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Swift County Monitor-News

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Family & Health

Major insurance overhaul passes at state Capitol
By Patrick Condon Associated Press More than 300,000 uninsured Minnesotans will have a route toward health coverage under a bill the state Senate passed Monday, the nal legislative step toward implementing one of the major features of the new federal health care law. The Senate approved the health insurance exchange bill on a party-line vote of 39-28. They sent the bill to Gov. Mark Dayton, who has vowed to sign it and whose administration has already been working for months on setting up the venture and hiring its employees ahead of a planned Oct. 1 enrollment debate. The centerpiece of the plan is the health care exchange, a website where individuals and small business owners can compare and purchase private insurance plans. By 2016, according to initial projections, about 1.3 million Minnesota residents will get insurance through the exchange. In addition to the 300,000 who are uninsured who will get federal subsidies to help purchase coverage another million Minnesotans will either transfer to the exchange from existing medical assistance programs, or through their employer. We nally get a plan that will hopefully give health insurance access to a lot of Minnesotans at a better price, said Sen. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights. Republicans, along with business groups and insurance companies, said they fear the new system will increase insurance costs. The $60 million a year needed to fund the operations of the exchange will be covered by a premium tax of up to 3.5 percent on plans sold on the exchange, which critics say will likely to put pressure on insurers to raise premium rates across the board. Some insurance companies also say they dont have enough time to prepare. We know our costs are going to go up, said Sen. Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake. No Republicans voted to approve the nal bill. Once Dayton signs the bill later this week, pieces of the exchange will quickly come together. The exchange will be a new state agency with about 86 employees, 26 of whom have already been hired. They include the exchanges executive director, April Todd-Malmlov, an economist who previously worked for the state Department of Health before working at UnitedHealth Group. Other jobs have already been posted online, including one Monday for a privacy and security ofcer that read: Positions with the Minnesota Health Insurance Exchange provide the opportunity to be involved on the ground oor of a new, dynamic and evolving area of health care access, health insurance policy and operations. Dayton has until April 30 to appoint a seven-member board that will govern the exchange; one seat automatically goes to the states commissioner of human services. Board members, none of whom can have nancial ties to health insurance rms or medical providers, will earn $30,000 a year for their rst two years of service; after that, they will only get a $55 per diem for expenses. The Legislature can vote members off the board. During the exchanges rst year, any Minnesota insurance provider will be eligible to sell its products there. Insurers have to submit their offerings to the state by May 17 which the companies say will be hard to do. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota the states biggest insurer faces enormous challenges to be ready for that deadline, said the rms lobbyist, Scott Keefer. He said that doesnt leave enough time to meet technological requirements for selling its insurance plans on the state website, which has been compared to sites like Travelocity, where travelers compare plane tickets, hotel reservations and car rentals from a variety of sellers. While Blue Cross and other major insurers supported the concept of a state-run exchange, they opposed the version that got through the Legislature. The law will impact each individual and employer in a unique way, so what Minnesotans ultimately pay for health coverage will vary and depends on a number of factors, Keefer said. Starting in 2015, the board will decide which providers get to keep selling on the exchange. Those decisions will be made using criteria that includes affordability and value, quality, and promotion of prevention and wellness. By this summer, Todd-Malmlov said, the exchange will begin a marketing and education campaign aimed at reaching potential enrollees. Under the federal health care law, people who dont have health insurance starting in 2014 will have to pay a federal penalty: either $95, or 1 percent of a persons income whichever is higher. The penalty would increase in 2015 and 2016. Todd Malmlov said one of top goals is that the exchange website be easy to use. Thats what were working for, is that it be simple, Todd-Malmlov said. With anything rst out of the gate, its probably not all going to be perfect, there will be bugs to work out. Our goal is to make it as good as it can possibly be, and better over time.

Answering your common Social Security questions

By Ramiro Sifuentes Social Security Manager, Marshall Question: What is the earliest age I can begin receiving retirement benets? Answer: The earliest age you can begin receiving Social Security retirement benets is 62. If you decide to receive benets before your full retirement age, you will receive a reduced benet. Keep in mind you will not be able to receive Medicare coverage until age 65, even if you decide to retire at an earlier age. Question: My brother had an accident at work last year and is now receiving Social Security disability benets for himself, his wife, and their daughter. Before his accident, he helped support his son from a previous relationship. Is his son entitled to some benets as well? Answer: Regardless of whether your brother was married to his sons mother, his son may qualify for Social Security benets on his record. Someone should le an application on his behalf. If he is found to be eligible, both children would receive equal benets. Question: I understand that to get Social Security disability benets, my disability must be expected to last at least a year. Do I have to wait a year before I can apply for benets? Answer: No. If you believe your disability will last a year or longer, apply for disability benets as soon as you become disabled. It can take three to four months to process an application. If

View From A Prairie Home

Hege Herndahl

Ask A Librarian
Kristin Woizeschke
Winter Reading Program Reception Monday, April 1 If you participated this year in the adult Winter Reading Program, do not forget to attend our reception & receive your prize on April 1st! All participants, no matter how many books are read during the program, are invited to a wine & cheese reception on Monday, April 1st from 6pm to 7pm to receive their prizes. Non-alcoholic beverages will also be served along with other refreshments. A big thank you goes out to the Friends of the Library for hosting the reception and to the Benson Liquor Store for donating the wine. When is Lego Club? Lego Club will meet the third Saturday in April. It will resume on a bi-weekly schedule this summer during the Summer Reading Program When is Story Time? Story time is every Tuesday morning at 10:30 am. If you have a toddler or pre-schooler, come join in the fun! New Materials in This Week! Fiction Breaking Point: a Joe Pickett novel by C. J. Box Non-Fiction Authentic Victorian Fashion Patterns: a complete ladys wardrobe by Kristina Harris Finish: the killing of Osama bin Laden by Mark Bowden [large print] Hour of Peril: the secret plot to murder Lincoln before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower [large print] Travels with Epicurus: a journey to a Greek Island in search of a fullled life by Daniel Klein [large print] Young Adult Fiction Requiem: the nal book in the Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver Junior Fiction Day of Doom: the 39 Clues Cahills vs Vespers by David Baldacci Sun Trail: Warriors: the

your application is approved, we will pay your rst Social Security disability benets for One of the main things that makes traveling the sixth full month after the so exciting is the people we meet. They can be date your disability began. fellow travelers, teaching us about their experiences and sharing their joys and sorrows more Question: easily, because they will probably never see us What is the Part B again. Then, there are the people who inhabit Medicare monthly premium the places we visit. They are the lifeblood of for 2013? the landscape, the background of the culture. Answer: To talk to the natives, the place comes alive Most people pay the and we learn to see the world with new eyes. standard Part B premium of We recently rented a villa on the Caribbean $104.90 each month in 2013. island of St. Martin. The owner of the villa If your modied adjusted came from Germany and had bought a small gross income on your Internal compound of villas cheaply after the devasRevenue Service (IRS) tax tating hurricane that hit Dawn Beach in 1995. return from two years ago Being a retired doctor who loved to sail, Hans (the most recent tax return had been to all the islands in the Caribbean and information provided to had fallen in love with St. Martin and Dawn Social Security by the IRS) is Beach. above a certain amount, you Before we arrived, we had emailed back and may need to pay more. Only forth and had ten pages of instructions about about ten percent of Medicare everything from how the phone system worked beneciaries, those with very to tips on how to get the best sunrise pictures. high income, are required Yet, upon meeting Hans, we noticed he was to pay a monthly premium a man of few words. It didnt take us long to greater than $104.90. realize that Hans was very shy, preferring to interact with people on line. Every morning, Hans would walk the sugar sand of Dawn Beach with his two dogs. The dogs would run, while Hans sat in a beach chair watching the sunrise. Later, he would swim in the turquoise water as the dogs watched him. He would then walk the ten stairs up to the villa compound, swim in one of the three pools and greet the guests with a shy smile. If we had a problem, like wondering how the stove worked, all we had to do Dawn of the Class book 1 by was knock on his door and he would come, explain how to Erin Hunter start the stove and then disapHave you read any good pear with another shy smile. We found him endearing, books lately? I was in a bit of a rut but preferring his shy presence to now have just nished two loud, intrusive hosts who talk lovely books in a row. Both tie too much. Once we got the stove to in nicely with the recent Saint work, we would cook our Patricks Day holiday as they lunch, but often we went to each take place in Ireland: The the French Side, to Grand Girl on the Cliff by Lucinda Case on the west side of the Riley and Brigid of Kildare island for supper. Here, were by Heather Terrell. Similar many restaurants overlooking to my favorite Kate Morton novels, the action takes place in both the modern day and in the past with a mystery to be solved. Strongly recommend both titles to fans of historical ction, mysteries, or Ireland. Be sure to follow us on Facebook. For more information, material suggestions, or with questions please call the library at 320842-7981 or email Kristin Woizeschke directly at kristin. woizeschke@pioneerland.lib. mn.us

People on the Path

the beach with big balconies facing the setting sun over the Caribbean Sea. Since this technically was part of France, many French people worked here. One of our favorite restaurants was Le Soleil, run by a French chef and his wife, Colette. They had lived four years on the island, having left because they couldnt get a loan to open their own restaurant in France. Colette told us how easy it was to start a restaurant in Grand Case, how laid-back the people were and how they enjoyed learning English from the many American tourists who visited Le Soleil. Their biggest worry now was the educational system on the island. She said, it was far inferior to that in France and that they worried what they should do once their son, now only a year, was old enough to start school. On the open-air market in Marigot, the capital of the French side of St. Martin, we met Clarisse, a woman of French/Caribbean origin who told me she sold hand-made bags for a living. She would buy the bags from the Philippines and sell them to the many tourists wanting something genuinely Caribbean. She explained that she lived alone in a bright blue house on the hillside overlooking Happy Bay. She told me she had survived breast cancer and it had taught her to love each day, and that she really didnt care if people bought her hand bags. I bought one anyway. It was purple like the Caribbean sunset and had a big peace sign on it. I hugged her, grabbed the hand of my sweet husband and strolled among the coconut palms and Hibiscus owers the lined the market, my bag swinging as we walked into the soft air of another warm Caribbean night.

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Agralite Electric Cooperative

320-843-4150 1-800-950-8375

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Weight Loss & Stop Smoking Hypnotherapy
An appointment is not necessary. Sign in and immediately receive treatment. Health Awareness Clinics is a non-profit organization. They rely on donations to make treatment available to those in need. A modest $5.00 donation when signing in is appreciated. Only one 2 hour session is needed for desirable results. Sign in 30 min. early Health Awareness Clinics is providing therapists to administer weight loss, stop smoking, and stress relief group hypnotic therapy. For many people, this therapy reduces 2 to 3 clothing sizes and/or stops smoking. Funding for this project comes from public donations. Anyone who wants treatment will receive professional hypnotherapy free from charge.

Wednesday March 27, 7:30pm Appleton Civic Center 232 W. Schlieman

APPLETON
Thursday March 28, 7:30 pm
McKinneys 300 14th St. S.

BENSON
HealthAwarenessClinics.org
319-596-5700