Hello Young People...We Have a PLAN.

Are you crafting your message for young adults?  They are going to be hit soon with the REALITY of rising insurance premiums!  In some cases (see article below from the Washington Examiner) premiums will jump of a SHOCKING 252%.  Can you believe it?  ...Dennis

Premiums for young healthy people will jump in 45 states under Obamacare

Young people in 45 states will see their health insurance premiums increase under Obamacare because the law relies on the money they pay into the system to offset the cost of caring for older enrollees, according to a new study.

Virginia leads the pack, as individuals aged 27 and under will see their health insurance premiums jump by 252.5 percent -- $416.55 -- according to the Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis.

Virginians under the age of 50 will see their premiums jump by an even greater percentage, rising from $228 to $991.03.

Such increases are not a surprise to the law's architects. “I have always said when looking at this bill, that if I were a young person, I can see elements of this bill that I wouldn't like in the short run,” Henry Aaron, vice chairman of the D.C. health exchange, told the Washington Examiner last November.

FULL ARTICLE:

How Bad is Inflation Today?

What Does It Cost to Raise a Child?

Here's a tough one:  How much money will that little bundle of joy cost you?  
Better sit down. ...Dennis

According to USDA’s Cost of Raising a Child report, the answer for a child born in 2012 is $241,080 for food, shelter and other necessities over the next 17 years, which translates to about $301,970 when adjusted for inflation!

For new parents or people thinking of expanding their families, our Cost of Raising a Child calculator allows you to tailor your results based on household size, income, and geographic region to get a more accurate estimate of your expected costs. The full Cost of Raising a Child report, titled Expenditures on Children by Families (2012) and calculator are available on the web at www.cnpp.usda.gov.

More LAYOFFS Last Month Than Any Other Industry...

Hospitals are cutting thousands of jobs, according to this article in USA TODAY.  This action by hospitals around the country is undercutting a sector that has always been a reliable source of job growth, even through this recession.  If someone else controls your income, they control your life! ...Dennis

A job engine sputters as hospitals cut staff

The payroll cuts are surprising because the Affordable Care Act (ACA), whose implementation took a big step forward this month, is eventually expected to provide health coverage to as many as 30 million additional Americans.

"While the rest of the U.S. economy is stabilizing or improving, health care is entering into a recession," says John Howser, assistant vice chancellor of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Health care providers announced more layoffs than any other industry last month — 8,128 — largely because of reductions by hospitals, according to outplacement firm Challenger Gray and Christmas. So far this year, the health care sector has announced 41,085 layoffs, the third-most behind financial and industrial companies.

Total private hospital employment is still up by 36,000 in the past 12 months, but it's down by 8,000 since April, and more staff reductions are expected into next year.

This month, Indiana University Health laid off about 900 workers as part of a move to trim its budget by $1 billion over five years. Vanderbilt plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs by the end of the year to help shave operating costs 8% a year. The Cleveland Clinic is offering buyouts to 3,000 employees as it shaves its annual operating costs by $330 million.

"This is a challenging time for the health care industry," says Jim Terwilliger, president of two of Indiana health's hospitals. "The pace of change is far greater than any time in recent history."

There are myriad reasons for the cuts, which are affecting administrative staff as well as nurses and doctors:

• Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies are all reducing reimbursement to hospitals. The federal budget cuts known as sequestration have cut Medicare reimbursement by 2%, the American Hospital Association says.

• The health care law has further reduced the Medicare payments to hospitals that provide lower-quality service or have high readmission rates.

• The National Institutes of Health reduced funding to hospitals by 5% as part of sequestration, forcing hospitals to trim research staff.

• The number of inpatient hospital days fell 4% from 2007 to 2011, in part because of the economic downturn, the hospital association says.

The new health care law was supposed to ease the burden on hospitals by expanding Medicaid coverage to more low-income Americans, who often use hospital services in emergencies, then don't pay their bills. But 26 states, including Tennessee, rejected the ACA's offer of federal funding to expand Medicaid. That decision led to about a third of the job cuts by Nashville-based Vanderbilt, Howser says.

FULL ARTICLE

A Word About FEAR

The New LOST GENERATION

More demanding jobs, coupled with recession, have postponed young Americans' entry into workforce, according to a new report.  These Millenials are now being called "the new lost generation."  Our business opportunity can offer a way for them and their young connections as well...Dennis

Millennials Face Uphill Climb

James Roy, 26, has spent the past six years paying off $14,000 in student loans for two years of college by skating from job to job. Now working as a supervisor for a coffee shop in the Chicago suburb of St. Charles, Ill., Mr. Roy describes his outlook as "kind of grim."

"It seems to me that if you went to college and took on student debt, there used to be greater assurance that you could pay it off with a good job," said the Colorado native, who majored in English before dropping out. "But now, for people living in this economy and in our age group, it's a rough deal."

Most economists agree that in general, more education is a positive factor for job seekers, though rising college costs are prompting young people to take a hard look at where to go and what to study.

Through analyzing about three decades of census data—from 1980 to 2012—the study found that on average, young workers are now 30 years old when they first earn a median-wage income of about $42,000, a marker of financial independence, up from 26 years old in 1980.

About a third of adults in their early 20s work full time, a proportion that rises to about half of adults in their late 20s. The labor-force participation rate for young people last year declined to its lowest point in about 40 years, according to the report.

The decline in employment among young people mirrors a drop among the broader population. The share of U.S. adults who work peaked at nearly 65% in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and has trended downward ever since. An aging population explains part of the decline, but even workers in the prime of their professional lives are less likely to work today than a decade ago.

FULL ARTICLE:

CITIZEN STICKER SHOCK

How is a single mother of two, working full-time going to afford $3,000 MORE next year for her family's health care?  Sticker SHOCK is coming...and it is a perfect talking point for discussing the NECESSITY of our business.  ...Dennis

OBAMACARE FACEBOOK ERUPTS WITH CITIZEN STICKER SHOCK

On Thursday, the government's official Obamacare Facebook page was riddled with people expressing sticker shock over the government's high cost premiums after struggling for hours to wade through the technical failures vexing Obamacare exchanges all across the country.  

 

"I am so disappointed," wrote one woman. "These prices are outrageous and there are huge deductibles. No one can afford this!" The comment received 169 "likes." 

"There is NO WAY I can afford it," said one commenter after using the Kaiser Subsidy Calculator. "Heck right now I couldn't afford an extra 10$ [sic] a month...and oh apparently I make to [sic] much at 8.55/hour to get subsidies."

Another person shared a link found on the federal government's main Obamacare page listing premium estimates for small business employers:

The information is not very complete as I don't see anything about deductible or other detailed info, but it does given an actual price as to the "Premium." It is VERY SCARY!! For example, my insurance plan right now for my spouse and I costs $545 a month with 100% coverage after my $2500 deductible. We are both 32 years old. When I looked at this site for 80% coverage it says it will be $954.78 a month!!!! So compare my old Plan: 100% coverage for $545 a month To New Plan: 80% Coverage for $945 a month. This is only only an estimate but it is VERY Scary for me to see this kind of increase in rates and reduction in benefits!

A single mother of two said she is in school and working full-time while living "75% below the poverty level." She said she was shocked to learn she did not qualify for a healthcare subsidy. "Are you F'ing kidding me????" she wrote on the government's Obamacare Facebook page. "Where the HELL am I supposed to get $3,000 more a year to pay for this 'bronze' health insurance plan!?!??? And I DO NOT EVEN WANT INSURANCE to begin with!! This is frightening," she wrote.

Amid scores of comments expressing frustration with technical failures, one woman said she is "just amazed you could even get to the point of seeing pricing" and that she had been trying to access the system for three days to no avail. 

Obamacare sticker shock will not affect millions of low-income Americans; a New York Times analysis published on Wednesday found that Obamacare "will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help."

Obamacare will cost taxpayers an estimated $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years.