Health Insurance Blog

Congress has briefly considered the insurance co-op as a viable option to overhaul health care, but it’s been put to the side for now.  According to the article “The insurance co-op is already in your neighborhood” by Julie Mason on the Washington Examiner’s website, State Farm Insurance is America’s most well known, successful member-owned cooperative. 

State Farm offers many types of insurance including State Farm health insurance.  Many consider their model a great success as they serve over 75 million policies in North America.  At the end of each year profits are turned over to the policy holders which were about $1 billion back in 2007. 

State Farm was founded in 1922 by a retired insurance salesman and farmer who started the company with a few friends.  The company’s success has occurred over time and does not easily translate to a workable model for a government run co-op for health care.  It would take too much time, money, organization and significant involvement from the government.  These are things Congress is not willing to sacrifice at this point.  5tehuzfw6y

The state of Utah has launched a “health insurance exchange”.  Through a state run website,  participating small businesses in Utah will be able to offer employees a health care stipend, which workers can in turn use to shop on the site and select an individual health insurance plan that best fits their needs.

Utah has partnered with eHealthinsurance.com to provide the comparison shopping engine, which includes five health insurance carriers collectively offering 72 different Utah health insurance plans.

Through the health insurance plans participating on the eHealthinsurance platform, Utah health insurance rates are as low as $35/mo for an individual or $135 for a family, according to a Salt Lake Tribune article.

If you are a North Carolina resident and have received any recent health insurance quotes, you know rates are way up.  They are up an astonishing 97% since 2000 according to an article on bizjournals.com by James Gallagher.  Income in the state has only increased by a mere 18.4% during the same time period. 

This information was obtained from a new study completed by Families USA released Tuesday.  If this trend continues more and more families will drop their health insurance because they will be unable to afford the costs.  The cost to obtain North Carolina health insurance for a family has gone from $6,649 to $13,083. 

In regards to employer sponsored health plans, more of the cost has been shifted to the employees as prices have gone up.  Employers covered about 73% of health insurance costs back in 2000, but by 2009 it’s down to approximately 67%.  Part of this decline is due to small business dropping their coverage altogether because they could not afford the benefit. 

Families USA supports health coverage for all and they conclude that the steep rate increase can be attributed to rising health-care spending, not enough competition in the industry, a lack of regulation from the government and cost shifting from those without insurance to those who are covered.

Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania has filed a rate increase request with the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance for a handful of individual health insurance products.

If the rate increase request is approved it would impact about 56,000 existing customers of the Blue Cross health insurance company, or about 10% of their subscriber base.

The individual product offerings that will be impacted include:

• Security 65:  Medicare Supplement Plans.  37,000 Subscribers impacted.  Requested rate increase is 10% for 1 option and 19.9% for another.
• Blue Care Cooperative: 7,000 subscribers impacted.  Requested rate increase 48.9%.
• Special Care: 5,000 subscribers impacted.  Requested rate increase 27.0%
• Major Medical: 6,000 subscribers impacted.  Requested rate increase 27.0%
• HMO Individual Conversion: 1,000 subscribers impacted. Requested rate increase 27% (with Rx) 12% without.

More information about Pennsylvania health insurance.

Congress may be backing away from their idea of a public option only health insurance plan.  The New York Times reported earlier today that public health insurance may not be included in their plan at all according to Sheryl Gay Stolberg on the NY Time’s site. 

White House officals state that President Obama hasn’t fully put aside the idea of a government only plan, but the door has been opened.  The president still believes there is great value in having a purely government plan, but he views it as only a small piece of a broader goal.  Ultimately the initiative is to control costs, make coverage available to as many people as possible, and make health care a much more efficient program. 

President Obama envisions the public health insurance option as a flexible plan backed by the government where consumers can buy public or private individual health insurance based on what fits their needs most.  Over time the plan would be financially self sustaining and require no additional subsidies.  But there is fear that this would drive private insurers out of business over time.

According to the article “Immigrants soon to lose state health insurance” by Kay Lazar on boston.com 30,000 legal immigrants are receiving letters informing them that their Massachusetts health insurance which is subsidized by the state, will no longer be available after August 31.  It will be replaced by patchwork care until Massachusetts officials can determine a comprehensive plan for the critically sick.

It is still to be determined what type of coverage these immigrants will have available to them.  The interim plan only covers emergencies and a few other limited services.  This is leaving many worried as to what is going to happen when health care is needed by the affected group.  Immigrants will be receiving emergency health care in hospitals through the Health Safety Net and MassHealth Limited.

It’s very likely that coverage for routine and preventative care from their current physician will not be covered.  The federal government doesn’t help to pay for these 30,000 legal immigrants.  They are more expensive for the state to insure as they are not yet citizens.  Many states in the US have stopped covering immigrants in this category but Massachusetts has continued to cover this group for comprehensive care until now.

If you are in the market for Dallas health insurance it’s valuable to know how Dallas hospitals rank.  DallasHealthInsurance.org has some information on their rankings. 

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, TX, is ranked 15th among the best hospitals in the country for Gynecology.  It ranks 36th for treating kidney disease.  Children’s Medical Center is 15th place for Children’s Hospitals and is known for being a quality cancer treating facility.  This is according to US News and World Report.  The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is 26th in Neurology and Neurosurgery in the nation.  Pretty impressive rankings for the city of Dallas.

According to the article “An affordable insurance quote requires careful research” on healthcare.com customers will benefit from doing their research when shopping for health insurance quotes.  You may find an affordable quote quickly, but read the fine print to prevent future issues with your policy. 

One potential issue is in and out-of-network stipulations.  PPO and HMO plans offer discounts to health providers that the insurance company has negotiated with to set reasonable rates.  Medical tests and various procedures are usually cheaper with in-network physicians.  Researching what is included in the in-network costs can save you a lot of time and money as you use the health care system.  There have been many scenarios where patients go to an in-network hospital but tests are sent to an out-of-network lab and the patient is left with the cost. 

To avoid such complications, compare options side by side and shop around for health insurance quotes.  Find out how benefits vary from providers to ensure you have the coverage best suited for your needs at reasonable costs. 

Factcheck.org has dissected President Obama’s prime time speech on health care reform a couple weeks back, and here are a few of facts that he misspoke about.

1. Obama promised that the health care overhaul would be paid for.  However, budget experts believe that proposals currently on the table would add hundreds of billions to our deficit over the next 10 years.
2. Obama stated that his plan would cover 97% of all Americans.  This number is vastly overstated.
3. Obama stated that American families are paying thousands of dollars annually in increased health care costs as a result of covering the costs of the uninsured when they receive care.  The implication being that there would be significant health insurance savings by reducing the number of uninsured via his program.  In actuality this number is about $200 per year or less than $17 per month.
4. Obama claimed his budget has cut federal spending by $2.2 trillion over the next decade, however the congressional budget office projects a $2.7 trillion increase.
5. Obama stated that the U.S. per capita spending on health care is $6,000 more than the average country.  This number should actually be $2,500, which is still pretty high in comparison.

detailed data supporting these facts can be found at http://www.factcheck.org/2009/07/obamas-health-care-news-conference/

Blue Cross Blue Shield member plans initiatives to increase access to affordable health insurance by the uninsured. PartVI

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS) worked closely with both the Kansas Hospital Association and the Kansas Medical Society to create the ValueBlue health insurance product line.

ValueBlue is designed for Kansas residents that earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level and have been uninsured for a year or more.

The Blue Cross plan uses a special network of hospitals and healthcare professionals that agree to accept 50% of standard payment allowances, enabling BCBSKS to offer ValueBlue at half the cost of similar health plans in Kansas.

The administrative expenses that generated by offering the ValueBlue health plan are 100% absorbed by Blue Cross Blue Shield of kansas.

More information about Kansas Health Insurance.