Health Insurance Blog

According to the article “Immigrants soon to lose state health insurance” by Kay Lazar on boston.com 30,000 legal immigrants are receiving letters informing them that their Massachusetts health insurance which is subsidized by the state, will no longer be available after August 31.  It will be replaced by patchwork care until Massachusetts officials can determine a comprehensive plan for the critically sick.

It is still to be determined what type of coverage these immigrants will have available to them.  The interim plan only covers emergencies and a few other limited services.  This is leaving many worried as to what is going to happen when health care is needed by the affected group.  Immigrants will be receiving emergency health care in hospitals through the Health Safety Net and MassHealth Limited.

It’s very likely that coverage for routine and preventative care from their current physician will not be covered.  The federal government doesn’t help to pay for these 30,000 legal immigrants.  They are more expensive for the state to insure as they are not yet citizens.  Many states in the US have stopped covering immigrants in this category but Massachusetts has continued to cover this group for comprehensive care until now.

The article “Suddenly Health Insurance Reform Is Not Affordable” by Armen Hareyan on emaxhealth.com discusses some concerns over how Congress plans on paying for the proposed health insurance reform.  Providing affordable health insurance to the public is going to require obtaining funds from somewhere…but where?

Already millions of Americans cannot afford the health insurance quotes they receive and the main goal of the reform is to make sure as many Americans have reasonable access to health care as possible.  The latest plan in the House on health insurance reform is to give a surtax on high income families. It would apply to individuals with an income of over $200,000 and couples over $250,000.  They approximate that this type of surtax will affect 2.4% of taxpayers.  It will raise about $375 billion in the next 10 years, which is projected to assist in the cost of health care substantially.  Connecticut, Washington DC, Massachusetts and New Jersey will feel the effects of the surtax the most according to the article.

Currently, our system is not working for over 46 million Americans and a change is needed.  Congress will continue to hash out how to solve the problem of health insurance over the next few months and it will be very interesting to see what they come up with. 

ehealthinsurance.com will now offer sixteen individual health insurance plans to their website customers who reside in Massachusetts.

Until now, ehealthinsurance offered no online health insurance quoting or any type of health insurance options for website visitors who resided in a handful of states which included Massachusetts.

A new relationship with Fallon Community Health Plans (FCHP)will allow eHealth to provide access to Massachusetts individual health insurance options to their customers in that state.

More information about Massachusetts health insurance.

The Republican Newsroom reports that there will be a slight decrease in premiums for certain Massachusetts health insurance customers. Commonwealth Care, the state-subsidized health care program for low-income individuals and families without employer-sponsored health insurance, is planning to lower rates for policyholders that choose to buy a plan other than the cheapest in their area. The Commonwealth Care plans are:

• Boston Medical Center HealthNet
• Network Health
• Neighborhood Health
• Fallon Community Health

The Massachusetts health insurance mandate, passed in 2006 in an attempt at health care reform, is facing some unexpected challenges during this recession. Steve LeBlanc of the Associated Press says that increasing unemployment rates will make more people unable to fulfill the insurance requirement. Failing to buy health insurance will result in up to $1,000 in fines per tax year (taken from tax refunds), although the sentence is often waived. In 2007, only about 1% of the Massachusetts population did not buy health insurance, but experts predict that number will increase due to consumers focusing on other priorities.

While insurance is completely free for the poor and subsidizes plans for people making up to 300% of the poverty level, private individual health insurance can still be out of reach. The state does cover health insurance costs for as long as someone is collecting unemployment benefits, which helps those who have been laid off. However, the influx of new applicants to subsidized plans is expected to cost $800 million in the new fiscal year’s budget, an increase of $60 million.

Steve reports that some legislators believe the current law is unrealistic given current economic conditions and should be waived for the newly unemployed, but Democratic Governor Deval Patrick vows to continue the program and cut other spending to balance the budget instead.

Kay Lazar from the Boston Globe is reporting that the Massachusetts Department of Revenue is raising the monentary penalties charged to individuals without Massachusetts health insurance.

The fines are levied monthly. If an adult over the age of 27 and earns over $31,212 per year, as of 2009 they will now have to pay $1,086 per year for being uninsured. An uninsured adult from 18 to 26 years of age making that amount must pay penalties totaling $624 per year. There is a sliding scale for individuals with lower salaries; people making less than $15,612 are eligible for health care subsidized by the state and therefore don’t have to pay any penalty.

The state of Massachusetts passed a 2006 law that requires all adults (age 18 or over) to have health insurance if the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority determines they can afford it. The policy is intended as a way to transition the state to universal healthcare. Kay quotes a Dept. of Revenue commissioner, who says that last year, 5% of adults that are required to buy health insurance didn’t obtain coverage.

(Photo credit: wallyg under CC 2.0)