Health Insurance Blog

According to the article “Married, with Benefits: California Mom Terri Carlson Starts Will Marry For Health Insurance Web Site” by Rosemary Black on nydailynews.com, a woman desperate for good health insurance because of a chronic condition has started a campaign online to get a husband with excellent health insurance.

Finding health insurance has not been easy for Terri Carlson because she hasn’t been in the work force long enough to qualify for social security, but her COBRA is about to expire in May.  She has an autoimmune disease which prevents her body from fighting infections so she needs to take 10-20 different prescriptions everyday.  She knows that finding individual health insurance for herself will not be easy.

The 45 year old divorced mom did realize though, that if she married a man with excellent health benefits she could automatically be placed on their health insurance policy and her problems are solved.  Well, her old problems are solved.  It seems like she may have a new list of problems if she marries a stranger just for health insurance coverage.  This just goes to show how important health care reform really is.

Finding health insurance in Florida does not have to be a difficult challenge.  According to the article “Florida Health Insurance Buyers Guide” from TransWorldNews, there are certain Florida health insurance regulations that should be understood when shopping around.

Florida health insurance, like most states, are permitted to deny an application for pre-existing conditions.  This can potentially be avoided by applying for health insurance as a member of a group plan.  There are often restrictions with this option to watch out for though.  The group generally must have had coverage for 12 mos previously with no lapse. 

According to the article, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, and New Jersey are the only states who do not allow an application to be turned down because of pre-existing conditions.  Florida currently underwrites policies based on previous medical history.  In Florida you are able to purchase a conversion policy if you happen to lose coverage if you had 3 months of coverage through a group before it was lost.  And there is a limit on the cost.  It cannot be more than 200% of the price of a standard rate for an individual health insurance policy. 

The Texas Health Insurance Pool website gives some history and background to what the pool is and how it benefits Texas residents.

The Texas Legislature created the Texas Health Insurance Pool to provide Texas health insurance benefits to eligible Texans who are unable to get coverage from commercial insurance companies because of previous or current medical conditions. 

The Pool is also an alternative means for individual health insurance coverage which guarantees transferring coverage to qualified residents who lose their coverage under an employer based plan, a church plan, or a state plan.  This is mandated by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, also known as HIPPAA.

State Farm Health Insurance is giving America a highly needed challenge.  They are challenging Americans to collectively lose 50 million pounds across the nation, according to the article “Insurance agency challenges Americans to lose weight” on wqow.com. 

Bob Johnson, an agent at State Farm Insurance, says that the healthier you are the less frequently you visit the doctor which will help lower your health insurance rates over time.  There is also the benefit of living a longer, higher quality life the healthier you live.  A healthy lifestyle will help you lose weight, have more energy and just feel better overall.

Online registration is available and participants can track their progress throughout the challenge.  There is also information on how to lead a healthier lifestyle.  State Farm Health Insurance is offering a kit which includes a pedometer and an information booklet.  Hopefully America is up for the challenge because obesity continues to be on the rise. 

According to a press release from July 15 on 1888pressrelease.com entitled “Health Insurance Quotes Go Down When You Shape Up”, as unemployment increases so does the number of uninsured since many people turn to employer-based health insurance plans.  Health insurance costs are often unaffordable for the unemployed, but there are ways to keep costs down.

An article on Insuranceagents.com states that simply making some lifestyle changes can affect your health insurance quotes.  Policyholders are recommended to get plenty of sleep, eat a well-balanced diet, take vitamins, cut smoking, monitor weight and exercise regularly.  Overweight people spend much more on health insurance because they are filing more claims and often times have pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.  Obesity is also the second leading cause of death in America, estimated to cause around 300,000 deaths per year according to the Surgeon General.

Staying healthy can save you money in the long run on health insurance as well as help you live a longer, higher quality life so it really is a win-win situation to get fit.

Timothy P. Carney, a columnist with the Washington Examiner, recently penned an article about the pending health care reform proposals that are being debated.  Mr. Carney’s speculation is that the health insurance companies will win at the end of the day and their proposal will be accepted by Obama and his administration.

The health insurers plight has been championed by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a trade group that has been more than $4 Million over the past 6 months lobbying for their cause.

The key points in AHIPs proposal include:

1. Health insurers must cover everybody who is willing to purchase health insurance coverage, regardless of pre-existing or other health conditions
2. Health insurers would agree to charge customers the same monthly premium regardless of age or health status
3. Health insurance would be compulsory - All Americans would be required to purchase and maintain health insurance coverage, whether via an employer group, Association, or an individual health insurance plan.
4. The Government would subsidize people’s health insurance premiums

Obama’s plan no longer calls for a “single-payer” environment, but rather a marketplace where the federal Government would compete with private health insurance companies for membership.

The heavy lobbying and campaign contributions put forth by health insurers make them very influential and in the end might help them get their way in this important health care reform debate.

Blue Cross Blue Shield, and AHIP, issued a joint statement opposing President Obama’s proposal to create a government run health plan.  They believe that the creation of a government run health plan would be detrimental to a overhaul of our ailing health system.

In their statement sent to key senators, AHIP and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) said that any such program “would thwart the ability of the healthcare sector to implement meaningful delivery system reforms, exacerbate the cost-shift from public programs to consumers and employers in the private market, and destabilize the employer-based system.” The two groups said that more than 100 million Americans would leave their existing private health insurance plan for the proposed federally subsidized health plan.

Both AHIP and BCBSA said they would guarantee health insurance coverage to all families and individuals, including those with pre-existing medical conditions, but only if there is a federal mandate that requires Americans to obtain and hold health insurance coverage. Even so, “rating flexibility based on age, geography, family size and benefit design would be needed to maintain affordability.”

This is a interesting development in the ongoing debate about how to fix the broken health care system in the United States.  This proposal seems like it would make sense for health insurance shoppers if the rates would indeed be affordable.  My gut feeling says that  if health insurance companies are required to cover unhealthy individuals at the same rates as healthy individuals, the healthy people will bear the financial brunt of this compromise.

Walt Williams reports in the State Journal that West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller has introduced a bill that is intented to increase health insurance access to those with pre-existing conditions. The Pre-Existing Condition Prevention Act would prevent insurance companies from excluding a pre-existing condition from their coverage. Rockefeller claims that over 130 million Americans suffer from chronic conditions that could lead to individual health coverage being denied them. He also says that this bill is essential to pave the way for universal health care reform at a lower cost.

On the other hand, Walt quotes an industry spokesperson who says that the impact of such denials are heavily exaggerated (although they have far more impact when shopping for an individual health insurance policy on the open market, as opposed to an employer-sponsored health plan that puts a potential policyholder in a larger pool that reduces the risk of any one person with a chronic illness), and that the bill could result in a moral hazard: people will drive up the cost of health care by only buying insurance after they desperately need it.

According to Angela Gonzales in the Phoenix Business Journal, LifeWise Health Plan has decided to exit the Arizona health insurance market. The insurer stated that the plan did not have enough enrollees to turn a profit. LifeWise launched its Arizona plans in 2004.

Fortunately, policyholders won’t have to worry about having developed conditions that would prevent them from finding affordable individual health insurance on the open market. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona has agreed to take all former LifeWise customers that were previously healthy and offer them a plan of similar coverage and cost, even if they developed a health condition after buying the initial policy. In order to take advantage of this offer, employer-sp, Angela onsored health insurance groups must switch to BCBSAZ plans by May; individuals have until September to make the switch.

About 16,000 Arizona policyholders in total will be affected by this closure, Angela claims.