Health Insurance Blog

Kay Lazar from the Boston Globe is reporting that the Massachusetts Department of Revenue is raising the monentary penalties charged to individuals without Massachusetts health insurance.

The fines are levied monthly. If an adult over the age of 27 and earns over $31,212 per year, as of 2009 they will now have to pay $1,086 per year for being uninsured. An uninsured adult from 18 to 26 years of age making that amount must pay penalties totaling $624 per year. There is a sliding scale for individuals with lower salaries; people making less than $15,612 are eligible for health care subsidized by the state and therefore don’t have to pay any penalty.

The state of Massachusetts passed a 2006 law that requires all adults (age 18 or over) to have health insurance if the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority determines they can afford it. The policy is intended as a way to transition the state to universal healthcare. Kay quotes a Dept. of Revenue commissioner, who says that last year, 5% of adults that are required to buy health insurance didn’t obtain coverage.

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Judith Graham from the Chicago Tribune’s Triage blog has mentioned that the state of Illinois is now suffering from an epidemic of 50 to 64 year-olds without health insurance. These individuals are caught between a rock and a hard place–they often suffer from pre-existing conditions that preclude buying individual health coverage on the open market, but aren’t yet old enough to qualify for Medicare.

An AARP/Disability Advocates of Chicago report found that over 287,000 (13.3%) adults in the 50-64 age group are uninsured. 44% of poor adults in this age range lack health insurance.

Unfortunately, the current corruption scandal involving Ill. Governor Rod Blagojevich is distracting the state from its governing duties, including dealing with health care. Get the best Illinois health insurance quotes, regardless of your age.

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The UnitedHealth Group is now offering UnitedHealth Continuity, a policy for those that already have health insurance but are worried that they may lose it in the future. These people may be considering early retirement, or may fear unemployment and the resulting loss of health care coverage. Reed Abelson says in the New York Times that applicants must pass a medical review before being accepted. However, many individuals who have been unable to get insurance on their own are those with pre-existing conditions. The Continuity plan doesn’t seem to be helpful for them.

The UnitedHealth Continuity policy charges members 20% of the current health insurance premium to reserve the right to future coverage, and varies due to age, gender, location, and level of coverage selected. The monthly fee is also subject to increase in the future. There is also the danger of the plan becoming a costly high-risk pool that attracts people more likely to develop serious conditions.

Reed also speculates that proposed health care reforms from the incoming Obama administration include a requirement that private insurers offer individual health coverage to everyone, no matter the state of their health. That type of law would make the new UnitedHealth guarantee unnecessary. The president of UnitedHealth’s individual insurance unit, Richard A. Collins, claims that political wrangling and legislative delays make the Continuity plan viable, at least in the short term.

UnitedHealth Continuity is currently available in 25 states in which UnitedHealth already sells individual insurance. It believes that it will soon be able to offer the Continuity plan in 15 more states.

(Photo credit: Shahram Sharif under CC 2.0)

In yesterday’s Miami Herald, John Dorschner reported that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida is now offering a discount card statewide for those without health insurance. For $20 per month, the new FamilyBlue card administered by Coverdell gives individuals discounts on routine medical expenses such as:

• prescription drugs and vitamins
• doctor visits
• dental, vision, and hearing care
• diabetes supplies

However, unlike individual health plans the card doesn’t cover hospital stays, which are most likely to lead to medical bankruptcy. Dorschner also wrote of problems surrounding doctor awareness about the program. Out of 10 approved providers for the FamilyBlue card, only one doctor accepted it when asked. Experts say these discount cards may be more suitable for young and healthy individuals less likely to need hospitalization.

A recent research report has shown that the number of uninsured children in Indiana has decreased from 162,000 to 131,000.   In addition, the number of uninsured could go down even lower as of the 8% of Indiana children that go without health insurance coverage, about 48% are eligible for Hoosier Healthwise, Indiana’s state sponsored health insurance program for children.

In any event, Indiana children are insured at a higher rate than the national average.  Nationally, approximately 11% or 8.6 Million of this nations children go without health insurance coverage.

In addition to state sponsored programs for uninsured children, Indiana also has a new state sponsored plan for low income families that is aimed at adults called Healthy Indiana Plan.  Currently over 35,000 Indiana residents have enrolled in thise program.

More information about Indiana Health Insurance.

Kaiser Permanente now offers a subsidized individual health insurance plan that costs as low as $20 per month.  The plan is called Bridge Community Health Plan.  The Bridge plan targets individuals and families who are experiencing tough times but make too much money to qualify for government sponsored programs like Medicare of Medicaid.

Kaiser Permanente subsidizes 90 to 95% of the monthly premium as a community benefit.

The Bridge Plan offers up to 3 years of comprehensive health coverage to qualified individuals & families.  Applicants must live in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas.  To determine eligibility, interested parties can contact 866-456-5902.

To date, more than thirty states have set-up high-risk pools to address the issue of the those who go without health insurance coverage because they are deemed “uninsurable” by private health insurance companies.

For many of these “uninsurables” these high-risk pools are their only means for acquiring health insurance, because they don’t have access to an employer-sponsored health plan, and as mentioned above, private health insurers won’t cover them because of a pre-exisitng condition such as diabetes, depression, or high-blood pressure.  About 175,000 people nationally are covered under these high-risk pools and that number should grow as more states launch similar programs.

High-risk pools are generally similar to health plans offered by private health insurers, but in some cases may offer more limited benefits.  However, the costs for these health plans are pretty steep ( 1.5 to 2 times that of similar private health plans which is understandable due to the expensive nature of the customers medical conditions that drive people towards these plans to begin with.

Despite their high cost, these state run health plans are a very important instrument for individuals with health conditions and as a last resort, they should certainly be considered a favorable option to going without health insurance altogether.

If cost is a concern, you should first see if you qualify for individual health insurance from a private health insurer, and then look to high-risk pool as a last resort.

States that currently have high-risk pools include:  Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

CVS Caremark, a drugstore operator, has announced the launch of a new health discount program that will enable customers to get 90 say supplies of more than 400 generic maintenance drugs for as low as $9.99.

The Program called Health Savings Pass will cost $10.  In addition to receiving a 90 day supply for $9.99, customers will also receive 10% off if they pay cash at CVS MinuteClinics.  the Program is slated to begin on November 9th.

Health Savings Pass is designed to help the uninsured more effectively manage their health care costs, which is quite a challenge if you do not maintain health insurance coverage and you have expensive prescriptions that need to be filled each month.

Aetna CEO Ron Williams recently called for health care reform to include a mandate to purchase individual health insurance.  He stated

“Some people can afford health insurance and choose not to be covered,” he said. “Others should get a tax subsidy or credits to purchase insurance.”

Williams went on to state that nearly 20% of uninsured Americans (9 million) earn more than $75,000 per year, and should be able to afford health insurance but choose not to.  Another 10% are college students.

Health care costs can be better controlled if more people are insured and if a health plans risk pool is more evenly distributed between healthy and sick individuals.  If Healthy people choose not to be covered because they don’t utilize the benefits, and only people who desperately need health insurance purchase it, the cost of coverage becomes much higher.

Williams also commented on Senator McCain’s health care proposal stating that while it contains some good points, the tax incentives it would clearly weaken the employer-sponsored health care system which is the backbone of the market.

Open enrollment for the North Carolina Health Insurance Risk Pool , began as of October 20th following the recent acceptance by the North Carolina DOI of their rates and health benefit plans.

The North Carolina Health Insurance Risk Pool (NCHIRP) is now doing business as Inclusive Health and can be found online at www.inclusivehealth.org, or by calling 1-866-665-2117.

NCHIRP was created in August 2007.  It provides affordable North Carolina health insurance coverage for residents of the state who don’t have access to an employer-sponsored health plan and, because of their health conditions, face high health insurance premiums or cannot obtain individual health insurance at all, because they won’t be accepted by health insurance carriers.

Plans like Inclusive Health are a great step forward in providing health insurance options to millions of Americans across the country with few if any opportunities to receive adequate health insurance coverage.