Health Insurance Blog

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 Associated Press’s article “Doctors signal they’ll work with Obama” by Lindsey Tanner, America’s largest group of physicians had their annual meeting and many thought they were going to create an obstacle for President Obama’s health insurance reform plan.  After Obama himself spoke with the doctors, they signaled that they will not close the door on the proposal to have a public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers. 

The Obama administration would have liked a strong endorsement from the doctors, but this vote by the American Medical Association (AMA) is a small victory for the White House.  They are a key player in the health care reform debate.

The AMA is traditionally a conservative group and has disagreed with previous administrations’ attempts to change health care.  It is a notable presence in Washington and Obama’s trip to Chicago for the meeting shows that he does value the doctors’ support and understands the influence they have.

According to an article written by Robert Pear of the New York Times, broad consensus among the Democrats on the redeployment of our country’s health care system is not far off.

Democratic leaders in both houses said they would indeed make health insurance mandatory, requiring  individuals to carry health insurance coverage and employers to help pay for it.  The question is, how will they raise the necessary tax revenue to support it?  On way that has been discussed is taxing employer health benefits.

In addition to making health insurance compulsary, the bill outlines yesterday would allow people to enroll in a governement run health plan similar to Medicare.  There are other suggestion being floated by Senate Democrats that would limit the scope of Government involvement, but would still create a plan to compete with private health insurance companies via a “Co-op”.

As the health care reform debate continues to heat up, the health insurance sort blog seems to be dominated by news related to the ongoing battle on this topic.  The latest blow, was one thrown by a group call HealthJustice, a health care reform advocacy group.

The advertisements push the concept of eliminating the private health plans altogether and replacing them with a single payer Medicare system for the entire U.S.  The ads feature Mike Farrell (BJ Huneycutt from M*A*S*H) who states in the ads

Insurance companies have stiffed us time and time again…..its time to get health insurance companies and their red tape out of out health care system.

The ads air on “Larry King Live” and “Hardball,” as well as on the BET, Gameshow, MSN, CNN channels among others.

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