Updates As We Wait For Supreme Court Ruling On Obama's Health Care Law......

Nothing much changes for America's medical care while the Supreme Court mulls the fate of President Obama's health care law.  In the meantime, parts of the law already in effect won't change. That includes the provision that lets young adults stay on their parents' insurance until they turn 26 and a requirement that health plans cover preventative care without charging a co-pay.

Individual states continue planning for insurance markets called "exchanges" that the law tells them to set up for small businesses and individuals. The big constitutional questions before the court...the mandate that everyone be forced to buy health insurance and the expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor (the lion's share of funding being taken from Medicare) are among the provisions not scheduled to take effect until 2014.

At this early stage, all the law's provisions are in jeopardy. Of further note, should the Supreme Court strike down any or all of Obama's health care law, the White House, as of now, has no contingency plans in place. Personally, covering an additional 15 million (or more) uninsureds, many of whom are illegal, with no immediate plans to add more doctors but providing funding to hire about 16,000 new IRS agents, gives me cause for concern.

Feel free to visit the government website and read the over 900 page law. It is important here to note that the government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take away from somebody else. 

On a positive note, roughly two-thirds of U.S. bankruptcies are due to uncovered medical expenses and lost income. As a result, critical illness insurance protection is increasingly being purchased by individuals between ages 25 and 45, to provide immediate cash payment upon diagnosis of serious health conditions (cancer, heart attack,stroke). Roughly half the policies purchased last year were by people younger than 45 according to the 2012 National Critical Illness Insurance Buyer Study. Visit http://www.criticalillnessinsuranceinfo.org  Critical illness insurance is sold in 54 countries. The first policies became available in the U.S. around 1996. As a broker, I represent several carriers that offer this fine product. Exciting times folks...Until next time..

                                                Glenn