Health Insurance Blog

Medica Health Insurance has gone mobile according to their website.  You can now get Main Street Medica on your mobile iPhone and compare health insurance costs on the go, right at your fingertips.

Main Street Medica Mobile gives you easy access to price and quality comparison information simply by logging in on your iPhone.  You can simply choose between Chiropractic, Clinic, Medical Equipment/Supplies, Pharmacy, Radiology, or Same Day Surgery to look at the various price estimates for over 60 procedures.  You can also compare generic drugs and medical equipment information.

The estimates are all based on Medica’s in-network contract rates with the various providers in the Medica Choice network.  Medica Health Insurance continues to strive for new and advanced technologies to ensure customer satisfaction and efficiency.

According to the article “The Missing Link in Health Reform: A Guarantee of Good Coverage At Work” by Richard Kirsch on huffingtonpost.com, the new House bill will require all but very small employers to offer and help pay for good health insurance benefits.  They can also choose to pay a percent of their payroll to the government to assist with covering subsidies.

The Senate bill on the other hand doesn’t require employers to offer or pay for health insurance for their employees.  The Senate bill will require employers with 50 or more full time employees to pay a fine if their employees end up getting subsidies from the government.  What will actually end up happening depends on which bill gets implemented.

The article points out that currently 150 million Americans get health insurance through their work so there are a lot of people who need to understand the changes.  During the past 10 years health insurance at work has deteriorated and more consumers are turning to individual health insurance.  A study of employers released in the fall says the trend is likely to continue in 2010.  Health care reform is a key component to how it will all play out.

According to the BCBSA website, BCBSA has started a new Pediatric Obesity and Diabetes Prevention Pilot Program in Texas, New Mexico, Mississippi, North Carolina and Kansas.  Through this program Blue Cross Blue Shield plans on reducing the epidemic of childhood obesity and stop further cases of young people getting Type 2 Diabetes.

The plan consists informational toolkits for doctors to use as reference guides when addressing obesity.  The kit was designed with the American Diabetes Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics to encourage healthy choices and was passed out in mid-November.  BCBS collectively protects over 100 million Americans through individual health insurance and other health insurance policies, so this large effort by them should have a great impact.

The toolkit offers healthy lifestyle suggestions such as eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, limiting TV time to 2 hours a day, getting an hour of physical activity every day, and stop drinking sweetened drinks.  According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, an overweight teen has a 70% chance of becoming an obese adult which is one of the leading causes of health issues in our country.  This type of action is proving very necessary.

A rare bi-partisan bill in the California legislature, allowed more than 700,000 children in low-income California families to maintain their health insurance coverage through the Healthy families Program.

The deal restored about $200 Million that was slashed from the budget this summer.  For this to happen, health insurance companies agreed to impose a tax on themselves.  In addition, Healthy Families participants will pay slightly higher premiums.

Healthy families provides health, vision and dental coverage for nearly 1 million children whose families aren’t poor enough to qualify for Medi-Cal but can’t afford private health insurance.

More information about California health insurance.

The article “Leading insurance grievance: delays in claims handling” by Becky Yerak on chicagotribune.com states that Illinois consumers have been filing less complaints about their health, auto and homeowners insurance companies. 

Illinois health insurance complaints were down 13%, auto insurance complaints were down 10%, and homeowners insurance was down 5%.  The complaint ratios, which compare the number of complaints with every $1 million in policies, vary widely among insurance companies.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners released the study showing that the leading complaint was because of delays in handling of claims at 18.7%.  The next most common complaint was claims denials which was around 18.2%. 

Consumers complained most often about accident and health insurance coverage at 37.5% of complaints.  Auto insurance accounted for about 35% and homeowners insurance only accounted for 12.5% of all of the complaints.

One of the most popular arguments against a government run health care plan is the lack of competition that would arise among health insurance providers, but according to the article “Competition Lacking Among Private Health Insurance Companies” by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar on the huffingtonpost.com, private insurance companies already lack sufficient competition.

Studies show that in a number of areas across the country one or two health insurance companies dominate the marketplace.  When this happens prices can be driven up since those needing health insurance do not have many options.  The Democrats believe that a public health insurance plan would fix this problem since it would directly compete with the private insurers.  The Republicans are concerned over the government having that much power.

As Congress tries to figure out the best way to provide health care in this country, it’s important that consumers take matters into their own hands for now.  If you are in the market for health insurance get numerous health insurance quotes to ensure you know what’s available out there.

According to an article on news.prnewswire.com the US Census Bureau just published 2006 estimates of health insurance coverage for each county in the nation.  Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) use a variety of sources for their survey models. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses SAHIE to support its National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.  Free cancer screenings are offered by the program to low income and uninsured women.

Marcus Plescia, the director of the CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control in Atlanta says that the health insurance estimates are helpful in determining the level of need for cancer screenings in counties nationwide.  The data permits them to plan various programs and figure out how to allocate resources.

This SAHIE program includes data from various different ages, gender, income, race and low income children.  SAHIE offers a snapshot of those without health insurance that can be extremely valuable to officials as they plan to assist the uninsured.

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.

Four years ago the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) started to require universities to make their athletes have health insurance coverage before competing in sporting events.  A mistake was made as the Association did not set forth clear standards for the coverage leaving the students to decide for themselves what they needed.  This is all according to the article “College Athletes Stuck With the Bill After Injuries” by Kristina Peterson on nytimes.com. 

Some colleges accept a lot of responsibility for medical claims but others assume none according to a review of public documents.  Many university officials say they definitely inform their students about the limits of certain health insurance options, but the situation has left students and families frustrated and very confused as many have had to take on large and unexpected medical bills. 

Many athletes have health insurance through their parents but often times the coverage does not include injuries due to varsity sports.  This is where it gets tricky.  They need additional coverage but are unsure where to begin and often do not get enough coverage and are left with mountains of debt.  One solution is to require universities to offer quality coverage to all of their varsity athletes, but this is suspected to put too much of a burden on schools financially.  Because of this the NCAA is unlikely to require that sort of mandate anytime soon.

JD Power & Associates ranked Humana the top rated health plan in Texas for 2009, in overall customer experience.  In addition to being rated as the top health plan in Texas, The Humana health plan that operates in Texas was rated as being among the best in the nation ( 5 out of 5 stars).

Other private health plans that faired well included CIGNA & Aetna who each received 4 of 5 stars, which denotes them as being better than most.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas was rated as below average, one of the few Blue Cross Blue Shield member health plans that did not fair well in the JD Power survey.  BCBSTX was rated below average.

More information about Texas health insurance.