Can I Find Affordable Health Insurance in the City?

Can I Find Affordable Health Insurance in the City? in Individual Health Insurance

We recently collaborated with the Chicago Sun-Times for an article that showed health insurance rates actually vary by Zip code. Using our instant health insurance quoting technology, we saw that residents living in the city of Chicago pay a bit more than those in the suburban areas.

But after reading the article, you might wonder: Does this mean it’s impossible for city-dwellers to find affordable health insurance?

Well, thankfully, no. It’s possible to find a plan that fits just about any budget — even if you reside within the city limits.

Okay then. How, you ask?

First, it always pays to compare plans from a few different companies. As the article reported, we know that rates can vary by carrier, so if you’re looking to trim as much off your monthly bill as possible, shop around a bit.

Another major factor that determines your premiums, besides your health history, is your deducible. The key here is to find the perfect premium/deductible combination, so you can minimize your premiums and your out-of-pocket costs at the same time.

Typically, if you hover around the $1,000 to $2,500 deductible range, you can get the best value for your health care dollar. Most plans give you the option to choose a deductible from a menu of options. Just make sure whichever deductible you choose you realistically afford just in case you experienced a medical emergency.

Also, it’s vital to assess which benefits you need. For example, if you rarely visit the doctor, you can find a plan that limits the number of routine visits, which in effect lowers your premiums. And if you’re not picky on which doctors or hospitals you visit, health insurance plans with smaller provider networks have more affordable price tags.

Oh yeah, one more thing — quit smoking.

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Report: Kids Without Health Insurance 1.6 Times More Likely to Die

Report: Kids Without Health Insurance 1.6 Times More Likely to Die in Individual Health Insurance

A new report from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore estimates that the deaths of 17,000 children in the United States over 17 years were due to lack of health insurance.

The study analyzed 23-million hospital records from 37 states. After adjusting for different variables, the study concluded that uninsured kids were 1.6 times more likely to die than children who had insurance.

While health reform is urgent from almost any angle, this really underscores the point. David C. Chang, a co-author of the study, said that health insurance had more of a dramatic impact on children’s outcomes than any medical treatment he could think of.

It’s heartening to see that both health bills in the House and Senate include subsidies for moderate-income families as well as provisions to extend the eligibility period for young adults under their parents’ plan. The Senate bill would require insurers to allow kids to stay on it until age 26. Under the House bill, they would be covered until 27.

Hopefully, even in the swirl of political games, we don’t forget about actually taking good care of people — especially children.

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Health Insurance Goes on the Grocery Shopping List

Health Insurance Goes on the Grocery Shopping List in Individual Health Insurance

Health insurance companies are coming up with all sorts of interesting ways to reach out to consumers who need coverage.

Today, we read that BlueCross BlueShield of Florida recently teamed up with grocery retail stores Winn-Dixie and Save-Rite to offer in-store shoppers health insurance and discount cards at the cash register.

Based on the article, it looks like a popular choice in the grocery store are inexpensive bare-bones health insurance plans. These bare-bones plans, available thanks to Governor Charlie Crist, are so affordable because they aren’t required to provide many of the state’s mandated benefits.

Winn-Dixie and Save-Rite will also have health care discount cards on sale. For participating providers, the cards offer discounts for basic health care services and prescription drugs.

Consumer alert! Discount cards are not the same as health insurance! You can get $50 off or so for a routine doctor’s visit, but you get little or no relief you need major care.

It’s quite the novel approach to selling affordable health insurance, though we’re not sold on how good it is for  consumer. We’ve actually seen many people need the assistance of an agent before they buy.

If we hear more on how this is doing, we’ll let you know.

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Is Massachusetts a Good Model for the National Health Insurance Bill?

Is Massachusetts a Good Model for the National Health Insurance Bill? in Individual Health Insurance

Well, it depends on what you define as model-like.

If you look at the percentage of insured residents, then yes, Massachusetts is a phenomenal model. A whopping 96 percent of the population of Massachusetts has health insurance as a result of the new law, reported the Chicago Tribune.

The Massachusetts health insurance law also makes reform look good for those afraid their current coverage might go down the tubes. According to the Tribune article, “many middle-class people who had insurance before the overhaul see little change.” And, “the employer-based insurance system remains intact.”

Low-income Massachusetts residents who normally could not afford health insurance are also rejoicing at reform and the subsidies to help pay for coverage.

On the other hand, health reform in Massachusetts certainly has its problems. The first, and arguably the biggest, problem is still-skyrocketing health care costs.

A state commission report said the high price of health care “threatens the viability” of the reform effort, wrote the article.

And as we already know, as health care costs go up, so do health insurance premiums. That’s exactly what’s happening in Massachusetts, with some policyholders facing 10 percent increases in their premiums.

The other issue, not mentioned in the Tribune article, is a significant doctor shortage. There just aren’t enough primary care physicians, particularly in rural areas, to see all these new patients.

As wait times to see a doctor get longer, the idea of “rationed care” becomes more of a reality.

Like just about everything in this world, health reform in Massachusetts has its ups and downs. So is the Bay State a good model? We’re still not sure.

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Looking Ahead to the Health Insurance Mandate Debate

Looking Ahead to the Health Insurance Mandate Debate in Individual Health Insurance

In the past few months of the health insurance and health care debate, most of the discussion revolved around whether or not we should have a public government-run health plan inserted into the private market.

The status of that debate, of course, is still ongoing.

But there’s a budding debate that we predict will take a front-and-center stage very soon. It’s the notion of an individual mandate which requires all Americans to carry some form of health insurance.

Now, there are a lot of different arguments to this gem of a topic, so today, we’ll just lay out the groundwork so we can discuss all the puzzle pieces as the debate happens.

Here are some of the debate topics:

• Is an individual mandate constitutional?
  Already, some have brought this into light. It could be a Supreme Court type of case where they have to decide whether the federal government can constitutionally enforce such a law. Then there’s the question of whether allowing a mandate would set a precedent for future mandates by the federal government.
 
• How should you enforce the mandate?
  Senator Olympia Snowe was able to push through an amendment that delays and reduces a fine for Americans who defy the individual mandate. Under Senator Snowe’s amendment, the maximum fine for a family is $200 in 2014, rising to $800 in 2017. Another point of debate will be how the government will be able to identify those who could afford health insurance, but choose not to buy coverage.
 
• What would an individual mandate mean for the private health insurance industry?
  With a new customer pool of some 40 million Americans, an individual mandate would mean the private industry would vastly increase. We’re hoping all this does is lead to increased competition for these new customers, improving quality and reducing price.
 
• What does the mandate mean politically?
  For President Obama, an individual mandate for everyone is a bit hairy. The president ran in the primary (against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) upon the idea that we shouldn’t have a mandate for all. He’ll have to do a fancy political dance to avoid this potentially damaging policy.

There’s probably going to be a lot more on the individual mandate, and we’ll try to keep up on it.

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Doctors' Support for Public Health Insurance Plan 'Broad and Widespread'

Doctors' Support for Public Health Insurance Plan 'Broad and Widespread' in Individual Health Insurance

A survey published Monday by the New England Journal of Medicine reports that a large majority of doctors believe there should be a public option. And large isn’t an exaggeration: A whopping 73% support the creation of a government-sponsored plan either alone or as choice alongside private health insurance.

“Whether they lived in southern regions of the United States or traditionally liberal parts of the country,” says Dr. Salomeh Keyhani, one of the studies researchers, “we found that physicians, regardless — whether they were salaried or they were practice owners, regardless of whether they were specialists or primary care providers, regardless of where they lived — the support for the public option was broad and widespread.”

The survey even found far-reaching support within members of the American Medical Association, a group that has yet to warm to the public option. The researchers said that a desire to uncover “the real voice of physicians” was one thing that motivated the study.  

We suspect that the public option’s popularity among doctors arises in part from their prior experience with government-run health care through Medicare, which the survey revealed they also thought of favorably.

Wow. So does that make the public option doctor’s orders? We’ll see. Amendments are still trickling through and congressional opinion seems, well, judging by Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner’s disagreement about public support for the plan, as contentious as ever. 

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Health Insurance Versus Health Care, Who’s The Real Culprit?

Health Insurance Versus Health Care, Who’s The Real Culprit? in Individual Health Insurance

These days, health insurance is the villain. President Obama and many other lawmakers point to the health insurance industry as the common enemy all Americans can coalesce against.

While it’s no lie that health insurance premiums keep going up for everyone, the insurance industry isn’t the real culprit.

It’s health care costs.

After talking with an actuary at one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States, we learned the cost of health care services is one of the biggest drivers of health insurance rates (in the individual health insurance market, an applicant’s health status is the other).

So really when we see studies, such as this one, that show health insurance premiums are going up faster than inflation and wages, it’s not telling the whole story.

Sure, it makes insurance companies look bad, but the only reason insurance premiums are increasing faster than inflation is that the cost of health care services is going up faster than inflation.

Insurance premiums are directly related to the price of doctors’ care. Said even more accurately, health insurance premiums are at the full mercy of the costs of health services.

There are of course a bajillion other factors that go into the health reform effort, but we just wanted to clear up this one thing.

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President’s Address Reinvigorates Health Insurance Reform

President’s Address Reinvigorates Health Insurance Reform in Individual Health Insurance

Without introducing anything new, President Obama gave a rousing speech aimed at reviving momentum for health care reform. As far as that goes, we thought he knocked it out of the park. You just can’t get around the fact that the president is an amazing orator.

In so far as the details go, there weren’t too many surprises there either, although some interesting assertions were made.

Most notably, the president’s speech backed Senator Baucus’s plan as the blueprint for health insurance reform. Mr. Obama pretty much endorsed Mr. Baucus’s plan point by point.

This, along with cuts in government spending, is how Mr. Baucus trimmed his plan’s price tag down to $880 billion over ten years. Last night, Mr. Obama’s figures came in only slightly higher at $900 billion, which would still uphold his promise not to add to the deficit.

The president also reiterated his support for a public plan but not to the exclusion of other options, calling it merely one of many means to the same end. However, he did state that if legislation fails to provide affordable health insurance for enough Americans, this should trigger a government-run plan — an idea championed by Senator Olympia J. Snowe, a lead negotiator on the Finance Committee.

While the public plan has been a major sticking point, this new configuration may very well be the winning solution.

The New York Times reported that Mrs. Snowe said she was happy to hear the president was considering her idea of only using a public plan as a back-up. She added, “I am pleased that many of the other elements he discussed dovetail with those we continue to work on in the bipartisan Gang of Six.”

Is a light starting to shine at the end of the tunnel? While Mr. Baucus will still have to get Senators Charles E. Grassley and Michael B. Enzi to come around, this is a promising step toward passing a health reform bill — and a bipartisan one at that.

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Key Players in the Game of Health Insurance Reform

Key Players in the Game of Health Insurance Reform in Individual Health Insurance

Holiday shmoliday.

Lawmakers were hard at work this weekend. Most notably, Senator Max Baucus who circulated a comprehensive proposal of his year-long effort to craft a bipartisan health care bill.

But after reading that it doesn’t include a public option and advocates for an additional fee from health insurance companies, all we could think was: huh? Seems like a good way to alienate Republicans and Democrats alike.

Or is it a smart calculation to appeal to legislators such as Senator Olympia J. Snowe, who could be instrumental in getting the bill passed at all? Even so, the proposal will still have to win support from the other Senate Finance Committee Republicans in the “group of six,” including Senators Charles E. Grassley and Michael B. Enzi.

We also think it will be interesting to see how Mr. Baucus’s plan jibes with any proposals President Obama lays out in his congressional address tomorrow... Not to mention certain other legislators. As this all unfolds, The New York Times Prescriptions blog offers a great look at some of the key players to watch:

Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota
Huge proponent of the health insurance co-op option. He pronounced the public plan “dead” a few weeks ago, declaring that it didn’t have the votes to pass.

Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Republicans of Maine
If the public option is discarded, these Senators could be brought on board, providing crucial votes to Democrats.

Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California
Head of the House Energy Committee. He has been vocal that he will not stand for any bill that provides a federal “windfall” to the insurance industry.

Representative Raúl Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona
The Leader of the House progressives. No bill has a chance without his support and he insists on a public option.

Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Democrat of South Dakota
Leader of the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs. Congresswoman Sandlin wants to tone down legislation and steer clear of big spending and would rather not have a public option.

While Max Baucus struggles to forge a bipartisan consensus within his committee, what we are wondering is how the Democrats can pass a substantive health reform bill… and not wind up a fractured party.

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Gallup Finds Most Americans Satisfied With Their Current Health Insurance Plan

Gallup Finds Most Americans Satisfied With Their Current Health Insurance Plan in Individual Health Insurance

Yesterday, Gallup rehashed some poll data from 2006 to 2008 about Americans’ perceptions of their health insurance coverage.

Not too surprisingly, the data showed most people are happy with their current health plan.

Seventy-five percent of Americans with a private health insurance plan rated their coverage as excellent or good, reported the Gaggle blog at Newsweek. Those on government-run plans such as Medicare were also satisfied with their insurance — 74 percent rated their government plans as excellent or good.

When it comes to the quality of health care, satisfaction actually goes up. A whopping 87 percent of those polled who have private health insurance said the quality of their health care is excellent or good. Those with Medicare or Medicaid had similar satisfaction levels of their health care quality — 82 percent said quality was excellent or good.

Because of these high satisfaction numbers, it’s easy to see why public support for health reform is waning big time. Most people are simply happy with what they have and fear what reform might bring.

Still, health reform and public health plan proponents might argue a vast majority of people who are already on government-run health plans are satisfied with both their insurance coverage and the quality of their care.

On the other hand, critics of reform will say any major changes to the system will inherently disrupt something people are clearly satisfied with.

So no new revelations, but interesting data nonetheless.

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Report: 7 in 10 Women Are Underinsured or Have No Health Insurance

Report: 7 in 10 Women Are Underinsured or Have No Health Insurance in Individual Health Insurance

A recent Commonwealth Fund study found that women feel the pinch of rising health care costs more than men. According to the study, half of working-age women report problems getting care due to cost, compared to 39 percent of men.

The reasons boil down to the usual suspects. Women generally earn less than men at jobs that, in turn, offer flimsier group health insurance. So, they suffer higher out-of-pocket costs and, on average, use the health care system more frequently.

But of those who do have coverage, we were surprised at how wide the gender gap is: A whopping 69 percent of underinsured women have problems accessing care because of costs, compared to 49 percent of underinsured men.

And it’s safe to assume that the picture is even more dire now since the findings of the study, conducted in 2007, don’t reflect the severe economic downturn of the last year.

Part of the problem has been a 119% increase in employer-sponsored health insurance premiums over the last nine years. And it’s not getting any better: A separate Commonwealth Fund study released today predicts that health insurance premiums will increase another 94% over the next eleven years, if costs continue unchecked.

"The stakes are high in the health reform debate," Schoen and her co-authors said. "Without a change in course, projections of premium trends indicate that middle- as well as lower-income families may well be priced out of the insurance market or forced to sacrifice future wage increases to hold onto shrinking health benefits."

Still, the real problem isn’t health insurance itself, but the health care costs that drive up premiums for everyone. Any reform that doesn’t attack increasing health care costs head on, won’t do the job.  

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House Bill on Health Insurance Clears Three Panels, Faces Opposition

House Bill on Health Insurance Clears Three Panels, Faces Opposition in Individual Health Insurance

Democrats pushed health insurance legislation through a key congressional committee Friday, providing President Obama with some measure of success before the House recess. The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the bill 31-28 along party lines, reports the Associated Press.

The next step is House floor consideration, presumably in September. In the Senate, several officials said Sen. Max Baucus had informed fellow senators he intends to convene his Finance Committee to begin voting by September 15.

As it stands, the bill isn’t faring well with Republicans and even some Democrats. Few concessions were made to their proposed amendments, which dealt mostly with: eliminating a public plan option; not increasing the deficit; new rules governing medical decisions, wait times to see a doctor and HSA options; and prohibitions on funding for abortion and benefits for illegal immigrants.

It’s not a small list.

And they are not taking this month off from campaigning for them. In the Senate, plans are already in motion for public meetings and a blizzard of radio and television appearances.

Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a family practice doctor, and John Barrasso of Wyoming, an orthopedic surgeon, will take their “Senate Doctors Show,” an Internet program, on the road to argue that the Democratic plan will not improve care or control costs.

In the House, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the Republican Conference, distributed a packet to colleagues on Friday urging them to argue that the Democrats’ plan would include “more than $800 billion in new tax hikes” and “harmful cuts” to Medicare that would “result in millions of seniors losing their health coverage.”

Of course, the Dems have their own August offensive planned, but are gearing it more specifically against insurers, a much more hard-line approach against the industry than they’ve espoused until now.

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Follow GoHealthInsurance on Twitter!

Follow GoHealthInsurance on Twitter! in Individual Health Insurance

To make sure we’re connected to health care and health insurance at all times in 140 characters or less, we’re now on Twitter. Follow us at www.twitter.com/GoHealthDotCom.

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Higher Risk of Obesity Linked To Health Insurance

Higher Risk of Obesity Linked To Health Insurance in Individual Health Insurance

What? How can you possible link something like obesity to health insurance? Is that insinuating health insurance is some kind of health risk factor?

Not exactly. But it’s an interesting statistic nonetheless.

A group of policy experts released a paper that found the simple fact that having private health insurance raised a person’s Body Mass Index (BMI) by 1.3 points. If you have a public health insurance plan like Medicaid or Medicare, your BMI goes up by 2.1 points, wrote the WSJ Health Blog.

So then, is there really a correlation between obesity and health insurance?

According to a study from Health Affairs, having health insurance encourages obesity because people are cognizant of being protected if they have weight-related health problems.

It seems like a flimsy connection and it probably is. Consider this: the number of uninsured Americans skews toward younger people, who have less weight problems than older folks, which means by default those with insurance will have higher BMIs.

And for Americans who have public health insurance, it’s widely recognized that BMI moves upward as income level goes down.

Bottom line is that having health insurance is no risk factor for obesity.

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Health Insurance and Health Care Reform Won’t Meet August Deadline

Health Insurance and Health Care Reform Won’t Meet August Deadline in Individual Health Insurance

Malcolm Smith, the Senate's top Democrat, conceded yesterday that the chamber won't pass an overhaul of health care and health insurance by August. In a townhall meeting that same day, President Obama accepted this fact, as long as he sees "folks working diligently and consistently,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

While Nancy Pelosi confirmed that the house bill would pass before the summer recess, the Senate Finance Committee is singing a different tune. They remain deadlocked over key details, not least of which is how to pay for the plan. The Senate Finance Committee is notably the only group trying to craft a bipartisan bill.

But concern over cost is rising across the board.

Nine Senate Democrats have addressed a letter to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, protesting that too little focus has been given to keeping down health costs.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said Thursday, "Despite what President Obama claims, the bill he is promoting today will make health care even more expensive."

Even at the friendly townhall meeting in Ohio, a 14-year-old incoming high-school freshman asked the president if he was pushing too much, too fast. Mr. Obama replied that, "Reform may be coming too soon for some in Washington, but it's not soon enough for the American people. We can get this done."

But this kind of response is garnering another growing criticism of the current administration: That their solutions are based on rhetoric and not reality. 

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