Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Jacky encounters two giants on the island, Mr. and Mrs. Huggermugger. There is also a small community of dwarves, larger than Jacky, but smaller than the Huggermuggers. Jacky and his stranded shipmates are rescued and then tell their fantastical tale of giants and dwarves to others. One of men who believed Jacky is Zebedee Nabbum, who is out collecting wild animals to be exhibited in the circus of P. T. Barnum.
ABLE account beneficiaries can contribute their own income or property to their ABLE account. A beneficiary may transfer countable property to their ABLE account to spenddown excess property.
When the Covered California system is in the renewal mode, changes to your household will affect enrollment and subsidies for 2020. If you need to make changes for 2019, you will want to go through the Report A Change function on the home page.
For the California Premium Subsidy, you will reconcile that subsidy amount with the Franchise Tax Board when you file your state income tax return. And this is where it gets complicated and a potential headache for tax prepares. If your income is between 200% and 400% of the FPL you potentially could be receiving 2 subsidies, one from the feds and one from the state. If you earn over 400% of the FPL you will only get a subsidy from California.
I was surprised by the 60% increase in the Silver 70 medical deductible from $2,500 in 2019, to $4,000 in 2020. The Silver 73 plan increased 68% from $2,200 to $3,700 and the Silver 87 went from $650 to $1,400 – a 115% increase.
From my perspective, universal basic monthly income is already happening. Covered California gets money from the federal government and then sends it to the health plans. Whether the average amount is $424 or the real-world case of $2,094 per month, the Covered California subsidy is a real dollar amount that helps thousands of families in California. Perhaps Yang and Harris should study how the ACA and Covered California work and not tout their proposals has new or groundbreaking. The federal government is already paying out money on behalf of millions of health insurance consumers to make the monthly premiums affordable, which frees up money to pay all the other bills.
If you are over 50 years old and know that you have immediate dental issues that need to be addressed, or will have in the next couple of years, the No Wait plan from Morgan White Group Dental for Everyone, underwritten by Delta Dental, may be a good option. It is also one of the few plans available to individuals and families that will provide coverage and cost-sharing for dental implants.
The rallying cry in the 2020 presidential primaries is Medicare For All. But Original Medicare is the sort of health insurance that the Affordable Care Act set out to ban from the market place. Original Medicare has no annual caps on the maximum out-of-pocket a consumer must pay for either hospitalization or outpatient services. People can incur multiple Part A hospitalization deductibles during the year. The 20 percent coinsurance for medical services can mean some tests, imaging, and procedures can cost the consumer hundreds of dollars. Plus, there is no prescription drug coverage.
The family continued to wait, not paying any of the invoices they received because they figured that Covered California was working to resolve the issue. The health insurance plan was terminated by the health plan for lack of payment. If the consumer does not pay the all the premiums after 90 days, the consumer loses the right to make all the back-premium payments and reinstate the health plan. This is what happened to the family.
My research took me to the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley where I found some important letters and images of Bugbey’s Natoma Vineyard in El Dorado County. The letters, from a local Folsom resident, describe how the prevailing opinion of the town was that Bugbey himself had set the 1871 fire that burned several buildings including his wine storehouse. The gossip was that he was in financial troubles and needed the insurance money.
