Health Insurance Blog

According to the article “Texas Health Insurance Plans Help Residents of the Lone Star State During Natural Disasters” by Ronnie Hamilton on bestsyndication.com, when Hurricane Ike hit Texas last year everyone with injuries, even minor, were sent to the hospital for a mandatory check up. 

Residents were strongly encouraged to seek medical attention as soon as possible to ensure everyone was safe.  Those carrying individual health insurance in Texas were grateful they were covered.  The article states that Texas has one of the highest rates of uninsured residents and this is unfortunate especially in a national natural disaster like a hurricane. 

This is just one of many reasons to be properly covered, especially if you have children.  The Texas government offers plans that are affordable.  It is also Texas law that there be programs available free or very low cost for children whose parents are unable to provide it for them.  Know your options and be sure you are protected.

Residents living in Dallas County, TX are eligible for a unique Dallas health insurance perk.  Dallas County’s prescription drug card covers pet’s medicines as well, according to the article on examiner.com by Rebecca Poling. 

The Dallas County Coast2Coast RX card offers huge savings on prescription drugs, up to 65%.  This includes pet prescriptions also.  There are no health restrictions nor are there any age or income requirements.  Both brand name and generic drugs are covered under this program. 

WalMart, Kroger, Walgreens, CVS, Sam’s Club, Target, Tom Thumb, Costco, Minyard and others are all participating pharmacies of the Dallas County Coast2Coast RX Card.  This card can mean big savings if you live in the eligible area.

According to the article “Houston turns out for health care reform” by James Thompson from People’s Weekly World Newspaper, 2000 supporters of health care reform had a rally organized by Organizing for America (OFA) at Houston City Hall. 

Many Houston health insurance policy holders are passionate about seeing change.  The rally was endorsed by OFA, Harris County Democratic Party, Harris County AFL-CIO, SEIU and Justice for Janitors.  About 100 people attended who oppose health care reform.  They were drowned out by supporters of reform.  Houston police officers were on duty and no violence broke out.

One of the highlights of the rally was a speech given by Rep. Al Green, D-Houston.  He pointed out that the US is spending $2.5 trillion a year in health care but we cannot afford this.  He believes that everyone should be protected and health care should serve all.

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.

The article entitled “Health Care Coverage” on texashealthoptions.com says that approximately one in four Texans do not have health insurance.  This is a staggering statistic and getting individual health insurance in Texas does not have to be hard.

Some of the reasons Texans decide to go without health insurance is because it’s too expensive, they don’t understand the ramifications of going uninsured, pre-existing health conditions prevent them from getting approved, or they are in between jobs and haven’t figured out their health insurance situation yet.  Whatever the reason, it’s important to get adequate coverage as soon as possible. 

Health insurance companies use varying standards to decide who they will or will not cover so chances are if you shop around enough you will find an insurer who will cover you.  There are also many different state, federal and nonprofit programs that will help provide individuals with low cost health care.

If you are in the market for Dallas health insurance it’s valuable to know how Dallas hospitals rank.  DallasHealthInsurance.org has some information on their rankings. 

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, TX, is ranked 15th among the best hospitals in the country for Gynecology.  It ranks 36th for treating kidney disease.  Children’s Medical Center is 15th place for Children’s Hospitals and is known for being a quality cancer treating facility.  This is according to US News and World Report.  The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is 26th in Neurology and Neurosurgery in the nation.  Pretty impressive rankings for the city of Dallas.

According to the article “Overhauling Healthcare is Too Big For Texas” by Mitchell Schnurman on star-telegram.com, Texas is trying to solve the giant health care issue on its own but slowly realizing they may not be able to do so.

Texas health insurance has many opportunities and Governor Rick Perry is trying to do something about it, but hasn’t figured out the magic bullet just yet.  In 2007, he pushed a health care concept to Washington but it didn’t work out.  Texas has over 2.1 million low income adults who do not have health insurance.  An additional 4 million in Texas are also uninsured and about $12 billion in yearly hospital bills go unpaid. 

Unfortunately, health reform will cost Texas tens of billions of dollars if it attempted to cover most of its uninsured residents.  Texas is in better shape financially than most other states, but still cannot do it on their own despite prior proposals to attempt this.  Funding will have to come from a national level and Texas desperately needs their share of the dollars that will be spent. 

BlueCross BlueShield of Texas (BCBSTX) published a memo on their website that covers where they stand on the much talked about health care reform debate going on in Washington.  BCBSTX does believe strongly that health care reform is in fact needed and affordable health insurance should be available to all Americans. 

On the table currently is Obama’s plan to have a government run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.  BCBSTX believes a government run plan would eventually push out private insurers and eliminate the benefits of competition.  This could lead to a system where government controls access to health care as well as sets all payments.

BCBSTX supports a plan that would require health insurance companies to give coverage to all applicants.  They believe this will only work if every American is required by law to have health insurance.  They also support research to determine which medical advancements are most worth while determined by an independent entity.

For more information on where BCBSTX stands on the health care reform debate visit their website. 

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.

According to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau, in the United States in aggregate roughly 17% of the population (under age 65) goes without health insurance coverage.

Texas had the highest % of their state residents  go uninsured than any other state as 26.3% of Texas residents (under age 65) went without health insurance coverage.  New Mexico and Florida claimed the next highest levels of uninsured with 24.2% and 24.0% respectively.

The states with the lowest uninsured % include Minnesota 9.5%, Hawaii 9.7%, Wisconsin 10.3%, and Iowa 10.4%.

The U.S. Census report also broke down uninsured numbers across racial lines.  The broad findings as they relate to race found that Hispanics are far more likely to go without health insurance than either whites or African-Americans.  More specifically, in Texas for instance, over 40% of Hispanics went without health insurance, while the African-American uninsured % was 24% and 16% for whites.

On a positive note, nationally the Hispanic uninsured % declined from 34% (15.3 Million) to 32% (14.8 Million) from 2006 to 2007.  In addition, the number of uninsured children decreased from 8.7 Million to 8.1 Million.

The tremendous disparity in uninsured levels by state to state can be partly explained by health insurance mandates that exist on the state level that drive health insurance premiums.   States that have more expensive mandated benefits, for example, might require health insurance companies to charge significantly higher health insurance premiums in that state pricing out many more individuals and families form purchasing individual health plans.  This is precisely what McCain’s health reform plan is seeking to eliminate by creating a national health insurance marketplace and allowing customers to purchase health insurance plans from other states if they offer a health plan that is a better fit for their health care needs and budget.