Tag Archive for 'Health Coverage'

N.C. starts insurance pool to offer health coverage to riskiest

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Jana
on February 18, 2009
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Although a state-sponsored insurance pool providing coverage to the riskiest patients is already in the works, administrators are searching for more people living in North Carolina that have been nudged out of the private market.

Since October, there have been only 500 residents who have applied for the North Carolina Health Insurance Risk Pool. According to Michael Keough, the program’s executive director, enrollments in the program have been increasing. He projects that around 180,000 people will be qualified in N.C.

The plan is aimed at people who have high-risk health conditions, like hemophilia or multiple sclerosis. The downside is that the insurance is quite expensive, but usually less than private insurance. Premiums are set at 150 to 200 percent of a health person’s private insurance. The state uses a few sources to support the program, mainly from a tax on health insurance premiums and a yearly cash withdrawal from the State Health Plan for public service workers. Health and Wellness Trust Fund gave provided it’s starting operations with a $5 million grant. Without this plan, some people would have to pay about twice as much with private insurance.

The health insurance pool was approved by N.C. lawmakers in 2007. Unfortunately, a small percentage of the approximately 1.4 million people in North Carolina that are uninsured will be covered by the pool. There are about 36 other states that currently provide similar plans.

Replacing health benefits after unemployment

Published
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Jana
on November 24, 2008
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According to Anna Wilde Mathews in The Wall Street Journal (11, 20) Healthy Consumer Column, around 1.2 million jobs have been lost so far this year, pushing a large number of people to deal with losing the health benefits that come with unemployment.

Kathleen Murray, of consultant Mercer, claims that the best thing to do, if possible, is to try to get coverage from a family member’s employer. There is another option called Cobra, the 1986 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. This is an employer-sponsored plan.

Several large insurers have been presenting an expanding range of plans with many benefits and prices for consumers to choose from. Mathews also recommends that people with limited incomes try to find out if they or people in their family might be able to access government coverage.

Health coverage sluggish for N.C. kids

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Jana
on November 17, 2008
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The amount of children without insurance in North Carolina was already increasing by the thousands, as the economy plummeted this year. N.C. is now ranked number 6 in the U.S. for the amount of children lacking health insurance coverage. Surprisingly, most of these children, almost 300,000, lived with working parents.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the advocacy group Families USA released these results last week. These findings increased awareness of perplexing problems concerning how and when children visit doctors. Children with serious health situations such as appendicitis and brain tumors have had to wait to be treated  because they lacked insurance. In these cases, children had to suffer from diseases that could have easily been treated if they had been detected sooner. Meanwhile the cost of care continues to increase.

Numerous parents just do not know that their children are qualified to get health coverage. Almost two-thirds of the children without insurance in North Carolina are eligible for coverage under Medicaid or the state’s child health insurance program called N.C. Health Choice. Medicaid was created by the government to insure the poor, and Health Choice, which is funded by federal and state tax money, is accessible to families with low-income who are not eligible for Medicaid, because they make more money than Medicaid allows.

In summary, more information about insurance eligibility needs to be provided to low-income families who are in dire need of health insurance. Hopefully, this will prevent more children from having to suffer needlessly from devastating diseases.

U.S. has 9 million uninsured children

Published
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Jana
on October 27, 2008
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A recent study on children without health insurance showed that in many cases, at least one of their parents is covered by insurance. More than 3 percent of were not insured: 1,380 of 39,588 children. In about 90 percent of cases, the insured parents of kids with no coverage had a private plan instead of government healthcare. Most of the uninsured children whose parents were covered came from low-or middle-income families. It was found that 25 percent were of Hispanic background. This indicates that private insurance is too expensive for many working families. In most of these low- or middle income families, it was found that it was the kid and not the parent that was insured. 

Unfortunately, there are 9 million children in the nation with no health insurance coverage. This lack of healthcare coverage for children can have severe consequences, such as going without medical care or prescription medications.

Researchers recommend increasing public outreach and retention efforts to keep eligible children enrolled in public insurance benefits. They also suggest expanding the “State Children’s Health Insurance Program” (SCHIP).   Expanding partial assistance programs was also recommended to help make private coverage more affordable for families who prefer coverage for everyone under one plan.

Things to consider when choosing a health plan

Published
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Jana
on September 30, 2008
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Health insurance can be very confusing, especially when terms like HMOs, PPOs or HSAs are thrown at you. To make it easier, you can begin sorting through your options by first thinking about your specific needs.

For example, someone who has a child away at college should consider whether a policy offers coverage outside its regular network of providers.

Unfortunately, regulators have caused insurance policies to acquire too much legal information, but most policies include a summary of key numbers. There are four key things consumers should focus on: the policy’s deductible, premium, co-payments and the maximum amount that the policyholder is expected to pay out of pocket each year.

Another concern should be to look for any numbers that enact coverage limits, such as restricting the days spent in a hospital or visits made to a particular provider. One should be cautious about policies that limit the amount of hospital days. Depending on things like surgery or intensive care unit visits, hospital stays can cost much more than $1,000 a day.

One should also be leery of low lifetime maximums. The cost of cancer care, an organ transplant or treatment for some conditions can rappidly consume lifetime coverage maximums of $2 million or less.

According to The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, preferred provider organization plans, or PPOs were the most common forms of employer-based health care last year. Around 57 percent of workers covered by employer-based insurance enrolled in those.

These plans usually offer a large variety of provider choices, and patients usually don’t need a referral from a primary care doctor to see a specialist.

The second most-common insurance type are HMOs or health maintenance organizations. These plans generally offer lower premiums and larger benefits, but customers are limited to a smaller network of providers.

HSAs, or health savings accounts, allow people to save money tax-free for medical expenses. These accounts are often united with a high-deductible plan that contains a low monthly premium. With HSAs, the customer gets coverage for expensive claims, but they must pay more out of pocket for the smaller things.

Learn more about an HSA-based plan like Blue Options HSA from BCBSNC at 1-800newhealth.com. You can also get a free personalized quote for Blue Options HSA and other BCBSNC products, such as Blue Advantage, and Blue Medicare Supplement.

Uninsured hurricane victims will get prescription assistance from CMS

Published
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Jana
on September 17, 2008
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In the aftermath of hurricane Gustav and Ike, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have put into action the new Emergency Prescription Assistance Program (EPAP). This program will benefit uninsured disaster victims by providing them with one refill of their current prescriptions.

CMS will let hurricane victims from eastern Texas and southern Louisiana receive a replacement for their current prescription medications or equipment from any pharmacy in the country. Pharmacies will be notified about the program’s availability. The system will also furnish a continuous toll-free call center support for hurricane victims and pharmacists.

People living in certain counties of southern Louisiana and Texas will be qualified to receive two activations of EPAP as long as they can show proof of an actual prescription.

Maryland to furnish 50 percent of insurance premiums for small business employees

Published
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Jana
on September 9, 2008
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The Business Gazette (9/4 Shay) in Maryland has reported that a new system in Maryland “calls for a state subsidy of up to 50 percent of the insurance premium” for small businesses. Employers must have “two to nine full-time employees.” to qualify. Also, employers that “have not offered medical insurance to their employees during the previous year and have an average annual employee salary below $50,000″ will be able to get into the program. 

It is predicted that “1,500 small businesses are expected to enroll during the first year of the program,” which has $15 million put aside “to help small employers and their employees pay for insurance during the initial year.” 

So far, many insurance companies “have agreed to enroll companies in their plans under the program” which includes “Care First Blue Cross Blue Shield, Coventry Health Care, United Healthcare and Aetna.”

Less Americans without health coverage

Published
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Jana
on August 28, 2008
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For the first time in seven years, the amount of people in the U.S. without health coverage fell in 2007. The number of uninsured fell from 47 million in 2006 to 45.7 million last year, mainly because of more government coverage. That is 15.3% of the population, which was formerly 15.8%.

Devon Herrick, health economist for the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis, says some of the 18 million of the uninsured make over $50,000 yearly and most likely could afford insurance. “About 32 million people, or 70% of the uninsured, could easily obtain coverage,” Herrick said.

Some of the uninsured aren’t U.S. citizens. They account for 21% or 9.7 million of the uninsured. A lot of people who decide not to obtain health insurance are young, healthy people. Those 18-34 year olds account for 39%, or 18.2 million.

These uninsured numbers count anyone who does not have health coverage at anytime during the year. This includes people who are in between jobs. 

The chronically uninsured, between 10 and 15 million are uninsured because they just don’t qualify for coverage.

There wasn’t much change in the amount of insured last year concerning employer-sponsored coverage.  More people enrolling in government health care programs caused most of the rise.

The amount of people with health coverage has risen by about 16 million since 1999, mostly due to government programs.

“This shows a startling trend toward more government insurance.” said Greg D’Angelo, who is a policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “The improvement this year was driven by expansions of Medicaid and SCHIP and the aging of the popullation. This is a wake-up call, that we need to transition to a system tying coverage to the person, not to the job or government.”

The current presidential campaign reveals these basic differences. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., wants to change the employer-sponsored system by providing each individual and family a tax credit for purchasing health insurance. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., wants to broaden the employer market with tax breaks for covering workers. Widening government-provided coverage is also on his agenda.

Premiums for private health insurance has risen about 10% yearly, since 2000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That accounts for more than three times the rate of inflation.

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