Posted on 10/19/2013 8:29:03 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Tana Elizondo of Central Valley Life & Health Benefits, Inc. speaks at an education seminar held for Obamacare at the Comfort Inn on Thursday.
HANFORD — Obamacare may be taking a beating in some Kings County circles, but there was support from the small audience that attended an education seminar this week.
The workshop Thursday night at the Comfort Inn was hosted by Tana Elizondo and Linda Carter, co-owners of insurance brokerage Central Valley Life & Health Benefits, Inc. Elizondo and Carter went through the training to become certified insurance agents under Covered California, the Obamacare exchange set up for people and small business to get coverage that currently don’t have it.
The requirement for uninsured individuals to get coverage kicks in Jan. 1, with penalties assessed by the Internal Revenue Service after that.
Many of the inquiries Elizondo and Carter have been getting are from uncovered individuals like Hanford resident Darlene Ward, who attended the seminar.
Ward, a house cleaner, said she had to cancel her health insurance a few years ago because she couldn’t afford the premiums. Elizondo and Carter ran her $18,000 annual income and other information through the calculator at www.coveredca.com, and it spit out a subsidized plan that would cost her $54 a month out-of-pocket.
“It’s going to be beneficial to me,” she said.
Ward wondered if opposition will lessen once the law become more familiar.
“I think most people have heard so much political rhetoric, I don’t think they understand it,” she said.
Elizondo said the law is getting mixed reviews from businesses who are contacting her for assistance.
Some see extending insurance to their workers — larger employers will have to cover their full-time employees by Jan. 1, 2015 or face penalties — as a good way to retain qualified, trained employees, she said.
Small employers, though not required to offer insurance, are encouraged with tax incentives to offer coverage to their workers. Most businesses in Kings County are in this category.
One of them is Ina Evangelho, co-owner of a Hanford dairy with 12 employees who attended the workshop.
“I don’t understand how people have allowed themselves to be so anti-something they don’t know too much about,” she said.
As for opinions about Obamacare among other Kings County dairy owners, Evangelho said it’s a “mixed group.”
Evangelho said soaring costs forced her dairy to stop insuring its workers, but she was there Thursday night to get more information so she can help her workers apply for subsidized coverage on the exchange.
Still, many business owners, small and large, worry that insurance rates will keep climbing under Obamacare, with no relief in sight.
Some insurance agents fear healthy individuals will stay out of the insurance pool and pay the penalty instead, thus bringing in only the sick uninsured and driving up costs to unsustainable levels.
Elizondo is more optimistic. She predicted that by the third year of paying increasing penalties, healthy people will decide it makes more sense to get coverage.
She hopes that will drive down costs in the long run.
“It will take time to level out,” she said. “It’s not a perfect scenario, but it’s the best we have.”
Not mentioned in article, but they also gave a thumbs up for the Kool Aid that was served during the break as well.
Or a tranny!
And what are her deductibles? Co-pays?
“Small crowd”
And yup, no conflicts of interest there for the presenters
Deductible and co-pay, conveniently not mentioned. Any by the way, are there any participating physicians taking 0-care?
OMG, Nancy Grace + Lego people.
$18k a year. I’m kind of surprised she didn’t qualify for Medicaid.
From this picture we know that at least two people showed up.
Yes, if they understand how to milk a cow, her employees should have no trouble at all negotiating their way through the Obamacare exchange website!
Any way you look at it, even Laz wouldn’t hit it.
Campaign contributers ? When does the policy go into effect ?
‘even Laz wouldn’t hit it.’
I thought that was his insurance subsidy.
A bear might hit it.
Total crap. I myself am now certified to be an enroller for the ACA in California.
The regulations are difficult and confusing. Most of the agents in the room did not see “opportunity” to write new business, but were wondering how long till the whole thing would collapse.
The 4th Estates 5th Column still doing the heavy lifting for the occupation.
.... There fixed it
I’m looking for one of those $45 an hour Navigator jobs, especially since there’s virtually no training time and the website doesn’t work. What work is involved?
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