Nevada health insurance is changing
CBR discusses changes in Nevada health insurance.
Have you seen a bigger question mark this year for business or personal dilemmas than what is going to happen with health insurance?
Republican Governor Jim Gibbons has asked our Democrat Attorney General, Catherine Cortez Masto, to join him in the state rights lawsuit. Senator Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, has been first in line pushing to get all reform bills passed with Senator John Ensign pushing along side him. Our elected leaders have been all over the board on their responses to the federal legislation and your Nevada health insurance has been, and will continue to be, affected.
Is forced health insurance even legal?
The states, although constitutionally empowered by the Bill of Rights, can’t seem to do anything about what is seen as a federal intrusion into states’ rightful decisions. Nevada was Battle Born into the Union during the “War Between the States” (in Washington DC, it’s the “Civil War”) and not since then has there been such a challenge against federal authority. What it means to companies and individuals is still a question not fully answered.
The issue has continued to be split along party lines from the beginning, with not much evidence of individual thinking. Democratic Members of Congress Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus votes supported the federal action. Republican Congressman Dean Heller opposed it. The House of Representatives, overall, got it moving, but changes are going to continue for a long time.
The federal bill is free for everyone, right?
Governor Gibbons has pointed out that by 2014, the federal health reform bill will add more than 41,000 people to Nevada’s state Medicaid program—roughly the size of everybody in metropolitan Carson City, or the entire population of Douglas or Nye County! Then, over the next five years, enrollment in the state program will increase by 60%. That will cost Nevada’s general fund more than $ 613 Million. Who funds it?
The federal bill becomes your bill.
It won’t be the federal government who funds the incredible cost to the states; it will be your business and others, and the tax dollars of all individual Nevadans starting in tax year 2010. As the added burden begins to affect the bottom lines of companies, some employees lose their employee insurance benefits. When they do, they’ll be added to the government plans if they don’t buy insurance individually. That will further bloat an already-burgeoning tax-supported system.
What is next for the small business owners of Nevada?
The vast majority of Nevada health insurance is provided by businesses owners. There is a small minority of people including individuals who pay for their own, people on state welfare programs, and a few federal programs such as Department of Defense, Veterans’ Administration, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. If you are covered by health insurance, you are in the vast majority. Many are not covered, for a whole host of reasons, and the makeup of that group is what causes the great controversy.
Because Nevada health insurance (in fact, health insurance all over the country) is typically on the backs of business owners’ group health insurance policies, any future mandates will be paid either by business overhead or largely through assessed taxes from businesses. Every politician has an answer, but business overhead and taxes is where the pain will be felt.
How to keep up on required changes
Even if you are glued to the news, it is nearly impossible to keep up with all the changes. Mixed in with the news is everyone’s opinion about what it should be.
You will need to do these 10 items:
- Keep aware of the changing regulatory environment
- Find the most economical insurance agency
- Meet them and determine if it is a good fit with your company
- Determine who will be your contact person and if your contacts will be adequate
- Establish a trusting relationship
- Find the cheapest alternative to your group health insurance policy
- Determine if the coverage is still adequate
- Locate the providers and see if the network is suitable for your employees
- Check with Nevada’s Division of Insurance to assure the agent, agency, and policy are all properly licensed in Nevada
- Determine if you should include dental and vision with your health plan
- Negotiate the best price to include the greatest number of your employees
- Appoint a staff person to oversee the agency, the policy, the regulatory changes, and answer both the employee questions and the agent’s questions
- Find another staff member to cover the duties that person was doing
Or . . .
There is one source you can trust to weed through all the changes and come up with the real status and requirements: CBR. In fact, CBR can offer the alternative of the listed items mentioned, to one phone call. “Let CBR do it for you.”
CBR is in the business of helping your business administer all types of human resource administration duties with our HR outsourcing services in Nevada. For easier solutions to the growing administrative problems, call us (for free) at 888.700.8512 and we can tell you all the things we do well, and how cost-efficiently we can do them.
The only thing that never changes is that all things change. CBR can help you keep up with it all. There is no telling what shape health reform will eventually take, but the mandate has been made that it will continue to change shape.
For more information about how a Nevada PEO can help you with your HR Outsourcing Services and hiring processes, call us at 888-700-8512, request a proposal or contact us.
