Health Insurance Blog

Effective January 1, Blue Shield of California will be removed from the Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (MRMIP) because their premiums were substantially higher than the rates offered by the other two insurers that make up the Program.

The MRMIP currently covers almost 7,000 California residents who are unable to purchase private health insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

Health insurance companies that participate in the MRMIP Program are allowed to charge 25% higher premium than the market rate for a given health insurance policy, and if the insurer loses money they will be reimbursed by the state.  Despite the state subsidization, Blue Shield’s health insurance rates were much higher than both Kaiser Permananete’s or Anthem Blue Cross of California.

Current enrollees in the MRMIP Program via Blue Shield will be able to keep their existing coverage until January 1, and then must enroll with one of the other health plans that participate in the Program.

More information about California health insurance.

In November of 2008, we published a series of posts breaking down the US News and report’s rankings of commercial health plans. Similarly, below are their rankings of the top Medicare health plans for 2008 based on the same criteria (consumer assessment, prevention, treatment).

1. Preferred Care
2. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Southern California
3. Geisinger Health Plan
4. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
5. Security Health Plan of Wisconsin
6. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island
7. Capital Health Plan
8. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado
9. Capital District Physicians Health Plan
10. Tufts Associated HMO

More inforamtion about health plans for seniors, Medicare advantage plans, and traditional Medicare Supplement Plans.

JD Power and Associates recently released their 2009 Health Plan Ratings.  The ratings are based on the results of a study which includes responses from more than 33,000 members of private health insurance plans.   The members were surveyed online in December 2008 and January 2009.

More than 130 health plans were included in the study which breaks down the results into 17 distinct regions across the country.  The study itself examined seven key factors:

1. Health coverage and benefits
2. Provider choice
3. Health information and communication
4. Health insurance claims processing
5. Statements
6. Customer service, and
   
7. Approval processes

Some of the Health insurance plans that ranked highest in their respective regions included…Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kentucky , BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona, Health Alliance Plan (HAP), Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, and Medical Mutual of Ohio among others.

Over the next few weeks we will be providing more of the regional results from this study.

In US News & World Reports Ranking of the nations top health insurance plans, they ranked the Georgia health plans in the following order.

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia (HMO) - Kaiser’s HMO ranked very well, receiving 5 stars in both treatment and Prevention measures.  The plan only received 2 stars on the customer assessment measure, but nevertheless the health plan was rated tops in Georgia overall.  (#27 nationally.)

CIGNA Healthcare of Georgia (#91)

Aetna Health Georgia (#116)

UnitedHealthCare of Georgia (#123)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia (#124)

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia (POS) (#151)

Humana Employers Health of Georgia (#204)

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan’s HMO was a pretty clear #1 in Georgia, as they were the only Georgia health insurance plan receiving 5 stars in both  treatment and prevention measures.    The next several health plans ranking behind Kaiser were pretty equal in terms of ranking across the various measures.

The LA Times reports that Blue Shield of California has agreed to reinstate the health insurance policies of roughly 700 California residents whose health plans were canceled after they got sick.  Blue Shield also agreed to the way they handle their individual health insurance plans. In exchange for the agreement, the state of California dropped its lawsuit against Blue Shield and will not pursue $12.6million in fines.

In September the state reached a similar settlement with Health Net, who agreed to reinstate nearly 1,000 policy holders whose health coverage was canceled when they got sick.  In addition, Anthem Blue Cross, Kaiser Permanente and other California health insurance companies reached similar agreements with the state last year.

The health insurance companies have maintained no wrong doing and maintain that the state allows them to review old medical records after the policy holder becomes ill, and determine if the policy holder left vital information off of their enrollment application.

Kaiser Permanente now offers a subsidized individual health insurance plan that costs as low as $20 per month.  The plan is called Bridge Community Health Plan.  The Bridge plan targets individuals and families who are experiencing tough times but make too much money to qualify for government sponsored programs like Medicare of Medicaid.

Kaiser Permanente subsidizes 90 to 95% of the monthly premium as a community benefit.

The Bridge Plan offers up to 3 years of comprehensive health coverage to qualified individuals & families.  Applicants must live in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas.  To determine eligibility, interested parties can contact 866-456-5902.

As promised we will be breaking the US News and World Report health plan rankings down into the state level, to account for differences in health plan regulations, and mandated benefits in each state which can skew results.

According to the report:

The top 10 Ohio Health Plans are:

1. Summacare
2. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Ohio
3. Paramount Health Care
4. Medical Mutual of Ohio
5. CIGNA Healthcare of Ohio
6. The Health Plan of the Upper Ohio Valley
7. Aetna Health of Ohio
8. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Ohio
9. UnitedHealthcare of Ohio
10. Humana Health Plan of Ohio

We will be posting the top 10 health plans in each state over the next several weeks (3-5 states per day), so check back frequently if you don’t see your states health insurance rankings listed yet.

CEO of Kaiser Permanente, George Halverson recently weighed in on health care reform and what he thought would happen in the short term.

In summary, Mr. Halverson stated that he believes there is a very high likelihood that some level of health care reform will emerge from out of Washington as early as next year.  However, the possibility depends on which presidential candidate gets elected. If Republican candidate John McCain is elected he won’t have his own party in charge of Congress, so reform is less likely.  While It is a priority for the McCain campaign to get something passed as it relates to health care reform, it is a much higher priority for Dem. candidate Barack Obama.   Halverson believes there would be  a high likelihood that Obama would get something done relatively early in his administration if elected.