Health Insurance Blog

J.D. Powers & Associates rated the top private health plans in the heartland states (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota), and the results were as follows.

Similar to many of the other 17 regions in the JD Power Survey, a Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan took top honors.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska was named the top health plan in this region based on overall customer experience and among the best in the nation.

Three other Blue Cross plans were rated as “better than most”  (4 stars out of 5 in overall experience):  BCBS Kansas, Wellmark BCBS Iowa, and BCBS Kansas City.

Health plans Aetna, CIGNA, UnitedHealthCare, and Coventry Healthcare were rated as being below average.

More information about health insurance in the heartland states:  Nebraska health insurance, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota

The state of Florida was not included in the Southeast region when J.D. Powers ranked the top health plans in the Southeast, in their rating of the top health plans in 17 distinct regions, Florida is its own region.  That being said, J.D. Power and Associates rated Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida as the top rated health plan in Florida.

BCBSFL was rated as being among the best health plans in the country, as was Humana, coming in just behind the Florida Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.

Other Florida health plans that were rated as part of this study included UnitedHealthCare, CIGNA, and Aetna.  UnitedHealthCare was given 4 stars out of 5 in overall experience (better than most) while CIGNA & Aetna were given 2 stars, a below average rating.

More about Florida health insurance.

J.D. Power and Associates rating of the top health plans for the South East Central region lists two health plans tied for the top spot for 2009 - Anthem Blue Cross Blue shield of Kentucky and BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama.

CIGNA & Humana finished close behind while still receiving designation as being among the nations best.

Aetna & Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee were rated as “about average” while  United HealthCare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi were rated below average.

Continuing the coverage of J.D. Power and Associates 2009 health plan ratings, below are their ratings of leading health plans in Colorado.

1. Kaiser Foundation Health Plans was rated the top health plan in Colorado and among the best in the nation.  In addition to this top rating in Colorado, their were also rated tops in California as well.
2. Aetna -For the most part average across the board
3. CIGNA - Rated among the best nationally in terms of provider choice, but simply average in overall experience
4. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of CO - Rated among the best nationally in terms of provider choice, but simply average in overall experience
5. Great-West HealthCare - below average
6. UnitedHealthCare - below average

More information about Colorado health insurance

Support is growing for a proposed health care system overhaul that would require all Americans to maintain health insurance coverage.

The mandate, which is being proposed by insurance industry leaders has received support from an coalition of doctors, hospitals, nurses, business, consumer, and insurance groups which have agreed on a set of ideas for reform, which also include the health insurance mandate.

The aforementioned coalition is called the Health Reform Dialog, and includes AARP, American Hospital Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Congress among other influential groups.

President Obama, who initially was not a supporter of such a mandate seems to be softening his stance, mentioning in a White House question-and-answer session on Thursday that the issue will be “part of the debate.”

The Dow Jones News Service reports in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is planning on limiting out-of-pocket charges and plans under private Medicare Advantage insurance. The Obama administration has announced plans to enact cost-sharing limits; patients will pay less for certain treatments, including:

• home nursing services/home health care
• renal dialysis
• selected prescription drugs

In addition, the number of Medicare Advantage plans on the market will be limited in order to reduce consumer confusion. CMS claims that a quarter of all Medicare Advantage programs have fewer than 10 people enrolled!

Insurers, such as UnitedHealth Secure Horizons, state that they have expected reductions in health insurance rates under Medicare Advantage and will adapt through benefit modifications and cost management.

More people are shopping for individual health insurance these days.  Golden Rule, says their sales are up 24% over the the past two months.  In addition, ehealthinsurance.com reports that submitted applications were up 18% in the 4Q, over 4Q in 2007.

Along with the increases in individual health insurance shoppers, health insurance rates have increased as well:

• About 80% of Anthem Blue Cross of California’s individual health insurance policy holders will receive double-digit rate increases shorty, and some will receive increases over 30% or more.
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is seeking state approval to increase monthly premiums by 56%
• Lifewise raised rates in Washington by 17.6% effective January 1.  In addition, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon raised rates for their Washington state members by nearly 30% on avg.

For perspective, group health insurance premiums increased by roughly 5% in 2008.

A recent research brief written by Deborah Donahue of Mark Farrah and Associates provides commentary on the recent growth of Medicare Advantage Plans.

According to the report more than 225,000 americans enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans during the most recent open enrollment period, and total enrollment stands at roughly 10.5 Million nationally.

The top 10 Medicare Advantage carriers (in terms of enrollment) maintain just over 60% market share, of which Humana and UnitedHealth Group maintain more than half (30% market share between them).

The 10 Largest Medicare Advantage Organizations

1. UnitedHealth 16% Marketshare
2. Humana 14%
3. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan 9%
4. Wellpoint 4%
5. Coventry Health Care 4%
6. Aetna 4%
7. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan 3%
8. Health Net 3%
9. Highmark 3%
10. Wellcare Health Plan 2%

In addition, 9 new Medicare Advantage Organizations began doing business in 2009 and 6 ceased operations.

Other health insurance plans for seniors include Medicare Supplement plans.

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.

The top North Carolina health insurance plans as ranked by US News and World report’s annual health plan ranking report are displayed below.  Of particular note is that a number of health insurers including the states oldest and largest health insurance company, BCBSNC, have chosen to not supply internal data that is required to provide accurate health plan rankings.  As a result, BCBSNC, as well other North Carolina health plans were not included in the 2008 rankings.

The top North Carolina health plans that particiapted in this report are

1. CIGNA Healthcare of North Carolina
2. Aetna Health of the Carolinas
3. UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina