t even know.
From the day of diagnosis our team worked with the company ownership and management in guiding them with counsel through the FMLA process. As fundraisers were held during the month she went through treatment, the VP of Operations for the company came to us with a question and asked for our help. The VP wanted to know what financial responsibility the employee would incur under their company health plan. She also wanted to know how claims would process.

This is one of those “feeling punched in the stomach” moments in our business – one that many never face. The reality of this family saying goodbye to a loved one – especially a child – then facing the heaps of mail from doctors, hospitals, labs, and the insurance company. It’s overwhelming, painful, emotional, and creates stress and anxiety. All things we don’t want the family to face. So, we did what any broker can do. We asked the company if we could assist. We requested that the family send us all the mail they received.

That’s exactly what they did. The employee, after being gone for three weeks to be with her daughter, gathered all the mail and brought it to her employer. They sent a package to us via FedEx with a small stack of insurance company EOB’s and several bills from providers. Our team sorted and consolidated these statements and bills. We spent time on the phone with United Health Care, The James Cancer Center in Columbus, numerous provider offices, and many other places. These calls were made to have claims adjusted and reprocessed to make sure that this family didn’t have to bear any burden of fighting through a complex system. In the end, we came up with a final audit of all bills and patient responsibility. We were able to share with the family exactly what they owed and to whom. It gave them peace of mind in knowing that the insurance was there and would keep them from a financial catastrophe. It allowed them to grieve without additional emotional stress. It provided them with a voice that they could count on that was working in their best interest. In an email we received from the family this is what they had to say:

“Thank you for all your help with everything! Without your assistance, this process would have been a bigger headache on top of the emotional rollercoaster and devastation my family has went through. I just hope you realize how much you are appreciated and all the hard work you have done has helped our family tremendously!”  

“Thank you so much for everything you do!”

Health insurance is important. The help we provide as a broker is essential. It is what we do. It’s the relationship. It’s the feeling of help and support. It’s knowing that we have a unique skill of understanding a complex system full of twists and turns that many of us take for granted.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Next week it will be 2017. I will spend time these next ten days with my friends and family. It’s unlikely that I will spend time with my team. I hope they know how much I appreciate them and will never take them for granted. To Pam, Joan, Michelle, Lindsay, Sanaa, and Cindy, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

To my co-bloggers, Hank, Bob, Mike, Kelley, and Bill, as well as all of you who read my gibberish here at IB, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you.

Without your support I would be nothing more than a simple insurance agent. But with you we do great things. This story is just one example of the impact we have.

Euphemism Insurance

So this arrives in email:

"Key Person Failure to Survive"

Now granted, the product itself is kinda cool (high value life insurance plans with no exam and a one page application). But "Failure to Survive"‽

 /sigh

HRA Cure-all's

So, our good friends at Cornerstone sent us this news:

"President Obama Signs CURES Act into Law"

For a while now, small employers (under 50 full-time employees) have been prohibited from helping their employees with unaffordable ObamaPlans by funding their Heath Reimbursement Arrangements with cash for premiums.

This new legislation specifically "enable[s] small employers with fewer than 50 full-time employees to fund qualified stand-alone HRAs. Employees may use the HRA to pay for qualified out-of-pocket medical expenses, including individual polices purchased through the public exchanges."

I reached out to our gurus of all things HRA (and HSA, and FSA) at FlexBank, who confirmed that this does seem to mean that employers can finally go back to throwing premium dollars into tax-advantaged HRAs. There are, of course, some important caveats and restrictions: for example, no subsidies while using HRA funds for premiums, and it's available only to those smaller employers who don't offer group health insurance.

Unfortunately, little actual official guidance is available yet, so we have just the basics. But this is still good news for those smaller employers and their employees.

Stay tuned...

Because of *course* they did

A few months back, we reported on how easy it seemed to be to enroll fake people in the Federal Exchange:

"[F]ederal watchdog office did set up 10 phony insurance coverage accounts with no pushback from those overseeing the applications."

Which was in fact a marked improvement from the previous time we'd looked.

But time marches on, and now that Phase 1 of this year's Open Enrollment season is past, things have improved, right?

Um....

"Healthcare.gov and its state marketplaces approved health care coverage and subsidies for nine fake applicants in another Government Accountability Office sting"

Which is actually not so bad, when one considers that ObamaPlans are themselves pretty much fake insurance. Now, nine "people" out of the (presumably) tens of thousands who signed up doesn't seem like a lot, but here's the rub: that's just the ones we know about because they were essentially a controlled experiment undertaken by the Feds themselves.

How many others were enrolled for less honorable reasons we'll likely never know, but it seems unlikely that there aren't at least some. So what's the big deal? Isn't this basically a victimless crime? Not really: how many providers will be duped into performing services for which they'll never get paid, since the insured doesn't actually exist?

Well?

Of all the flipping stupidity...

Would someone please give me an intelligent reason why not submitting this page would interrupt the processing of an application?

Faxed in, at the request of the gnomes at Anthem.

As they used to say in the army, "Mine is not to wonder why.  Mine is but to do and die..."

Proud to be of service

Once again, the folks at Healthline have named InsureBlog as a Top Men's Health Blog:

"Your blog has made Healthline's list of the Best Men's Health Blogs of 2016! Healthline's editors selected each winner based on their reach to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high quality information."

Thank you!

Less really *is* more

Here's a thought experiment:

If eggs sell for $1.00 a dozen, and the government gives you a voucher for 40¢, how much do the egs cost?

If next year eggs cost $1.50 a dozen, and the government gives you a voucher for 60¢, has the price of eggs increased?

Reason I ask is this:

"Taxpayers will fork over nearly $10 billion more next year to cover double-digit premium hikes for subsidized health insurance under [ObamaCare] ... the cost of premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act will increase by $9.8 billion next year"

This is supposed to demonstrate that the cost of ObamaPlans really hasn't increased, because those who buy subsidized plans saw those subsidies increase. Of course, that's simply financial 'legerdemain' - remember, the government has no money of its own, all of that comes from thee and me. So of course as the actual cost of plans increased, so did our financial burden in the form of increased taxes.

Chicken, eggs, ObamaCare.

[Hat Tip: HotAir]

Shanda or no? [UPDATED]

[Scroll down for update]

So FoIB Holly R tips us to this potentially scandalous story:

"Sales were sluggish that year. So the company looked south ... the New York-based company encouraged Southerners to buy insurance to protect their most precious commodity: their slaves."

And?

Here's the thing: at the time, slavery was perfectly legal, and slaves were a valued (and valuable) asset to those who owned them. This is, by the way, a purely legal and economic argument: I'm certainly not condoning the "peculiar institution" as moral or ethical. But as a specifically financial arrangement, it would make sense to insure one's assets, including slaves.

We still have these kinds of policies, by the way: we call them Key Man life insurance policies, and employers take them out on valued employees all the time.

“We profoundly regret that in the 1840s our predecessor company, Nautilus Insurance Company, insured the lives of slaves for a brief period of time"

So says New York Life's spokescritter in a vapid display of "mea culpa." The reality is that, at the time, it was a perfectly legal and sensible application of basic life insurance principles. Eventually, slavery was outlawed, and thus the need for (and attraction of) these plans no longer existed.

As a purely historical phenomenon, I agree that this offers a fascinating glimpse into the early days of the life insurance business here in America. But I see no particular lessons to be drawn, or amends to be made.

Interestingly, the Gray Lady fails to note that these experiences eventually led to the founding of Pilgrim Life, which was founded in 1898, and which:

"[B]ecame the first insurance provider for African Americans in Georgia. A black-owned and -operated company, Pilgrim was one of the largest employers of African Americans in Augusta and issued tens of thousands of policies in the first decades of the twentieth century."

And why do I bring this up?

Because it demonstrates that my industry is capable of learning from the past, and (eventually) making things right.

Again, no one's condoning the circumstances that led up to either of these, but to impute some evil motive to the former is unsupportable.

UPDATE: Co-blogger Bob points out that this is perhaps more akin to STOLI (Stranger Owned Life Insurance) than Key Man, and I tend to agree:

Like slavery, STOLI plans were eventually outlawed. And, like STOLI, it's likely that the insureds didn't even know they were insured.

Still, I don't think it changes the basic point that this is, in fact, much ado about nothing.

How to Create a Blogger Account?

Are you wondering how to create a Blogger account? Many of us do, because Blogger is one of the most popular blogging platforms out there and it can provide us with an extraordinary, fun way to express ourselves in the online world. Not only is it Blogger a very large blogging website, but it's also full of categories that you can blog on. You have complete control over what you want to blog, and that does make Blogger an amazing platform to begin with. Yet you do have to wonder how to create a blog on Blogger! We are here to help you understand all of that and so much more as fast as possible, thanks to a detailed guide that will showcase all the necessary instructions in a very easy to read manner.

Creating a Google account

What you need to know here is that Google owns Blogger, and because of that you will need to use a Google account to sign in to this platform. You can create a Google account now and then you will be able to continue to the platform without a problem. By creating a Google Account you will be able to access a wide range of Google apps and services like Drive or Mail for example. Visit the page above and share all the necessary information in order to create the necessary Google Account. Thankfully, the process is very easy and it will take only a few minutes of your time. In case you already have a Google Account, you will need to sign on the Blogger page.

Creating your blog

Once you are located on the Blogger page, you will need to press the New Blog button in order to start a blog. You will receive a new window where you will learn how to create a Blogger account. This will enable you to share all the necessary information.

• Make sure that you add a title for your blog in the Title area. This is very important because it will allow you to entice the visitor to read more about you and your content. So, try to make the title relevant and appealing
• In order for users to find your blog, you will need to create an Address for it. Your blog will have a blogspot.com address, but you will need to choose what goes before blogspot.com. Basically, you can opt for something like abcdef.blogspot.com or anything like that. Remember that this can be modified in the long run. The great thing here is that you will immediately be able to see if that address is available or not. This means you will have the ability to check the address availability really fast.
• The next step will require you to choose from any of the presets that are available at this point. Starting with a Template is a good idea, but do remember that this can be modified afterwards as well. So it's a good idea to just pick a template and move onward.

Once you have the blog title, address and template ready to go, you will have to press the Create blog! button. This process will take a little bit until it's completed properly, so just wait for a few seconds as the new blog will soon be added to the blog list. So, if you were wondering how to create a blog on Blogger, this is the simplest way to do it.

Maybe the best thing about how to create a Blogger account is that the entire process is very easy to do. Even beginners will have no problem creating and setting up an account. The customization options are plentiful here, so you shouldn't have any problem setting your account really fast!

Starting to post

Although the blog address will be available, you can't call that a blog unless you start writing content in there. Obviously, you will need to learn how to write a post on Blogger, and we are here to help you with that right now.

In order to start writing, you will need to click the Create a new post link or you can press the New Post button. Once you do that, you will gain immediate access to the post editor and here you can write the blog as well as make any necessary changes to content that you already wrote.

Write a title for your post

Your post needs to have a title. Towards the top of the Blogger editor you will see that there is a Post title box. Add in the desired post title there. This shouldn't eat up a lot of your time, just try to come up with a post title that is enticing, very easy to use and a delight to read for your audience. A catchy title can be great. Don't opt for the clickbait title that you can see nowadays, make your title feel informative and fun to read as that's what you want. If you want to write a first post, you need to make it introductory. Write about the goals you have, the type of content you want to add and so on. It will not be easy to write down the first words, but if you create a good title it will be easier for you to translate thoughts into words!

Start the writing process

You can create a Blogger post in 2 ways. You can either write the post in HTML or you can use the word processor included here. You have a button located in the top left corner which helps you switch between any of these two writing models. The HTML editor helps you create better web content and you can also use it to insert some special web functions. On the other hand, the word processor is more than qualified to offer you all the extra help you might need here.

Customizing text

If you want, you will be able to customize the text you want without a problem. You will have the ability to use the toolbar located on top of the editor to modify the text as you see fit. This includes formatting, color, size, alignment and so on. You have a Normal drop-down that helps you change the type of content you want to add, so you should consider changing between the desired heading type as you see fit. This also changes the way search engines process your content, so keep that in mind.  If possible, try to break the content into easy to read pieces. Use the Headings in a strategic manner.

Add an image to your post

If you want to make your blog post enticing, you should try to add at least an image. These images make posts a lot easier to read and it's a good idea to make the most out of images if you want to share a great experience for your audience. You will have an "Insert Image" button right above your text editor, on the toolbar. There are multiple options, you can either upload them from your PC/Mac, you can share a link or you can use your webcam to take a picture if you want. However, if you link to other websites, make sure that you showcase their copyright or just refrain from doing that to begin with. There are many sites who do not agree with the idea of having their content stolen, so try to stay away from that!

Modify the post settings

If you look on the right side of your Post Editor, you will be able to access some Post settings. Remember that these make it easy for you to customize your post right before you choose to publish it!

• Labels are useful if you want to group multiple posts which are very similar to one another.
• Schedule allows you to publish your content at a later date. It can come in handy if you don't want to share multiple articles at the same time.
• Permalink is an option that allows you to select the way your post will be linked to in the future. Usually it will maintain the title structure, but there are other link types you can choose from as well.
• Location enables you to add a location tag for your post. It's a very good tool for those that move/travel often
• Options allows you to modify some features like the user ability to comment on a post for example. You can also choose the way your HTML code is interpreted here as well.

Previewing

A great thing about previewing your post is that you will be able to see how it looks when a reader will access it. This is the right time when you need to check your post for any errors, be it grammar or structural ones.

Save the post for later

This is not the same as scheduling. When you save the post for later, it means that the post just isn't finished at this time and you will continue to work on it at a later time. You can see this as a draft for your future post.

Publishing the post

If you double or triple checked the post and there are no errors, then you are good to go. Still, it's a good idea to go through it at least one more time to ensure that all the content you want is there and you don't have to make any more changes. Add all the necessary labels and tags, make sure that you inserted any links, images and other information that you might need.

Once everything is ready, you will just have to press the Publish button located at the top of the panel. This is when Blogger will automatically redirect you to the Posts page. Here you will see the post right on top.

Don't believe that your work is done at this point. In fact, it's far from that. You still have a long way to go before you properly optimize and improve your blog. After all, people won't be drawn in to your blog if you have just a single one to begin with. Work hard to write great posts as they will be able to make your blog stand out in the long haul.

Of course, you do need patience. Writing a good blog does require time and you shouldn't rush the content creation. Prioritize quality over quantity all the time. If you don't do that, the experience will be very well worth it in the end.

How can you expand your blog?

As we mentioned earlier, writing a single post is great but it won't draw in a lot of traffic. If you want to write a good post, one that will bring in lots of readers and views, you want to post as often as possible.

Quality content will always bring in traffic. Update the blog as often as you can. If you can share at least a post per week, you should do that. A good stream of posts will always come in handy, so make sure that you always write some good, enticing content that will help populate your blog.

If possible, we recommend you to create a post Schedule as this will help you better optimize the way you post. This way you will be able to prepare your content beforehand, so you can have it ready when you want to create a new post. The best approach is to write more than 1 post at a time. One can be posted and the others can be kept for a later date if you so desire.

Write for a niche

Generalized content works but it won't really deliver good results for your audience. If you want to get the best results, we recommend you to find a niche as fast as possible. Not only does a niche help you target specific users, but it will also help you become an authority on that topic. We recommend you to research a niche and become an expert on it. This is the best way to create a large audience for a niche and from here to reaching success in blogging will be just a small step.

Don't rush the content creation process, especially if you write for a niche. Creating redundant content will just keep people away. As long as you take your time and focus on results for your audience, the experience will be an amazing one. Of course, use the proper content structure in order to cater to the needs of search engines, all while maintaining the content relevant for humans as well!

Reader interaction

Once you learn how to create a blog on Blogger you can create more than a blog in order to reach multiple audiences. But the idea here still remains, you will need to interact with the audience. The community will grow more and more as you put out content, so make sure that you always interact with the audience.

Read the comments and moderate them, make sure that you remove spam. Also, reply to people that are interested in what you write. This will help create and nurture a community around your content, which can be very interesting to do!

Advertising your blog

Your blog will need advertising if you want it to grow really fast. One of the best ways you can do that is by sharing it with people anywhere you can. From social networks to social media or any other location, all of these are great places where you can share your blog. We recommend you to try and do the following:

• Post a short headline and a link to your article on Twitter
• Single Blogger is a Google Product, make sure that you use the Google buttons in order to share on Google Plus and perform other similar actions.
• Encourage readers and friends to share your Blogger posts on Facebook and anywhere they can. This will help you reach a large audience really fast.
• Make sure that you comment on forums and other blogs. Link to your post there if it's meaningful for that particular topic. This type of practice is called backlinking and it's very good for SEO.

Place ads

Ads are very important if you want to monetize the blog. You won't be able to monetize your blog with AdSense unless you have a blog active for around 6 months, so keep that in mind. You also need to have at least 18 years of age and you also have to obey the TOS. AdSense allows you to receive payments based on the amount of impressions generated by your blog.

Blog customization

You can modify just about anything you want on Blogger, it all comes down to you to make the right changes! For example, you will be able to press Layout and then you can modify the block content for each section of your blog. You also have the ability to Add a Gadget if you want. Blogger has lots of add-ons to choose from, all of which can help you better define your blog!

If you want to customize your Template, keep in mind that there are multiple customization options to choose from. You can also keep the template you have now. Programmers can press the Edit HTML button so they can modify the CSS and HTML code.

Stat tracking

Blogger has a dedicated option named Stats where you have the ability to monitor the blog performance. Here you have the ability to see the amount of views you get. This way you can identify what posts are performing better than others. As a result, you know what content works great for your audience in the longer term!

Learning how to create a Blogger account is really easy and you can feel free to create multiple blogs if you want. Just make sure that you write content for all of them. Plus, you can also monetize each one of your blogs if you so desire. Take your time and make sure that you provide valid information for your readers. This should be the main reason to create a Blogger account in the first place!