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.

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.

According to a recent report released by Families USA, North Carolina health insurance rates have increased sharply.  It now costs over $13,000 to insure the average North Carolina family via an employer sponsored health insurance plan.   Of that amount, the family will end up paying $4,000-$5,000 out of pocket.

The cost of Group health insurance coverage in North Carolina has increased 97% since 2000.

BCBSNC the largest health insurance company in North Carolina took in $2.2 Billion in group health insurance premiums in 2008 vs. $841 Million in 2001 (a 161% increase).  Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Individual health insurance plans (such as Blue Advantage) brought in $971 Million in premiums in 2008 vs. $311 Million in 2001 (212% growth).

It should be noted that BCBSNC’s growth in premiums collected cannot be attributed solely to the increase in prices as they have grown their membership base significantly over the period of time examined in the report.

If you are a North Carolina resident and have received any recent health insurance quotes, you know rates are way up.  They are up an astonishing 97% since 2000 according to an article on bizjournals.com by James Gallagher.  Income in the state has only increased by a mere 18.4% during the same time period. 

This information was obtained from a new study completed by Families USA released Tuesday.  If this trend continues more and more families will drop their health insurance because they will be unable to afford the costs.  The cost to obtain North Carolina health insurance for a family has gone from $6,649 to $13,083. 

In regards to employer sponsored health plans, more of the cost has been shifted to the employees as prices have gone up.  Employers covered about 73% of health insurance costs back in 2000, but by 2009 it’s down to approximately 67%.  Part of this decline is due to small business dropping their coverage altogether because they could not afford the benefit. 

Families USA supports health coverage for all and they conclude that the steep rate increase can be attributed to rising health-care spending, not enough competition in the industry, a lack of regulation from the government and cost shifting from those without insurance to those who are covered.

According to the article “NC high-risk pool an option for many seeking health insurance” by Vicky Eckenrode on starnewsonline.com, there is a new state program to cover high risk applicants to ensure North Carolina health insurance is made available to them.

In 2007, state legislators started the Inclusive Health program.  It’s also known as the North Carolina Health Insurance Risk-Pool and it’s intended to assist people who are struggling to get covered because the industry considers them high risk.  Michael Keough, the program’s executive director says that this is an alternative mechanism to provide affordable health insurance to those high risk applicants.  Enrollment began in January and is up to about 1,600 covered now. 

State risk pools have been in existence for decades.  North Carolina is the 35th state to start this type of program.  The health insurance premiums for Inclusive Health are capped at 175% of the standard risk rate.  In other words, it tops out at 75% more than what a healthy person would pay for a similar policy.  The average age for this program is 50 years old.  This is a great option for many as Congress continues to figure out the health care reform debate.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC), has broken rank with the health insurance industry and will air TV ads which attack Barack Obama’s proposed health care plan.

In recent times the health insurance industry, led by the AHIP, has made some consessions to the government such as agreeing to keep health insurance premiums in check and accepting all customers regardless of medical conditions.  The concessions were not completely altruisitc as they were designed to fend off the governments desire to create a government health plan which would compete with the private health plans in each market.

In three 30-second videos, sponsored by BCBSNC, the North Carolina health insurance company paints a picture of a future system in which patients wait months for appointments and can’t choose their own doctors.  Storyboards of the BCBSNC videos were obtained by the Washington Post.

The State Health Plan - North Carolina’s health plan for state employees lost $137.6 Million in the fiscal year ending in June 2008.  The plan covers roughly 667,000 North Carolinians.  The primary driver of the financial implosion was the introduction of a more generous PPO health insurance option that prompted 76,000 existing enrollees to switch over to this plan, as well as prompting an additional 30,000 state employees to sign up for the state sponsored plan.

The members who were enrolled in the PPO plan specifically took advantage of routine eye and hearing exams and their increased utilization of services overwhelmed the discounts with network hospitals and doctors negotiated by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC).

BCBSNC, The largest North Carolina health insurance company administers the PPO plan, and claims ended up costing nearly $164 million more than was projected.  In addition, administrative costs were extremely high ($66.6 Million), but they were allowed based on the contract that was signed.

The bill that will provide government sponsored health insurance to millions of low-income children across the country was signed into law by President Obama earlier this week.  Currently about 7 million children nationally receive health insurance through state funded programs, but millions still fall through the cracks and remain uninsured.  Estimates project that this program will allow an additional 4 million children to receive health coverage nationwide.

The federal program will mean 24,000 uninsured North Carolina children who didn’t qualify for NC Health Choice, North Carolina’s state sponsored health insurance program for children.  The new eligibility requirements go into effect on April 1, 2009

More North Carolina health insurance resources.

The top North Carolina health insurance plans as ranked by US News and World report’s annual health plan ranking report are displayed below.  Of particular note is that a number of health insurers including the states oldest and largest health insurance company, BCBSNC, have chosen to not supply internal data that is required to provide accurate health plan rankings.  As a result, BCBSNC, as well other North Carolina health plans were not included in the 2008 rankings.

The top North Carolina health plans that particiapted in this report are

1. CIGNA Healthcare of North Carolina
2. Aetna Health of the Carolinas
3. UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina

In an effort to assist North Carolinians through tough financial times brought on by the global recession, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) has waived the co-payments on generic prescription drugs for the first half of 2009 (through June ‘09).  The waiver supplements a similar program that BCBSNC is running in 2008 called “Medication Dedication” which has saved members $13Million in out of pocket costs thus far.

About 1 Million BCBSNC members are eligible for the 2009 Program, including:

• Blue Advantage customers
• Medicare Supplement customers (whose plans include prescription drug coverage)
• Many members who are covered by BCBSNC through their employer groups and
• Members of self-funded employer groups if their group has pharmacy benefits through BCBSNC and have chosen to participate in the program.

BCBSNC first launched programs to waive co-pays on generic prescription drugs in 2004, and have seen a marked increase in generic prescription utilization as a result.  The shift to generics from brand name prescriptions is important to insurance companies because it helps keep health care costs down as generics cost a fraction of what brand name drugs cost, and contain the same active ingrediants.  The cost savings ultimately get passed back to the customers in the form of lower premiums based on the utilization costs.