Health Insurance Blog

Given the increased attention to rising health insurance rates and the growing number of uninsured in this country, we periodically scour the web for low-cost health insurance plans from quality health insurance companies across the country and blog about one here.

Blue Options HSA is a low cost health plan for North Carolina residents offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC).  BlueOptions HSA is a high deductible health plan that is eligible to combine with an HSA.

According to BCBSNC, monthly premiums are as much as 50% lower than a traditional health plan.  Rates can be less than $60 per month for a 25 year old male.  Other affordable health insurance plans offered by BCBSNC include Blue Advantage.

More information about North Carolina health insurance.

Ehealthinsurance.com has announced that Celtic Insurance Company has adopted their eApproval process when applying for both individual health insurance and short term health plans.

By implementing the eApproval technology, health insurance shoppers will be able to submit health insurance applications online with an online signature and then receive an instant approval or decline from Celtic.  If they are accepted they can pay online electronically and receive their enrollment materials via email.

Celtics individual health insurance product portfolio includes:  The Celtic Basic Health Plan — a low-cost major medical plan, the CeltiCare Preferred Health Plan for individuals and families, the CelticSaver HSA Health Plan and the Celtic Short-term Health Plan.

It has become an increasingly common problem that people are purchasing individual health insurance plans believing that they have sufficient health insurance coverage only to find out later that their health plan is chock full of loop holes, exclusions, limitations that make it difficult to realize full protection in the case of a severe accident, injury or illness.

There are many solid individual health insurance plans out there, but the problem arises when people lose their employer sponsored health coverage and must replace this coverage on their own, and very affordably.

In their quest to find a low-cost health insurance plan, many individual health insurance shoppers chose a plan with a super low monthly premium, and with a few must haves that they can identify on the surface.

A few things that health insurance shoppers can do to weed out the majority of these issues are as follows:

1. Avoid plans that are marketed as limited benefit plans.  These are not major-medical health insurance policies and will not proect you adequately in the case of a serious situation
2. Avoid health plans that cap benefits at less than $250,000
3. Avoid policies that do not have limits on out of pocket costs
4. Avoid plans that do not cover the first day of a hospital stay.

As previously mentioned, there are plenty of good individual health plans in each state.  However, you when shopping for the plan that is best for you, make sure to look deeper than the monthly premium.  You should be able to find an affordable health insurance plan that provides adequate protection for you and your family.

Kevin Freking from the Associated Press has just reported the reaction to President-Elect Barack Obama’s health care plan from America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). AHIP is the leading health insurance industry trade group.

At the National Press Club, AHIP announced that it generally supports the Obama administration’s ideas for health care reform. However, they strongly oppose a proposed requirement that large- and medium-size employers must either contribute to their employees’ health insurance or pay a percentage of payroll to a national insurance plan. President and CEO Karen Ignagni claims that given the current state of the economy, any sort of employer mandate is a bad idea.

AHIP also doesn’t support comprehensive coverage mandates imposed by the states, preferring a national plan for small businesses that covers essential services such as emergency and primary care. This plan would exclude services that significantly increase monthly insurance premiums and those that insurers consider unproven. Consumer advocate groups believe that this will reduce the effectiveness of individual health coverage.

Politicians and industry representatives agree that they would like changes in health care policy to happen soon, before the new administration gets distracted by other issues.

A brief prepared by Mark Farrah, ranks health insurance companies across the nation based on their enrollment of individuals & families in non-group health plans, i.e. individual health insurance.

In the private health insurance marketplace there are an estimated 17 million individuals enrolled in non-group health insurance coverage purchased directly from insurance companies, although only just over 11million in membership was captured in this analysis which relied on NAIC and CA Dept of Managed Care Data.

Major medical health insurance plans make up the vast majority of non-group health plans, but limited benefit plans make up a material portion and are growing in popularity as health insurance premiums continue to outpace wage increases.

The brief found that 229 health plans were offering major medical health coverage to individuals & families.

The rankings were as follows:

1. Wellpoint/Anthem (BCBS in 11 states)      21% market share
2. HCSC (BCBS in 4 states)                              7%
3. BCBSNC                                                      4%
4. BCBSFL                                                       4%
5. Regence (BCBS in 4 states)                         4%
6. United HealthCare                                     3%
7. Aetna                                                         3%
8. Humana                                                     3%
9. BCBSMN                                                     2%
10. Assurant                                                    2%
11. Other (219 companies)                            46%

In the limited Benefit Plan marketplace, United American maintains a dominant position with 70% market share.

The most surprising finding in the major-medical health insurance rankings is that Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina as the 3rd highest membership across the country, covering over 350,000 individuals with their Blue Advantage offering for individuals despite covering a service area that is limited to the state of North Carolina.

Gary Bolt, and Bruce Allen deserve much praise for their work managing the individual direct sales unit at BCBSNC.

Hartfordbusiness.com reports that on October 1 a new law will go into effect in Connecticut that regulates health discount plans.  Since April, the state department of insurance has received dozens of complaints about health discount plans, many times when people buy mistakenly thinking that they are buying health insurance.

Health discount plans provide discounts on medical bills (as much as 40% for some services while in some cases the discounts can be less than 25%)  from certain health care providers, however they do not reimburse providers on behalf of consumers the way health insurance plans do.

The new law requires that each health discount plan disclose to the state its contracts with marketers.  Plans have already been required to be licensed with the state in order to sell their plans in CT.

There has been controversy surrounding health discount plans in many states

Minnesota – 12 companies were ordered to cease operations in 2005, after using misleading advertising to trick customers into believing they were buying health insurance.

Montana — Prudent Choice was fined $150,000 and ordered to reimburse Montana residents who bought fraudulent health discount cards.

New York, South Dakota, Maryland and Florida have had similar problems with rogue marketers and their misleading sales tactics.

Over time many states will likely follow Connecticut’s lead and enact some type of legislation to protect health care consumers from aggressive sales tactics related to these plans.

If you are not precluded from purchasing a true health insurance plan due to preexisting health conditions,  you should opt for a major medical health plan, as opposed to a health discount plan.  There are many affordable health insurance options, that will provide protection as opposed to simply discounts.