Health Insurance Blog

The US Census Bureau recently released a report that said the Cleveland area has a very high percentage of residents without health insurance coverage.

The report which was released Monday, Sept. 21, found that 22% of Cleveland residents under age 65 are uninsured.  Nationally 17% of the adult population go uninsured and in Ohio as a whole, 13.4% go without Ohio health insurance coverage.

Cleveland’s uninsured rate is the highest among large cities in Ohio.

If you live in Northeast Ohio and are uninsured because you think you can’t afford health insurance, you would be surprised as to the affordable health insurance options that you might be able to find if you shopped online and compared health plans side-by-side.

More information about Cleveland Health Insurance & Ohio Health Insurance.

Ohio has a vested interest in what occurs in Congress as health care reform is figured out.  According to Policy Matters Ohio, over 1 million Ohioans do not have Ohio health insurance.  This is about 11% of those under 65 in Ohio.  This is a huge percent and warrants concern. 

The article “In Congress, political scrapping has just begun” by Jessica Wehrman in the Dayton Daily News, discusses the challenges Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio faces as he sits on the Senate Health, Environment, Labor and Pensions Committee.  It’s been announced that committee Democrats have planned out a deal.  It would include both a public option as well as employer responsibility options.  Those provisions would require employers who could not offer health insurance to at least pay for a portion of the cost for employees to use the public plan.

Brown proposed that the measure would provide competition that would spur both the public and private insurance options to succeed.  He also said in many cases the public option would be available where a private option hasn’t been.

In JD Power & associates 2009 rankings of the top health plans in Ohio, Medical Mutual took top honors.  Based on JD Power surveys, Medical Mutual of Ohio is among the best health plans in the country.

Humana is the 2nd best health plan in Ohio according to this study of well over 100 health plans nationally, and also among the best in the country.  Other Ohio health plans that were rated include:  Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield & Aetna which were both rated as average, and CIGNA & UnitedHealthCare which were rated as below average.

More information about Ohio health insurance.

US News Top Ohio Health Plans

Tough times are resulting in many people being laid off from their jobs, and losing their health insurance as a result. They may be unable to afford COBRA, but still need health care. In the Columbus Dispatch, an article highlights several actions Ohio doctors are taking to help their patients without insurance. Despite their generosity, it is important to regain insurance as soon as possible: do so before insurers will no longer be required to cover any pre-existing conditions you may have. 

Some doctors are creating monthly payment plans that charge as little as $5 for those in dire straits and lacking Ohio health insurance. If they have some rate flexibility, they are charging the lowest amount possible to the uninsured. A lot of medical professionals give poorer patients free samples of prescription medication, although the economy is causing drug manufacturers to cut back on that practice as well. Meanwhile, prescriptions of generic drugs are more common, because they are far more affordable for uninsured patients. 

The article also states that medical practices are assisting patients in applying for government assistance programs, such as those for children’s health insurance. 

(Photo credit: Lauren Nelson under CC 2.0)

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland wants to enact a cap on individual health insurance premiums, according to an Associated Press article. In order to cover up to 52,000 uninsured individuals, Ohio health insurance companies will not be allowed to charge more than one and one-half times (150%) the lowest amount they would charge to someone of the same gender and age. Strickland believes that this measure will be especially helpful to those with pre-existing conditions; their premiums can often be prohibitively expensive.

While the cap would decrease premiums by up to 70%, the Ohio Insurance Department has calculated that it would result on a 5.5% increase in the cost of individual health insurance on average. However, less than 5% of Ohio’s population buys health insurance on the individual market.

Ohio is one of only two US states that are planning on expanding their publicly funded health insurance programs (such as Medicaid and Healthy Start Ohio).  The other state planning to do so is West Virginia.  19 Other states are making cuts to their programs, or are considering doing so.

Although the state hasn’t made a firm spending commitment, they have received approval to expand the children’s health insurance program in 2009.

As promised we will be breaking the US News and World Report health plan rankings down into the state level, to account for differences in health plan regulations, and mandated benefits in each state which can skew results.

According to the report:

The top 10 Ohio Health Plans are:

1. Summacare
2. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Ohio
3. Paramount Health Care
4. Medical Mutual of Ohio
5. CIGNA Healthcare of Ohio
6. The Health Plan of the Upper Ohio Valley
7. Aetna Health of Ohio
8. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Ohio
9. UnitedHealthcare of Ohio
10. Humana Health Plan of Ohio

We will be posting the top 10 health plans in each state over the next several weeks (3-5 states per day), so check back frequently if you don’t see your states health insurance rankings listed yet.

Medical Mutual of Ohio announced that 11 disks contained personal information on more than 36,000 Ohio retirees is missing and believed to be somewhere within the postal system.

The retiree groups that are affected include:

• The School Employee Retirement System (SERS) and its employees
• The State Teachers Retirements System (STRS)
• Ohio Police and Fire Fund and
• The Ohio Highway Patrol Retirement System.

The disks were part of a typical mailing to the reitiree groups for the purpose of claim reconciliation.  Medical Mutual is taking steps to insure the security of customer information and has offered to provide credit monitoring services, free credit reports, and a hotline to answer questions and help with resolving potential fraud.

members of the Ohio Retirement System with questions or concerns about this issue may call 800-854-8139.

More information about Ohio health insurance and Medical Mutual.

In article written by Joan Mazzolini of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio health insurance rates have increased 9 times faster than the rate at which wages have risen.

From 2000 through 2007 the average cost to insure a family in Ohio through employer sponsored health coverage increased over 80% while wages rose less than 9% over that same time period.  Individual health insurance rates in Ohio increases just over 60% over the same time frame.

According to Ron Pollack of Families USA

Rising health care costs were a problem in Ohio before the current economic downturn emerged, and slow wage growth combined with significant job losses have made matters worse.

The only state that showed a larger disparity between the increase in health insurance premiums and wage growth was Michigan.

As health insurance becomes more expensive relative to earnings, many people have difficult decisions to make in order to make ends meet.  Going uninsured is never a good idea, as a serious injury or illness can leave you financially crippled.  One way to lower your monthly health insurance premiums is to change your health coverage to a plan with a higher deductible, such as an high deductible health plan combined with an HSA.

According to the Dayton Business Journal, a state panel rolled out their recommendations for covering Ohio residents who are uninsured.  The report “Covering Ohio’s Uninsured” has been in the works since last summer.

The objective of the proposed plan would cover 500,000 of Ohio’s 1.3 million uninsured by the year 2011.

Some of the recommendations laid out in the report include

1. Extend Ohio health insurance coverage to dependents on group health plans up to age 29.
2. Create a state-sponsored reinsurance program to provide affordable health insurance coverage to uninsured small businesses, sole proprietors, workers and individuals.
3. Provide premium assistance for low wage employees, who could otherwise not afford health insurance
4. Enroll uninsured Ohio residents already eligible for Medicaid into the program, and expand Medicaid eligibility limits to higher-income levels.