Health Insurance Blog

Aetna has announced that they are discontinuing two Medicare Advantage Plans.  The first is being shut down because its membership dropped below the Federal requirement of at least 100 members.  It had 75 members.  The other is being phased out in all but 5 states due to a new Federal requirement that all fee for service Medicare Advantage plans be network based by 2011.

In similar news, Independence Blue Cross is terminating plans that current cover about 44,000 seniors.

If you have lost your Medicare Advantage plan, you can shop for replacement coverage here at healthinsurancesort.com

According to the article “Texas Agency: Senate health care bill could cost Texans up to $20.4B” by Dave Michaels on dallasnews.com, residents who think they are already paying high Texas health insurance premiums and high taxes may be in for a surprise as the health care bill gets considered.

The Senate is considering a health care bill currently that would add about 2.5 million Texans to the state’s public health insurance plans.  This would cost Texas taxpayers up to $20.4 billion over the next 10 years in taxes.  This is according to an analysis of the legislation by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. 

Texas currently leads the nation in the number of uninsured according to the US Census Bureau figures.  Over 25% of Texas residents lack health insurance, which totals about 6 million people based on a 2 year average for 07-08.  Although this statistic is staggering, it is uncertain whether Texas can afford to assist insuring that many more people and it makes the Texas government very nervous to implement such a project.

In Southeastern Pennsylvania, Independence Blue Cross (IBC) in conjunction with Highmark Blue Shield has formed the Caring Foundation which helps to provide free or low-cost health insurance plans to uninsured children and adults in the 5 counties including and surrounding Philadelphia.

Plans that are administered through the Caring Program include Pennsylvania CHIP, Adultbasic, and Special Care.

Special Care in particular is a limited benefit plan providing traditional fee for service coverage to uninsured adults and children in Southeastern PA.

More information about Pennsylvania health insurance and Philadelphia health insurance.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSFL) offers a Medical Discount Card called FamilyBlue that provides discounts on health care.  FamilyBlue is not health insurance, but it does provide discounts on heath care services which is negotiated with providers.

As mentioned above, FamilyBlue is not health insurance, and should be viewed as a last resort only if health insurance cannot be obtained.  If you shop around and compare rates for individual health insurance plans in Florida you will find that there are many affordable health plans available.  A true health insurance plan will offer superior benefits and protect you more comprehensively should you have an accident or become ill.

There are two different FamilyBlue Plans.

• $14.95/mo.per family - discounts on doctor visits, medical services, and Rx drugs.
• $19.95/mo. per family - discounts on doctor visits, medical services, Rx drugs, as well as dental, vision, diabetic supplies, hearing, vitamins and more

More information about Florida health insurance.

Many people are confused by the difference between PPO health insurance and HMO health insurance.  A helpful article on insurance.com entitled “HMO vs PPO” in their FAQ section does a great job of explaining the differences.

With an HMO, which stands for health maintenance organization, members must choose a primary care doctor from a list of member doctors.  This doctor will foresee all of your general medical care and must refer you to specialists.  With PPO health insurance, which stands for preferred provider organization you can either choose a general practitioner or a specialist, without a referral which can save a lot of time.

HMO’s usually require you to see in-network doctors, whereas PPO’s do not.  But with PPO’s there often is incentive to stick with in-network doctors.  The main benefit of HMO’s compared to PPO’s is that there usually isn’t a deductible to meet and the co-payments are generally lower.  The best choice totally depends on your personal situation and your particular needs.  It’s important to take the time to evaluate each health insurance option before making a decision.

The US Census Bureau recently released a report that said the Cleveland area has a very high percentage of residents without health insurance coverage.

The report which was released Monday, Sept. 21, found that 22% of Cleveland residents under age 65 are uninsured.  Nationally 17% of the adult population go uninsured and in Ohio as a whole, 13.4% go without Ohio health insurance coverage.

Cleveland’s uninsured rate is the highest among large cities in Ohio.

If you live in Northeast Ohio and are uninsured because you think you can’t afford health insurance, you would be surprised as to the affordable health insurance options that you might be able to find if you shopped online and compared health plans side-by-side.

More information about Cleveland Health Insurance & Ohio Health Insurance.

On Blue Cross Blue Shield’s website there is a news article entitled “New Census Report Underscores Need for Health Care Reform”.  It has a statement from President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield Scott P. Serota.  The statement follows after the release of the report from the US Census Bureau that shows the number of uninsured Americans increased from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.4 million in 2008. 

Serota points out that no one should have to worry about having quality, affordable health insurance.  He believes that 46 million uninsured is unacceptable.  It’s an important reminder of the critical need for health care reform.  According to Serota, we should enact bipartisan health care reform this year that will give health insurance coverage to everyone. 

Blue Cross Blue Shield companies support initiatives working towards this goal.  They want to build on the employer based system currently in place.  He says the high number of uninsured is partly because of the recession, but something still needs to be done now to fix this problem. 

According to a recently released report by the US Census Bureau, about 23% of New Mexico residents did not have health insurance coverage in 2007-2008.  Not only is the rate of uninsured in New Mexico the second highest in the country, but the 23% that were uninsured in New Mexico according to the report was measured prior to the current economic downturn that we have experienced over the last couple years.

Nationally, just over 15% of the adult population is uninsured.  Texas has the highest uninsured % in the country as about one in four Texas residents go without health insurance coverage.

More information about New Mexico health insurance.

The Senate Finance Committee is coming close to figuring out a healthcare reform bill according to Maggie Guo’s article on The Ethiopian Review site.  Health care cooperatives are still on the table, which has the idea of building large groups so that the price of expensive medical costs are spread out among members to reduce costs for everyone.

But Consumer Watchdog says this will not necessarily lower health insurance quotes for consumers.  They say that in practice there has not been enough members for cooperatives to carry out their function and people with less medical risk often opt out of joining. 

For a cooperative to be effective, member enrollment would need to be near 500,000 consumers according to some estimates.  There have been attempts in Texas, Florida and Colorado without much success.  There is also the concern that if small states get together to create bigger groups, then health insurance companies may insist on a suspension of state regulations because of the different types of customers they would be serving.  This would in turn cause a whole new type of oversight and possibly a lack of proper regulation. 

Recently released results show that 7.8% of Hawaii residents lack health insurance.  Nationally, the number of uninsured Americans has swelled to 46.3 Million according to the same report.

Hawaii has performed better than most other states when it comes to health insurance coverage,  because of Hawaii’s passage of the 1974 Prepaid Health Care Act that requires employers to provide health care coverage for employees who work at least 20 hours a week for four consecutive weeks.  As a result of this legislation, Hawaii has the country’s second highest coverage rate, trailing only Massachusetts.

More information about Hawaii Health Insurance.