December 2017 - In This Issue:
This monthly newsletter provides information about different approaches to medical cost sharing, as well as information about tools you can use that are designed to maintain or regain your health. It also includes articles on health and wellness and information on complementary and integrative health, and it also provides information on products and services you can purchase or utilize to supplement either your medical or healthcare cost sharing program or your health insurance plan.

Health Excellence Plus:  Year-Round Enrollment 
Many individuals and families with low tax subsidies as well as those who aren't eligible for tax subsidies are receiving unwelcome surprises when they consider renewing their Obamacare policies for 2018:   benchmark Obamacare premiums have increased 37% nationally, and people are looking for alternative and less expensive ways of paying for their healthcare.

Health Excellence Plus satisfies both the employer and individual mandates of the Affordable Care Act and, accordingly, complies with Obamacare, and there's no tax penalty if you join this program. Monthly contributions can be as low as 1/3 to ½ the cost of traditional health insurance.

While Affordable Care Act open enrollment ends December 15 in most states, you can enroll in Health Excellence Plus any time during the year. You must enroll by the 20th of the preceding month to have your program effective the first of the following month. Therefore, if you enroll by December 20 your effective date would be January 1, 2018.

If you haven't enrolled in an Affordable Care Act plan as of January 1 you have until February 20 to enroll in Health Excellence Plus and avoid any tax penalties for 2018 [if you have no coverage for January and February and enroll in Health Excellence Plus as late as February 20, you won't have any tax penalty (penalties are pro-rated on a monthly basis but there is no penalty if you are uninsured for two months or less) provided you remain enrolled for the balance of the year].

If you enroll in a traditional Obamacare plan and either find that plan too expensive some time in 2018 or are otherwise unsatisfied with your plan choice, you can also elect to drop that plan any time in 2018 and enroll in Health Excellence Plus, even though you don't have a qualifying life event. As long as you don't go more than two months without coverage, you won't incur a tax penalty if you join Health Excellence Plus within that time period.

You can learn more about Health Excellence Plus at www.controlyourhealthcarecosts.com.

Health Excellence Plus is a five-tiered strategy for controlling and reducing your health care costs.

The program contains a complete set of health and wellness tools; provides all the preventive care services required by the Affordable Care Act; permits you to establish a health savings account and achieve the tax savings offered by such accounts; helps mitigate your expenses through services such as telemedicine, second surgical opinions, and highly discounted prescription drug programs to reduce your cost for maintenance medications; and uses medical cost sharing to meet large medical needs (you're responsible for the first $500 or $1000 of a medical need, depending on which program option you choose).

Health Excellence Plus is designed for health-focused people who want to live healthy life styles and uses medical cost sharing instead of traditional health insurance to help pay for large medical expenses.

Go to https://myahe.org/534-2/mpowering-benefits-enrollment if you'd like to enroll in the program. You can call us at 877-734-3884 if you have any questions or need help in enrolling.
Are You Considering A Complementary Health Approach?
Millions of Americans use complementary health approaches. Like any decision concerning your health, decisions about whether to use complementary approaches are important. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) has developed a fact sheet to assist you in your decision making about complementary health products and practices.
 
Click here for an extensive listing of complementary and alternative therapies that's been developed by a UK-based organization called Sacred Soul Holistics.
New Medication Safety
The following is an article written by Dr. John Swartzberg that appears in Berkeley Wellness.

If you have a choice between a prescription drug that has been used with good results for years and a new one that's boldly advertised as the latest breakthrough, do you assume that newer is better? It's tempting to think so, especially when the new drug is pricey and the old one is, most likely, an inexpensive generic. While newer may be better with computers and cell phones, it isn't necessarily true of medicine.
 
Yes, many new drugs offer improved treatment. But sometimes they're simply additional options. They gain traction as a result of company-sponsored research, splashy marketing and wishful thinking, in equal parts.
 
And most of the time, until the drugs are in wide use for a few years and the dust settles, no one really knows how effective--and safe--they really are.
 
Does that surprise you? Many people mistakenly believe that only very effective drugs with known (and not too serious) side effects are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and they're unaware of the uncertainties surrounding relatively new drugs, according to a recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which examined such beliefs about drugs.
 
The study also tested how a brief explanation about the uncertainties surrounding the safety and efficacy of new drugs can influence consumer choices. For instance, simply telling people that "it takes time to establish the safety of new drugs" or "ask for a drug with a longer track record" increased the likelihood that they would choose an older, established drug over a newly approved one. (Even so, half still chose the newer drug.)
 
The FDA should ensure that ads and patient educational materials be clear about the uncertainties inherent in all new drugs, the study's authors concluded. Still, your best bet is to talk to your doctor about drug choices. As a general rule, I discourage patients from taking drugs that have been marketed for less than three years, unless there are no other options. That allows time for additional evaluation regarding benefits and harms.
 
If you had followed this three-year rule, you could have avoided, for instance, the prescription pain reliever Vioxx, which was supposed to be safer than aspirin, ibuprofen and similar drugs. After $2 billion in sales in its first few years, the drug was withdrawn from the market in 2003 when it was found that it increased heart attacks and strokes.
 
Nowhere is being tried and true more important than with medication. Older drugs are almost always cheaper, too.
Paul Cholak
About Paul Cholak
 
Paul Cholak is the Principal of Control Your Healthcare Costs (a dba of Control Your Healthcare Costs, LLC). He's participating in spearheading the national movement of insurance agents and referring affiliates who are assisting Americans take back control of their health care costs by becoming self-pay patients and joining medical cost sharing plans, thereby reducing and in some cases eliminating some of their healthcare costs.

He also offers health and wellness tools that can serve as an adjunct to any health insurance plan and also offers supplemental health insurance products that can be purchased in addition to any medical or healthcare cost sharing program or health insurance plan.

Paul is an independent insurance agent and has life and health insurance licenses in 32 states.   
Paul has many years of experience in health and wellness and was associated with the first health and wellness consulting practice (the Health Strategies Group which was founded in 1986 as part of the Alexander and Alexander Consulting Group). He also supervised the first corporate child care center, which was featured on the  Today Show . He understands the needs of "self-pay" patients, has read extensively in the literature, and has a long-standing interest in finding alternative ways of delivering healthcare services.

He's a recipient of the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and been listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who Registry of Business Leaders and Who's Who in Finance and Industry. Early in his career he was identified as one of the Emerging Leaders in America. 

He's a member of Phi Beta Kappa and other national honorary societies and organizations such as Omicron Delta Kappa. He's also an Ambassador with the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. He's a graduate of certificate programs from a number of prestigious institutions, been invited to speak at corporate and university training programs, been featured in articles in national books and magazines.and is also a published author.  

Paul Cholak
Control Your Healthcare Costs
877-734-3884 (Toll Free)
561-734-3884 (Local)
561-734-3886 (Fax)
[email protected]