Health Insurance Blog

For many American families, COBRA coverage is still too expensive even with the current COBRA subsidy which is temporarily in place.  The COBRA subsidy program pays 65% of the monthly premiums for up to 15 months, but still can require a substantial monthly expense, as the average family of four still pays on average $389 per month even with the subsidy.

A recent report by eHealthinsurance.com found that in twenty states, families could save $600 per year ($50/mo) by purchasing a family health insurance plan as oppose to opting for the COBRA coverage.  Even with the subsidy!

The twenty states that were found to offer the affordable health insurance identified in the report include:  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Last week Humana announced that they were expanding the footprint of their Humana One short term health insurance plans to five additional states.  The five new states include Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and georgia.

The Humana One short term individual health insurance plan is now available in twenty states.  Like most short term health insurance coverage, these plans can be purchased for as little as 30 days or as much as 1 year.

Short term health insurance plans are designed primarily for recent college graduates who are job hunting, adults who are in-between jobs or recent retires who are not yet eligible for Medicare related products.

Humana also offers a portfolio of individual health insurance plans that are not short term in nature and can be held for indefinite periods of time.

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.

Despite the fiscal crisis being experienced nationwide, 14 states found money this year to increase health insurance coverage for an additional 250,000 children nationwide.

The states took advantage of $33 Million that was appropriated by Congress when it reauthorized the Children’s health insurance program (CHIP) back in February.

the 14 states that are expanding their children’s health insurance programs inlcude: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and West Virginia

Since 2008, at least 21 other states have had to cut state sponsored health programs due to financial woes.  In addition the recession has caused at least 15 states to make cuts to Medicaid Programs during 2010-2011, and 8 states have made cuts to Medicaid benefits for 2009

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 top health insurance plans in Kansas for 2008, based on the annual US News and World Report rankings are listed below.   Rankings are based on a scale of 1 to 100, and are based on the following categories:  1) Consumer assessment 2) Prevention and 3) Treatment.

1. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Good Health HMO (82.7 of 100)
2. United Healthcare of the Midwest (82.0)
3. CIGNA Healthcare of Kansas/Missouri (81.7)
4. Aetna Health - Missouri (81.1)
5. Humana Healthplan of Kansas City (79.9)
6. Community Health Plan (67.6)
7. Coventry Health Care (66.9)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City (BCBSKC), the top rated Kansas Health Insurance Plan, ranked very well in the customer assessment category, and within that category, got outstanding scores with their handling of claims processing.