It's elementary, dear Watson

Got this in email:

"WellPoint, Inc. ... announced an agreement today to create the first commercial applications of the IBM Watson technology. Under the agreement, WellPoint will develop and launch Watson-based solutions to help improve patient care through the delivery of up-to-date, evidence-based health care for millions of Americans."

Coming on the heels of our recent post on telemedicine, it sure looks like we're in for some interesting times ahead, healthcare-wise.

UPDATE: Speaking of Anthem, good news for (some of) their MedSupp clients:

"Anthem Issues Refunds to Qualifying Medicare Supplement Members in Several States (Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Ohio and Wisconsin) ... These refunds range from approximately $66 to $1,450 ... This specific refund is based on total claims experience."

Don't spend it all in one place...

1331, 1332, Whatever it takes

And so the bill we had to pass to see what's in it just keeps on disgorging surprises. The newest twist is something called a 1331 Plan, aka Basic Health Program:

"The Section 1331 program is designed for people who earn too much to qualify for free Medicaid coverage but too little to have an easy time paying for coverage."

Which would be, what, pretty much anyone not on Medicaid?

Well, not really. To be eligible for one of these stripped down plans, one must be under 65, have a household income within a certain narrow range, and be ineligible for Medicaid.

Oh, and one more thing:

"Not be eligible for ... affordable employer-sponsored coverage."

No problem there, of course, since group health plans will be a thing of the past once ObamneyCare©'s in full force.

Also known as "standard plans," these policies would (theoretically) be offered by licensed health insurers or HMO's, and would be priced comparably with those offered by one's state's Exchange-based plans. They'd also include the standard (and stupid) 85% MLR requirement, and the now-questionable tax credits.

If this sounds unnecessarily confusing, even by government standards, welcome to the club.

9/11, 10 Years On

Five years ago, we participated in the "Project 2,996" campaign to remember and honor those killed in 9/11. Today, on the 10th anniversary of that terrible day, we reprise our original post, to which I will append this prayer:

Baruch atah Adonai, dayan ha-emet ... Blessed are you, oh G-d, the righteous judge.

[Originally posted 9/11/2006]

As regular InsureBlog readers know, my better half has long maintained that “there are no coincidences.” That is, she believes that everything happens for a reason, although we may not be aware just what that reason is.

As for me, I’ve gradually become 90% convinced that she’s right on this (in everything else, of course, she’s 100% right). But one evening, a few weeks ago, that all changed.

I have a confession: My name is Henry, and I’m a news junkie. It is my habit to stay up way too late reading news blogs. Which I was doing several weeks ago, when I came across an item about one man’s extraordinary effort to harness the power of the blogosphere, in tribute to our fellow Americans who died in The Towers, exactly five years ago today.

The concept was deceptively simple: 2996 victims, 2996 blogs, each one remembering a single person. Bloggers were invited to sign up, and each was assigned – at random – one name.

Stop for a moment, and consider this: one blogger, reading one news item, decides it’s the right thing to do, signs up, and is assigned the name of a person he’s never even heard of, let alone met. We’ll come back to this shortly.

And so I was assigned the name of Jerome Robert Lohez, given a photo of him, and told the briefest of biographical information: age 30, lived in Jersey City, New Jersey.

That was it. A name, a face, a place.

The assignment was simple: On September 11, post his name and picture.

But I’m a news junkie, and that wasn’t good enough. I had to know more about Jerome. So I Googled his name (hey, why not?) and came across a site that CNN put together in December of ’01. It had pictures and names, of course, but I also learned that Jerome, born in France, married Dening Wu some three years before The Towers fell.

One month before The Towers fell, Jerome got his Green Card, and the happy couple flew to Europe to celebrate with his family. When they got back, two days before The Towers fell, Jerome told Dening “Only in New York do we have so much sunshine."

That was Sunday, September 9, 2001.

On Tuesday morning, he left for work. And The Towers fell.

And now we've come full circle: One. Random. Name.

Jerome didn’t just work in The Towers. He worked for Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield. He worked in the insurance industry.

90% doesn’t cut it anymore.

Thank you, Jerome, for the lives you touched, the joy you brought, your love for New York and America, and for the privilege of paying you tribute.

Au revoir, Monsieur Lohez, au revoir.

No Subsidy For You

About those Obamneycrap subsidies to buy health insurance. You may not get one. That means you get to pay the full premium, even if you bought health insurance through an Exchange.

Those with incomes at 100% to 400% of the federal poverty level will be eligible for taxpayer funded subsidies — a tax credit to help pay for the premium.

It turns out that the legislation isn't so clear, the latest example of what analysts predicted would be a stream of surprises from the mammoth health law.

Section 1311 of ObamaCare instructs state governments to set up an exchange. If a state refuses, Section 1321 lets the federal government establish an exchange in the state.

Yet ObamaCare states that the tax credit is available to people who are enrolled in an "an exchange established by the state under (Section) 1311." It makes no mention of people enrolled in federal exchanges being eligible for the tax credit.

Perhaps they should have read the bill before passing it.

Drink up, ladies!

So it appears that women "of a certain age" may well benefit from not one, but two shots of the good stuff:

"A glass or two of alcohol a day in middle age could help women enjoy a happy and healthy retirement."

According to a recent, "major" study, having a glass or two of wine (red or white, ladies' choice) with dinner may help to prevent all kinds of health problems, from "cancer to heart disease" (alas: varicose veins aren't on the list).

The usual caveats apply, of course: "the study should not be used to justify ‘anything beyond very modest levels of drinking’."

Party poopers!

That Compassionate MVNHS©: Teatime!

Just when you thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, those caring folks from the very model for ObamaCare© dig a deeper (6'?) hole:

"The dispute flared following the furore over the deaths of two patients when the nearest ambulance crews failed to respond to 999 calls because they were on rest breaks."

The bottom line is that ambulance crews refuse to respond to folks in life-threatening medical condition because that would interfere with valuable break time.

Or, in 1,000 words:

Singin' the Back to School Blues

FoIB Bill M tipped me to this great article that's a must-read for college students heading (back) to school, especially if they're not taking full loads, or are late-bloomers:

"Oh, I’m 24 years old;
Part-time student, too.
Up ‘til this latest,
Things were looking cool.
But now my ‘rents called me
‘Bout this insurance thing they read.
Seems their homeowners’ policy
Just kicked me upside the head!"

(Catchy, ain't it?)

The bottom line is: don't assume coverage, check with your agent before loading up the U-Haul or minivan.

Or you, too, might be singin' the blues.