Health Insurance Blog

The baby boomer generation (ages 45 to 64) is worried about losing their health insurance, and the current economy is even more cause for concern. Many baby boomers have been either laid off or forced to retire early, and with that comes the loss of their employer sponsored health insurance plan. Meanwhile, they’re not yet old enough to enroll in Medicare.

There are still several options available to people in this age group, says Emily Brandon of U.S. News and World Report. They include:

1. Continuing your former employer’s coverage through COBRA, which they are required to offer unless they go out of business. However, you will have to cover the entire cost of the plan, plus a 2% administrative fee, yourself.
2. Getting on your spouse’s health insurance, if they have continued to work and their employer allows it.
3. Finding another job and continuing to work until you turn 65. Some companies even offer health insurance benefits to part-time employees working as little as 20 hours per week.
4. If you’re lucky to have worked for a firm that offers health insurance coverage to retirees (a steadily declining percentage), take advantage of it. Don’t rest easy, though; many companies are failing to keep their promises and are shifting a higher portion of health care costs onto retired workers.
5. Buy yourself individual insurance. Individual health insurance policies can be expensive, with premiums of over $300 per month according to the Commonwealth Fund. It also may not cover you if you have a chronic, pre-existing condition (and will be even more costly if it does), but if you are relatively healthy it may be your only option. A high-deductible plan could save you money on premiums, although you run the risk of catastrophic out-of-pocket costs. If you go down this route, make sure to research the most affordable health insurance quotes.

There is also the option of forgoing health insurance, but it’s not recommended. You’d either have to cover all of your medical expenses out-of-pocket, or go without some needed medical care.

Several new Georgia state laws become law as we ring in the new year today.  Among these new laws is one which will eliminate both state and local taxes for Georgia health insurers who offer high-deductible health insurance plans.  The tax break will save insurance companies an estimated $146 Million over 5 years.  The idea behind the law is that it will ultimately save the Georgia Government money as a proliferation of high-deductible health plans will provide coverage for the estimated 1.7million Georgia residents who lack health insurance and end up costing the state money, however critics of the plan question whether this law will do anything to reduce the number of uninsured.

More information about Georgia health insurance.

(Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times)

Individuals with employer-provided health insurance now pay, on average, over $1,000 in deductibles. That is an increase of over 17% from last year, when they paid $859. Employees with preferred provider organizations (PPOs) are primarily affected, as well as those working for small businesses.

Employers are increasing deductibles in order to reduce costs without changing premiums. Medical costs for a worker are currently $8,482 per year (an increase of 6.3%), and are expected to increase further in the coming years. As a result, many people are forgoing preventative care such as checkups, which could end up causing even higher costs in the long run.

If you are paying too much in deductibles, get free health insurance quotes from multiple providers.

Things you should consider when shopping for a health insurance plan for you and your family.

Make sure your family doctor or any specialists that you typically use or plan to use in the future are in the network.  Co-pays and co-insurance percentages will be higher to utilize service from out of network doctors.  Some health plans may not provide any out of network benefits.

If possible, research your health care spending done in previous years and figure out what you might need going forward (i.e. if you see that you rarely if ever require prescription drugs, it might not make sense to enroll in a health plan that includes prescription drug benefits if the additional expense is high.)

If your health care utilization is typically low, and your family is in good health, a high-deductible health plan might be a good option.

If your spouse has health insurance coverage through his or her employer, check to see if the portion on the monthly premium that the employee pays is more or less than what you would pay with your employer sponsored plan or individual health insurance plan.

Does the health insurance plan offer a wellness plan, or alternative medicine discounts which could save you money.

You can shop and compare individual health insurance plans here at healthinsurancesort.com.   Some other resources that might be useful include your state department of insurance, or if age 65 or older, www.medicare.gov.

In an interview with Scott Serota, President of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), discussed the recently adopted 4-point health care proposal that was adopted by the BCBSA board of directors.

Serota said that one of the goals that the BCBSA is seeking to achieve is to ensure that health care costs do not rise any faster than the costs of other goods and services.  He went on to say that in order to do achieve that goal, the delivery system must be improved, and unneccesary procedures eliminated (as much as 30% of procedures rendered today).  In addition, Serota expressed the importance in getting people who are eligible for government programs enrolled, and developing new health plans to supplement high-deductible health plans for the “young invincables”.

Serota also discussed a rule under under the McCain health care proposal in which Medicare no longer would reimburse hospitals for 10 preventable conditions and the effect that it would have on employer-sponsored health care.

Members of Wisconsin’s Health Insurance Risk Sharing Plan (HIRSP) will experience either no rate increase or a single-digit increase to their health insurance rates in 2009 as a result of changes made to the plan, such as offering high-deductible health plan options.

Founded almost 30 years ago (1979), HIRSP has been Wisconsin’s health insurer of last resort since that date.  HIRSP offers health insurance to Wisconsin residents who, for one reason or another, can’t enroll in adequate and affordable health insurance coverage, from private health insurance companies due to their medical conditions, or because they have become unemployed and no longer have access to health insurance coverage through their employer.

More Information about Wisconsin health insurance options.

In article written by Joan Mazzolini of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio health insurance rates have increased 9 times faster than the rate at which wages have risen.

From 2000 through 2007 the average cost to insure a family in Ohio through employer sponsored health coverage increased over 80% while wages rose less than 9% over that same time period.  Individual health insurance rates in Ohio increases just over 60% over the same time frame.

According to Ron Pollack of Families USA

Rising health care costs were a problem in Ohio before the current economic downturn emerged, and slow wage growth combined with significant job losses have made matters worse.

The only state that showed a larger disparity between the increase in health insurance premiums and wage growth was Michigan.

As health insurance becomes more expensive relative to earnings, many people have difficult decisions to make in order to make ends meet.  Going uninsured is never a good idea, as a serious injury or illness can leave you financially crippled.  One way to lower your monthly health insurance premiums is to change your health coverage to a plan with a higher deductible, such as an high deductible health plan combined with an HSA.

Health Savings Accounts, more commonly known as HSA, were launched by the government in the 4Q of 2003. Initially the effectiveness of these health insurance vehicles was questioned, due to the slow adoption rate by Americans, but now five years later HSAs have proven to be a great way to save money if you understand them and utilize them properly.

With an HSA (paired with a high-deductible health plan) you can save as much as 50% in monthly health insurance premiums.  Your deductibles will indeed be higher should you need to utilize health care but if you properly fund the Health Savings Account, using the money you saved by paying lower premiums this money can be applied towards covering the higher deductible.

Health Savings Accounts have tax advantages as well.  All of your contributions to your HSA — that’s right 100% — are tax free.  In addition the interest that accumulates on the money that you maintain is 100% tax free.  Furthermore, withdrawals from your HSA are 100% tax-free when used for qualified medical expenses.

In years where your health care utilization is low or non-existent, not only will you have saved up to 50% on your premiums, but the money that you used to fund the HSA was not taxed as income, and it has grown tax free in an interest bearing account.

At age 65, you can withdrawal the money from your HSA for any reason, and be taxed at the ordinary income rate.

As you can see by the above, there are many economic reasons why a health savings account is a good health care solution for your family, particularly if you and your family are generally healthy.

Health insurance companies are legally obligated to offer high-deductible health plans that that are eligible to be paired with an HSA, but the reality is, if they encourage their customers to opt for health plans with a higher deductible and lower premiums, they will cut into their profits.   Subsequently, health insurance companies do not always promote their HSA options as vigorously as other health insurance options.

If an HSA seems like the right health care choice for your needs, you can compare rates here at healthinsurancesort.com.  Alternatively, if you plan to shop for your health plan from a agent or broker, be sure to ask about what HSAs are available.

Last week, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ) announced the launch of 5 new Arizona individual health insurance plans .  The new plans deliver a wide range of co-insurance and deductible levels and can save customers as much as 40% from previous health insurance options.

The new individual health insurance plans offered by BCBSAZ are:

BlueOptimum - A PPO that features co-pays for many services and the broadest level of health coverage among the new plans introduced last week.

BlueValue - A PPO that features a mix of co-pay and co-insurance with lower monthly premiums than Blue Optimum.

BlueEssential - An ultra affordable PPO with basic coverage and a $1,000 cap on preventive care.

BluePortfolio - A high deductible health plan (PPO) that can be paired with a Health Savings Account (HSA).

BlueSecure and BlueSecure Plus -HMO plans.

As written in Charleston.net, nearly 10% of South Carolina residents (nearly 400,000) are “underinsured” (defined as a person who spends 10% or more of their income on out-of-pocket medical expenses, or has a deductible that equaled 5% or more of their income).

Lacking sufficient health insurance coverage is a dangerous proposition, you could be a major accident or illness away from a serious financial bind or even bankruptcy.

The number of Americans that went underinsured increased 60% from 2003 to 2007, according to the Commenwealth Fund, and a full 14% of Americans are now underinsured.

The majority of people who are characterized as uninsured opted for a stripped down health plan, or a high-deductible health plan (without the accompanying health savings account) or selected a health plan from fly-by-night health insurance company simply because it was cheaper.