Originally published by Sarah Ferris in The Hill.

“It was for us a bad decision,” UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley said at an investors’ meeting in New York, according to Bloomberg Business.

UnitedHealth, the country’s largest insurer, announced last month that it would no longer advertise its ObamaCare plans over the next year and may pull out completely in 2016 — a move that sent shockwaves across the healthcare industry.
Hemsley’s remarks double down on his earlier warning that the ObamaCare exchanges remain weaker than expected after two years and that it will take far longer for insurers to profit from the millions of new enrollees.

The company had already eyed ObamaCare’s federal marketplace cautiously since it launched in 2013. UnitedHealth only began selling plans on the exchanges last year.

Now, UnitedHealth officials have said that move will result in a half-billion dollars in losses over two years.

Hemsley said it was smart to sit out of the exchanges for the first year, but that the company should have held out another year.

“In retrospect, we should have stayed out longer,” he said, adding that he believes the marketplace will take more than “a season or two” to develop.

“We did not believe it would form this slowly, be this porous, or become this severe,” he added.

NorthPointe brings considerable expertise in the areas of workers compensation, liability and property and casualty, along with a history of excellence in providing defined benefits, health and retirement planning.

In addition, the agency is particularly adept in prevailing wage compliance and benefits planning. In fact, it was Robert Hope, one of the principals of NorthPointe, who first introduced me to government contracting benefits nearly 19 years ago, just as I was getting licensed.

“As friends of Chris Nesbitt over many years, we are very excited on the merger with Vesity Financial and privileged to be working together” said Robert Hope after the public announcement on Friday, Sep 18.

Co-owner Zach Hope added “We truly believe the merger between Vesity Financial and Northpointe Insurance will be a huge win for both organizations and especially the clients.  Definitely a partnership where one and one make three.”

NorthPointe holds licenses in 15 states and has representatives in 6 states, with a specific focus in California, Arizona and Nevada.

This represents a perfect fit for my business in terms of better servicing and enhanced product offerings for my group clients, who now have at their disposal a single brokerage firm for all their insurance needs.

More info on the merger will be available soon; meanwhile a detailed company profile is below.

Note: This merger has no impact on my partnership with Fortress Financial Group, a team of financial professionals offering retirement education and services in Southern California.  Fortress serves individual clients, whereas NorthPointe serves primarily groups. I remain partnered with both firms.

Employee Benefits Consulting and Brokerage Services

Mission: To provide to our customers the very best and most affordable insurance products through the use of innovation and experience in an ever changing insurance and risk oriented business environment.

Summary

Founded in 1994 as National Fringe Benefits, the agency started as an employee benefits firm for government contractors, then became NorthPointe Insurance in 2006 after evolving into a full service insurance agency.

Staffed by proven professionals and headquartered in Peoria AZ, the company is built on the principles of providing superior customer service and quality insurance solutions for their customers. With licenses in 15 states, NorthPointe Insurance is a multi-line agency, offering competitive commercial, personal and employee benefits coverage through top-rated insurance companies.

Products and Services

Employee Benefits
▪ Health
▪ Dental
▪ Vision
▪ Life and Disability
▪ Limited Medical
▪ Trust Plans
▪ Flexible Benefits
▪ Voluntary
▪ Long Term Care
▪ Section 125
▪ 401(k) / Retirement
▪ Wellness Programs
▪ Telemedicine

Government Contracts
▪ Davis-Bacon Act
▪ Service Contract Act
▪ 8(a) Certification

PEO Services
▪ Worker’s Compensation
▪ Payroll

Commercial
▪ Property
▪ General Liability
▪ Business Auto
▪ Umbrella and Excess Liability
▪ Directors & Officers
▪ Professional Liability
▪ EPLI
▪ Workers’ Compensation
▪ Surety Bonds

Personal Lines
▪ Homeowners
▪ Jewelry/Fine Art
▪ Auto/Motorcycle/ATV/Boat
▪ RV/Motorhome
▪ Investment / Landlord
▪ Umbrella

Principal Bios

The principals have a combined 35 years in the industry and over nine years with NorthPointe.

Robert Hope

From 1970 to 1983, Robert Hope was in construction lending as Executive Vice President of Saguaro Savings & Loan. In 1984, he founded Mountain Security Financial Corporation, which became the largest commercial mortgage lender in the state of Arizona.

Mr. Hope has spent the last 21 years in the insurance industry, focusing on insurance solutions within prevailing wage markets, group health, property and casualty and retirement planning. Additionally, he has helped pioneer and innovate in the field of Telemedicine. In 2006, he formed Northpointe Insurance with his son, Zach.

Robert lives in Glendale, AZ and is married to his wife of 44 years, Sandra Hope. He has 2 children and 5 grandchildren.

Zach Hope

As CEO of Northpointe Insurance, Zach Hope personally manages the Government Contractors Trust programs along with other specialty markets such as TeleMedicine and Northpointe’s Employee Benefits division.

Prior to forming Northpointe Insurance, Zach was Vice President of Brown & Brown Insurance, a publically held insurance agency with 157 offices nationally. In 2003, Brown and Brown bought Zach’s agency, National Fringe Benefits, which specialized in Davis Bacon and Service Contractors.

Mr. Hope also co-owns a real estate development company which includes a custom home division, RH Custom Homes LLC.

Zach Hope is an honors graduate in Global Management from Arizona State University. He and his wife of 16 years, Jenna, have 2 children.

Corporate Office

NorthPointe Insurance, LLC
(866) 925-0643
www.npins.net
9240 W. Union Hills Drive, Suite 100
Peoria, AZ 85382
PH: (623) 594-3127
Fax: (623) 594-3157

The book is called The Richest Man in Babylon, written in 1926 by George Clason, who happened to be the first to publish a road atlas of North America.

The short book is about as easy-reading as Dr Suess, and equally as creative, but contains financial principals as relevant today as they were in ancient Babylon, and perhaps even more profoundly impactful for a new generation of spenders.

Case in point: I gave a tattered copy to my 23 year old son just before a plane flight last week, and the next day he blogged about how it changed his philosophy on finances. You can read his summary here, but keep in mind the book itself takes less time to read than it may take some Internet providers to load a website.

I can’t promise it will solve all your financial puzzles, but I can assure you it will greatly help, and it’s well worth your time – it even includes a few literary surprises. Pick it up on Amazon, at your local bookstore or in PDF form here for free. Then give it to every young person you know – and even the older ones who are young at heart, at least in how they handle their finances.

[su_button url=”http://vesity.net/babylon” background=”#2dbdef” color=”#0b0c0c” size=”4″ desc=”Download FREE ebook”]The Richest Man in Babylon [/su_button]

This is in direct contrast to a stated goal of Obamacare, which is to provide better access to primary care, thereby reducing pressure on emergency rooms.

One reason that isn’t happening is a shortage of primary care physicians. But there are other clear causes, including the fact that numerous primary care doctors have either stopped accepting Medicaid or have pulled out of the exchange altogether; a reality that, on it’s own, could completely short-circuit the ACA.

One of the interesting omissions in the ACA is that health care providers are not required to participate in the exchange. Judging from my own professional experience as a broker, this has led to a virtual mass exodus of doctors who once participated in exchange networks. In fact, this is one of the reasons I discourage clients from joining the California exchange, even though I’m a certified agent for both federal and state exchanges.  Consumers are enticed through sizable subsidies to purchase a plan through the exchange, only to find that many of the in-network providers are no longer accepting exchange plans.

Why? Perhaps it’s because these doctors feel they are underpaid in the exchange networks. Or perhaps the incompetence and mismanagement which plague California’s exchange is too burdensome administratively for providers.

No matter the cause, what good is a plan that doctors won’t accept, even if the premium is pennies on the dollar?  Think about that for a minute, and where it inevitably leads us in the evolution of health care.  But back to the ER…

USA Today reported this week that three-quarters of emergency physicians say they’ve seen ER patient visits surge since Obamacare took effect.  And what happens when those patients either aren’t covered or simply can’t pay?

My Florida friend points out that ER facilities are one of the only entities in America that must provide service even if the customer can’t pay.

Maggie Gill agrees. The CEO of Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah, GA says “Nobody wants to turn anyone away, but there’s no business in this country that provides resource-intensive anything and can’t even ask if you’re going to be able to pay.”

Think about that the next time you’re at the ER waiting for hours to have someone look at your ruptured spleen.  Thank you, ACA.

Tim is a 41-year old successful hedge fund manager with a wife and three young kids. And he has no life insurance at all.

Why? In college, Tim was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. He’s always assumed life insurance was too expensive to carry: Not enough value for what it would cost him.

We’ve had clients like Tim before, with the same misconceptions. So we approached him.

“What if we could provide the insurance you never thought you’d have, in a vehicle that also delivers a healthy return and tax-free income in retirement?”

That got Tim’s attention.

Just this week, we issued Tim’s policy:

• Table 6 Rating (high risk)
• $20,000 annual premium
• $870,000 death benefit
• 6.79% illustrated IRR
• $87,000 of illustrated tax-free income in retirement

And here’s the part that sold this hedge fund manager on IUL:
Weighted average expense: 1.41%

That’s 15 basis points LESS than the cost of the 401(k) Tim provides his own employees.

In the end, we were able to deliver a death benefit for Tim’s family, a meaningful return on his funds, and tax-free income in retirement… all for less than the cost of his 401(k).

Want to learn what an IUL can do for you? Start here.

The Internal Revenue Service requires 50+ full‑time equivalent (FTE) employers with fully insured plans to report information on coverage offered to their full-time employees as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Reporting was voluntary for 2014, but reporting is required for the 2015 calendar year.

Download your Toolkit today and watch for your IRS Section 6056 Employer Reporting Chart with your large group case approval. This chart (click here for sample) identifies the lowest cost plan offered with minimum value for each enrolling employee. It also shows the monthly amount each employee would pay for employee‑only coverage on that plan (regardless of which plan they actually enrolled on). This saves employers valuable time in completing IRS reporting forms.

If you have any questions about the new employer reporting requirements, let me know.

Not possible.

Never mind that I personally observed carrier increases of 5%-10% last year.

Never mind that, according to new data from the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Services Survey, the nation’s nearly $3 trillion medical bill grew 5 percent last year. A big jump, especially compared with an average annual rate of 3.9 percent from 2009 to 2013, a five-year streak of historically slow growth.

Never mind that, according to yesterday’s report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the average American spent $9,596 on healthcare last year, up significantly from $7,700 in 2007.

And especially never mind that CMS also reports healthcare spending per person is expected to surpass $10,000 in 2016 and then march steadily higher to $14,944 in 2023.

That’s 5.4% per year.
Every year.

Not possible!

Your premiums will go down.”

— President Obama, campaign speech in Cincinnati, July 16, 2012

ObamaCare open enrollment was from November 15, 2014 to February 15, 2015. During that time you were able to enroll, switch plans, and apply for subsidies. All Private Health Plans share the enrollment period prescribed by the Health Insurance Marketplace (aka Exchange), while employer based coverage, Medicaid, and Medicare have their own unique enrollment periods.

That window has now closed. Perhaps you let it laps purposefully, and you wouldn’t be alone. On the other hand, it’s possible the deadline blew passed you while you weren’t paying attention.

So what happens if you missed it? Turns out, you actually have quite a few options within three categories: You can either apply for special enrollment, qualify for an exemption, or prepare to pay the fees. Let’s look briefly at each of these.

Pay the fees. The penalty for not having coverage will be paid on your Federal Income Tax Returns, based on your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI), for each full month you or a family member doesn’t have health insurance or an exemption. Depending on your coverage, income, and family size you will either pay a flat dollar amount, or a percentage of income above the tax return filing threshold for your filing status. The fee is capped at the national average for a Bronze health plan available in the marketplace, and is only paid for full months you or a family member went without coverage. The fee is technically called an “Individual Shared Responsibility Payment” and is part of the Affordable Care Act’s Shared Responsibility Provision.

Qualify for an exemption. You could qualify for an exemption from the individual mandate to have health coverage if:

• You aren’t required to file a tax return because your income is too low
• Your lack of insurance coverage was for only three months or less
• The lowest-price health care coverage amounts to more than 8% of your income
• You are part of a Native American tribe
• You are in the U.S. illegally
• You are a member of a health care sharing ministry
• Your religion objects to insurance
• You are incarcerated
• You qualify for a hardship exemption

Applying for an exemption may take some effort, and the necessary application form depends on the exemption. Some exemptions can be claimed when you file your taxes; whereas others, like being a member of a religion that objects to insurance, require you to fill out an application form. These forms and related instructions can be found on the Healthcare.gov website.

Apply for a special enrollment. You can qualify for a myriad of reason, discussed in detail here; but the basics are as follows:

1. Your health insurance plan is changing to include the new benefits required under health care reform in 2014
2. Renewal of an individual medical plan in 2014 (grandfathered or non-grandfathered)
3. You lose health insurance that is Minimum Essential Coverage due to:
   • Discontinuation of a current plan that does not meet health care reform requirements
   • Employer no longer offering group health insurance
   • No longer qualify for government-sponsored insurance
   • Divorce or legal separation
   • Termination of a domestic partnership or civil union (in states where applicable)
   • Change in full time employment status
   • Voluntary or involuntary termination of employment
   • Death of parent or spouse
   • Change in dependent status (i.e. dependent child turning 26 years old)
   • Change in student status; for example, graduating from college
4. You are gaining or becoming a dependent due to:
   • Marriage
   • Domestic partnership (in states where applicable)
   • Birth of child/children
   • Adoption of child/children
   • Placement for adoption of child/children
   • Guardianship/court ordered dependent
5. Other:
   • Permanently moving to a new state
   • Return from active duty
   • Release from incarceration
   • Gaining citizenship or valid immigration status

If you need help determining which option is best for you, let me know.

But according to Citigroup’s Edward Morse, the recent surge in oil prices is just a “head-fake,” and oil as cheap as $20 a barrel may soon be on the way.

As reported by Bloomberg, Citigroup stated yesterday that despite global declines in spending which have driven up oil prices in recent weeks, oil production in the U.S. is still rising. Brazil and Russia are pumping oil at record levels, and Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran have been fighting to maintain their market share by cutting prices to Asia. The market is oversupplied, and storage tanks are topping out.

A pullback in production isn’t likely until the third quarter, Morse said. In the meantime, West Texas Intermediate Crude, which currently trades at around $52 a barrel, could fall to the $20 range “for a while,” according to the report. The U.S. shale-oil revolution has broken OPEC’s ability to manipulate prices and maximize profits for oil-producing countries.

“It looks exceedingly unlikely for OPEC to return to its old way of doing business,” Morse wrote. “While many analysts have seen in past market crises ‘the end of OPEC,’ this time around might well be different,” Morse said.

Citigroup reduced its annual forecast for Brent crude for the second time in 2015. Prices in the $45-$55 range are unsustainable and will trigger “disinvestment from oil” and a fourth-quarter rebound to $75 a barrel, according to the report. It speculates that Prices this year will likely average $54 a barrel.

As for last week’s spike in oil prices…

Stephen Schork, editor of the Schork Report, put it this way on CNBC‘s “Futures Now:

“I do think this is a dead cat bounce”

You may recall that last year I began offering a new service to my clients and the community.  Myself and a small team of financial advisors are providing Social Security workshops to employer and community groups, wherein we educate baby-boomers on how to get the most out of their benefits. The workshops have been very well received, so we’re offering them again this next week.

If you’re in Orange county and would like to attend, the details are below.  If you’re an employer, and want to learn about bringing a Social Security workshop to your employees, read this.

SOCIAL SECURITY WORKSHOP

WHERE: Sea Country Community Center
24602 Aliso Creek Road, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

WHEN: Feb 3, Tuesday night at 7pm
AND Feb 7, Saturday morning at 10am

WHAT: Learn strategies to maximize your
Social Security benefits.

HOSTS: Gregg Lancer & Chris Nesbitt of
Fortress Financial Group, www.FortressWest.com