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.

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

According to the article “Health Insurance Outpaces Pay Hikes” by Martha Stoddard from Omaha.com, the increasing Nebraska health insurance premiums are outpacing wage increases.  This makes paying for health insurance more and more difficult and potentially out of reach according to a report released this week.

The report was released by The Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest as well as Health Care for America Now.  It was part of a national support for health care reform.  There will also be a rally and lobbying effort in Washington DC. 

The report also cites that a recent article in the American Journal of Medicine stated that 62% of bankruptcies in the US are due to out of control medical bills.  There were 6,447 non business bankruptcies last year in NE.  It didn’t state how many of these were due to inadequate health insurance, but scary to think that a lot of them were.  This information is a large part of the argument that reform is needed, and it is needed soon.

In the 2008 US News and World Report health plan rankings report, only three Oklahoma health plans were ranked.  In addition, none of the three fared particularly well.  The top ranked health plan for Oklahoma residents according to the report was Aetna Health, which ranked 174th nationally and only received two stars of a possible five in the categories of both prevention and treatment.

Customers were more kind to Aetna as they received 4 of 5 stars in comsumer assessment.  The 2nd and 3rd ranked plans were Pacificare of Oklahoma, and Global Health respectively.

Similarly, US News and Word Report’s ranking of Nebraska’s top health plans were very sparce as well as they only ranked 1 health plan, UnitedHealthCare of the MIdlands who ranked 137th nationally.