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Bruce Jugan, President

About Bruce Jugan

Bruce is an expert in group medical insurance and employee benefits for small to mid-sized companies. He's been a licensed agent/broker since 1993. Bruce has written all of the content on BenefitsCafe.com. He and his team help employers select medical plans; communicate information to employees; stay in compliance with various rules and regulations; and solve benefits-related problems that may arise.
2014 Oct 05

Group Health Insurance vs Individual Coverage: Compare After-Tax Cost, Provider Networks & Plan Benefits

By |October 5th, 2014 |Categories: ACA, Covered California, Health Insurance Reform, Individual health insurance vs group health insurance, Individual Medical Insurance Articles, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles|

Perhaps a company could give employees a salary bonus or "taxable discretionary wellness stipend" so that employees can buy their own individual medical coverage. If you’re considering a salary bonus or "wellness stipend" for employees to purchase their own individual medical insurance you should consider the following... Tax and worker’s comp savings are THE major reasons that companies sponsor group health insurance plans rather than offering a taxable stipend or salary bonus...A salary bonus or taxable wellness stipend for health insurance is extremely tax inefficient and forces employees to purchase inferior health insurance plans in the individual market.

2014 Aug 15

Should a company reimburse employees’ INDIVIDUAL health insurance cost rather than sponsor a GROUP medical plan?

By |August 15th, 2014 |Categories: ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Individual Medical Insurance Articles, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles|

With the high cost of health insurance many companies are considering alternative financing arrangements to group health plans.   The Affordable Care Act (i.e., ACA, Obama Care, Health Care Reform) created exchanges to help individuals purchase their own coverage.  Also, the ACA forbids insurance companies from asking questions about preexisting medical [...]

2014 Jul 15

Newly Signed Law, SB 1446, Will Allow California Small Businesses to Keep their 2013 Medical Insurance Plan until December 2015

By |July 15th, 2014 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Health Insurance Reform, Small Business Articles|

On July 7, 2014 Governor Brown signed SB 1446 into law. This legislation will have a significant impact on the health insurance options for many small businesses in California.   Estimates are that up to 80 percent of small businesses in California “early renewed” their group health insurance plan in December [...]

2013 Oct 22

Health Care Reform for Small Businesses California – Video

By |October 22nd, 2013 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Small Business Articles|Tags: , , , , , , , |

With Health Care Reform (Affordable Care Act) (ACA), business owners want to know: •What's going to change? •How much will it cost? and, •What can I do to save money. We've created a short video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcQ5j8mu_Bk that addresses these questions. The video also describes what will not change, including: •No requirement for small businesses to offer benefits; •Benefits continue to be a tax deductible expense for the employer and non-taxable compensation to employees; •Benefits continue to be an excellent way to attract and retain good employees.

2013 Sep 23

Covered California – Agent Training & Enrollment Website

By |September 23rd, 2013 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform|Tags: , , , , |

Covered California, the new health insurance exchange in California has begun agent training. Kudos to them because they have accomplished a lot in a very short period of time. With this blog post I hope to give some first hand info and feed back on the training process and on the enrollment procedures and processes.

2013 Sep 06

Understanding California Health Care Reform / Obamacare / Affordable Care Act / ACA

By |September 6th, 2013 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Individual Medical Insurance Articles, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles, Videos|Tags: , , , , , , , |

We've prepared easy-to-understand videos that explain the new health care reform law (Affordable Care Ace, ACA, Obama Care). Topics include how to complete the required notices (Exchange, SBC & Glossary); an overview of individual and family coverage including Covered California; and problems of the current system that the ACA solves.

2013 Aug 13

Covered California Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Exchange Rates

By |August 13th, 2013 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Small Business Articles|

Given the rates SHOP released and the new rules for rating individual and small group health insurance, I am led to the conclusion that some small groups (and individuals) will likely pay much more than they currently do - while some may pay less.

2013 May 24

Covered California (Exchange) Announces a Few Individual Rates

By |May 24th, 2013 |Categories: ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Individual Medical Insurance Articles|

Today, May 23, 2013, the California Health Benefit Exchange, Covered California, released the 2014 individual health plan rates for 25 and 40 year olds. As they said in their press release, “it is impossible to make a direct comparison of these rates to existing premiums in the commercial market.” Still, at first glance the rates don’t look too high – but there..

2013 May 17

Health Care Reform Update: Action in Sacramento

By |May 17th, 2013 |Categories: Small Business Articles, ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform|

Much is in flux with the ACA and we should accept that many good questions do not have answers – yet. Michael Lujan, Director of Sales and Marketing for Covered California advised us to “get the facts.” We should be comfortable saying: “here is what we know now and here is what has not been determined. We don’t have the information to answer all of the questions… at this time. ”

2013 Apr 19

Health Insurers to Continue Medical Underwriting in 2014 Despite ACA Prohibition

By |April 19th, 2013 |Categories: ACA, Health Insurance Reform, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles|

It is my understanding that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) forbids medical underwriting in the individual and group markets beginning in 2014. However, today, April 18, 2013, I attended a panel discussion of large group health insurance carriers , where representatives from Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, CIGNA and Health Net all stated that they would continue to medically underwrite groups with 50 or more employees.

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