Health Insurance Blog

The UnitedHealth Group is now offering UnitedHealth Continuity, a policy for those that already have health insurance but are worried that they may lose it in the future. These people may be considering early retirement, or may fear unemployment and the resulting loss of health care coverage. Reed Abelson says in the New York Times that applicants must pass a medical review before being accepted. However, many individuals who have been unable to get insurance on their own are those with pre-existing conditions. The Continuity plan doesn’t seem to be helpful for them.

The UnitedHealth Continuity policy charges members 20% of the current health insurance premium to reserve the right to future coverage, and varies due to age, gender, location, and level of coverage selected. The monthly fee is also subject to increase in the future. There is also the danger of the plan becoming a costly high-risk pool that attracts people more likely to develop serious conditions.

Reed also speculates that proposed health care reforms from the incoming Obama administration include a requirement that private insurers offer individual health coverage to everyone, no matter the state of their health. That type of law would make the new UnitedHealth guarantee unnecessary. The president of UnitedHealth’s individual insurance unit, Richard A. Collins, claims that political wrangling and legislative delays make the Continuity plan viable, at least in the short term.

UnitedHealth Continuity is currently available in 25 states in which UnitedHealth already sells individual insurance. It believes that it will soon be able to offer the Continuity plan in 15 more states.

(Photo credit: Shahram Sharif under CC 2.0)

In an effort to assist North Carolinians through tough financial times brought on by the global recession, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) has waived the co-payments on generic prescription drugs for the first half of 2009 (through June ‘09).  The waiver supplements a similar program that BCBSNC is running in 2008 called “Medication Dedication” which has saved members $13Million in out of pocket costs thus far.

About 1 Million BCBSNC members are eligible for the 2009 Program, including:

• Blue Advantage customers
• Medicare Supplement customers (whose plans include prescription drug coverage)
• Many members who are covered by BCBSNC through their employer groups and
• Members of self-funded employer groups if their group has pharmacy benefits through BCBSNC and have chosen to participate in the program.

BCBSNC first launched programs to waive co-pays on generic prescription drugs in 2004, and have seen a marked increase in generic prescription utilization as a result.  The shift to generics from brand name prescriptions is important to insurance companies because it helps keep health care costs down as generics cost a fraction of what brand name drugs cost, and contain the same active ingrediants.  The cost savings ultimately get passed back to the customers in the form of lower premiums based on the utilization costs.

In the 2008 US News and World Report health plan rankings report, only three Oklahoma health plans were ranked.  In addition, none of the three fared particularly well.  The top ranked health plan for Oklahoma residents according to the report was Aetna Health, which ranked 174th nationally and only received two stars of a possible five in the categories of both prevention and treatment.

Customers were more kind to Aetna as they received 4 of 5 stars in comsumer assessment.  The 2nd and 3rd ranked plans were Pacificare of Oklahoma, and Global Health respectively.

Similarly, US News and Word Report’s ranking of Nebraska’s top health plans were very sparce as well as they only ranked 1 health plan, UnitedHealthCare of the MIdlands who ranked 137th nationally.

The top health insurance plans in Minnesota as reported by US News and World Report in their annual report are listed below.   It is interesting to note that only 5 Minnesota health plans had provided enough data to be ranked and none of the 5 plans ranked were graded as being better than 3 stars (out of possible 5) on the “consumer assessment” measure.

Minnesota Health Insurance rankings:

1. HealthPartners (33th nationally)
2. Blue Plus (81st)
3. Sanford Health Plans (107th)
4. Medica (113th)
5. PreferredOne Community Health Plan (132nd)

These rankings are based on criteria determined by US News and World Report, in conjunction with the NCQA, and don’t necessarily reflect their how each health plans offerings would satisfy you as an individual.  If you are shopping for an individual health plan, you should first compare health plans side-by-side, and select the plan that meets your needs and budget.

Continuing on our coverage of the US News and World Report national health insurance company rankings.  We will break down the top Missouri Health Insurance Plans.   According to the report, Missouri health plans do not fare well when compared to other health insurance companies across the nation as the top rated health plan, CIGNA Healthcare of St. Louis, ranks just 64th nationally.

The complete ranking of Missouri health plans is as follows:

1. CIGNA Healthcare of St. Louis (64th Nationally)
2. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City (109th)
3. UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest (134th)
4. CIGNA HealthCare of Kansas/Missouri (147th)
5. Aetna Health (165th)
6. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Missouri (181st)
7. Humana Health Plan (188th)
8. Group Health Plan (223rd)
9. Community Health Plan (225th)
10. Mercy Health Plan (226th)

Kevin Freking from the Associated Press has just reported the reaction to President-Elect Barack Obama’s health care plan from America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). AHIP is the leading health insurance industry trade group.

At the National Press Club, AHIP announced that it generally supports the Obama administration’s ideas for health care reform. However, they strongly oppose a proposed requirement that large- and medium-size employers must either contribute to their employees’ health insurance or pay a percentage of payroll to a national insurance plan. President and CEO Karen Ignagni claims that given the current state of the economy, any sort of employer mandate is a bad idea.

AHIP also doesn’t support comprehensive coverage mandates imposed by the states, preferring a national plan for small businesses that covers essential services such as emergency and primary care. This plan would exclude services that significantly increase monthly insurance premiums and those that insurers consider unproven. Consumer advocate groups believe that this will reduce the effectiveness of individual health coverage.

Politicians and industry representatives agree that they would like changes in health care policy to happen soon, before the new administration gets distracted by other issues.

Americas Health Rankings recently released their annual report of the healthiness of the country as well as the relative healthiness of each state.  The annual rankings are completed through collaboration b/w United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Foundation.

The healthiest state for the 2nd year in a row was Vermont, and the least healthiest was Louisiana.

The complete rankings were as follows (In Ranking Order):

1. Vermont
2. Hawaii
3. New Hampshire
4. Minnesota
5. Utah
6. Massachusetts
7. Connecticut
8. Idaho
9. Maine
10. Washington
11. Rhode Island
12. North Dakota
13. Nebraska
14. Wyoming
15. Iowa
16. Oregon
17. Wisconsin
18. New Jersey
19. Colorado
20. Virginia
21. South Dakota
22. Kansas
23. Montana
24. California
25. New York
26. Maryland
27. Michigan
28. Pennsylvania
29. New Mexico
30. Alaska
31. Illinois
32. Ohio
33. Arizona
34. Indiana
35. Delaware
36. North Carolina
37. Kentucky
38. Missouri
39. West Virginia
40. Alabama
41. Georgia
42. Nevada
43. Arkansas
44. Oklahoma
45. Florida
46. Texas
47. Tennessee
48. South Carolina
49. Mississippi
50. Louisiana

Healthinsurancesort.com provides access to Health Insurance quotes in all 50 states as well as the district of Columbia

Insurancejournal.com reports that The Arkansas Department of Health which launched ARHealth Network in 2006, and has recently expanded the enrollment cap to 50,000, although only 5,000 low-income Arkansas residents have enrolled in the plan to date.  This isn’t the first time The Arkansas Department of Health has been disappointed with the acceptance of a health program put in place for the uninsured, last year the Arkansas Rx (drug discount plan) was scrapped for that very reason.

The Department of Health is now considering allowing the self-employed participate in the ARHealth Network Program, which was previous only available to workers at companies with between 2 and 500 full-time employees, whose companies did not offer a employer sponsored health plan within the past 12 months.

For more information about Arkansas health insurance.

In yesterday’s Miami Herald, John Dorschner reported that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida is now offering a discount card statewide for those without health insurance. For $20 per month, the new FamilyBlue card administered by Coverdell gives individuals discounts on routine medical expenses such as:

• prescription drugs and vitamins
• doctor visits
• dental, vision, and hearing care
• diabetes supplies

However, unlike individual health plans the card doesn’t cover hospital stays, which are most likely to lead to medical bankruptcy. Dorschner also wrote of problems surrounding doctor awareness about the program. Out of 10 approved providers for the FamilyBlue card, only one doctor accepted it when asked. Experts say these discount cards may be more suitable for young and healthy individuals less likely to need hospitalization.

Jill Brown, the Managing editor of AIS Health.com, wrote a report about how Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) member health insurance plans have been launching new individual health insurance products that are in line with new state mandates that are designed to make individual health insurance more affordable.  The underlying theme is that the weak economy has and will continue to spur sales of individual health plans, as many people lose employer-sponsored health coverage.

Specific examples of BCBS plans launching new health plans or making adjustments to  existing health plans include:

1. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona who recently launched (Sept.) a suite of 5 new individual health plans with premiums as much as 40% lower than their existing individual health insurance offerings, while still offering up to $5 million in lifetime benefits.
2. Wellpoint is expanding their affordable “SmartSense” line of indivudual health insurance plans to Colorado in November, and they plan to add even more states over the next few quarters.  The SmartSense product line was piloted in California and Georgia and now makes up more than 50% of individual health insurance sales in California.
3. Horizon BCBS of New Jersey is making adjustments to their individual health plan pricing by taking advantage of a new law that allows them to use a applicants age in their rate calculations which should make the plans more affordable for younger individuals.

As alluded to in this report, many health insurance carriers accross the country, not just BCBS member health plans, will be offering new health plans for individuals, and making their health insurance rates more affordable.  It is a great time to compare rates and see what is available in your state.