Health Insurance Blog

According to the Palm Beach Post, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSFL) has enrolled a paltry 266 Florida residents in the Cover Florida Program since in inception at the turn of the year.

The Cover Florida Program, as previously discussed here, is a program championed by Governor Charlie Christ to help Florida’s 4 million residents without health insurance coverage, find affordable health coverage.  Health insurance companies that participate in the Cover Florida Program can offer low cost health insurance plans because they are permitted to offer bare-bones health plans that don’t conform with mandated benefits in Florida.

The low enrollment #s in the program can partly be explained by the fact that neither the state of Florida, nor BCBSFL have marketed the health plan agressively.

The top four providers of Florida health insurance recently met to discuss health care under a Barack Obama administration, says Jeremy Cox of the Jacksonville Times-Union. Representatives from Humana, UnitedHealth, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, and Aetna were in attendance.

The insurers believe that President Obama should enact a health insurance mandate for all Americans if, as they predict, he will require insurers to cover individuals with pre-existing conditions. They think that the cost will be prohibitive for carriers otherwise. At the moment, Obama has not publicly supported a mandate, and how exactly one would be carried out is unknown. He has supported a role for the private sector in universal health care, but that role will most likely be a change from the current market.

Instead of the plans Obama and congressional Democrats have proposed for health care reform, the insurance companies would prefer that the government focus mainly on enrolling eligible but currently uninsured individuals in federal-run programs like Medicaid and Medicare, Jeremy says. While the insurance companies agreed that greater coverage is a priority, they claim the task of covering other Americans should be left to them through innovative new plans.

Earlier this week, 6 health insurance companies in Florida signed contracts with the state to offer affordable health insurance to the uninsured in Florida.  The health insurance offerings vary, but in general are less than $100 per month.

The program championed by Florida Governor Charlie Christ is called Cover Florida, and will launch on January 5, 2009.  The plan was unanimously approved by the Florida Legislature and require no tax dollars to make it happen.

The six participating health insurers will offer 25 health plans options between them, and each with 2 different benefit levels (one focusing on catastrophic coverage & hospital coverage, and the other on preventive care).

Of the six health insurance companies only offerings by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida and United HealthCare are available in all 67 Florida counties.

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.

Nine health insurance companies, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF), have agreed to participate in a plan to provide affordable health insurance coverage to the 3.6 million Florida residents that are currently uninsured.

The plan proposed by Governer Charlie Crist is called Cover Florida.

The Florida health plans offered by carriers as part of Cover Florida will be on a guaranteed issue basis (meaning that applicants cannot be refused coverage).  BCBSF will offer two health plans, catastrophic coverage for $150 per month, and a non-catastrophic plan for $50 per month on average.

Health insurers participating in the program can offer health plans with lower premiums because they are exempt from the requirement to inlcude more than 50 state mandated beenefits in the health plan

In addition to BCBSF, some of the other insurers who are participating in the program include: UnitedHealthCare, Total Health Choice Inc., Universal Healthcare, JMH Health Plan, Medica Health Plan of Florida, American Management Advisors and Celtic Insurance Co.

A number of national health insurance companies including Aetna, Humana, and CIGNA choose not to participate in the program.