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Individual/Family Health

Hard To Please Everyone With A Single Health Plan

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[…] There really is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to health insurance. In terms of health care reform, unless someone just starts handing out free health care (without tax increases or premiums…), it will be tough to get people to agree on a single plan, or even a handful of coverage options. […]

Many Laid Off Workers Not Getting COBRA Assistance

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[…] People who worked for a company that went out of business or stopped offering health insurance won’t qualify, because there won’t be a health insurance policy for them to opt to continue via COBRA. In addition, people who were laid off from small businesses might not qualify if their state doesn’t have a “mini-COBRA” law allowing these workers to continue coverage […]

Too Important To Fail

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[…] I would argue that instead of being considered too big to fail, major health insurance carriers might be seen as too important to fail. AIG’s collapse would have been primarily indirect, but health insurance companies work directly with individual Americans. Even in large groups, individual employees are the ones who carry the id cards with the insurance carrier’s logo on them. […]

Looking For Solutions

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[…] I have yet to see an article that is critical of the public health insurance idea and also proposes alternative solutions. Here in Colorado, we have 800,000 people who are uninsured. Nationwide, that number is 47 million, and that was last year, before the recession hit and unemployment numbers started to climb. I have no doubt that it is higher now. […]

Yet Another Out Of Network Charge

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[…] it’s all fine and good for a surgeon to have assistants, but doesn’t it seem that those assistants should be part of the same health insurance networks as the primary surgeon? After all of the effort we went through to make sure that we wouldn’t get hit with another out of network charge, this is frustrating to say the least.

Health Insurance Reform Will Only Work With Cost Controls

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[…] without mechanisms for cost control, health insurance premiums aren’t going to become more affordable anytime soon. If the government steps in with subsidies, premiums will go down, but what will happen to taxes? Or other public programs that get cut? We can shift costs around, but unless we lower them across the board, we’re not going to see much relief in terms of health insurance premiums paid by individuals and employers.

Getting Rid Of Underwriting Does Not Contain Health Care Costs

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[…] So while reform that involves getting rid of underwriting and requiring everyone to purchase health insurance would help some people, it won’t make much of an impact for the millions of people who can’t afford health insurance, regardless of underwriting. It might end up being a piece of the puzzle, but it’s not going to dramatically expand access to health care.

Only Two Health Insurance Options For Metro State Students

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[…] But some students have done their own research and found an individual health insurance policy that better fits their needs and/or budget, and they would prefer to be given the option of keeping that policy. For those students, we feel that colleges should reconsider their waiver requirements and treat their students as adults who are capable of making their own decisions.

Colorado HB 1224 Passes Senate

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[…] I would like to see lower utilization of health care across the board. Overall, I think that the focus needs to be on reducing health care costs (which requires addressing all aspects of the health care system, from patients and doctors, to pharmaceutical companies and health insurance carriers) rather than redistributing the costs among men and women.

Preventive Colon Cancer Screeing In Colorado

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[…] The changes will go into effect on July 1, 2009 and will require all Colorado health insurance providers to cover preventive colon cancer screening for policy holders over the age of 50, and screening for younger policy holders who are considered at high risk for colon cancer. The legislation pertains to both individual and group health insurance policies. […]

Some Thoughts On Colorado HB1224

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[…] I looked at premiums for $5,000 deductible HSA qualified policies from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Assurant, Cigna, Humana, and United HealthOne. If lawmakers disallow the use of gender to determine individual health insurance premiums in Colorado, younger women and older men will have lower premiums, while younger men and older women will have higher premiums. There won’t be any actual benefit to the overall population – health insurance premiums will just be averaged for men and women.

Stimulus Aims To Help Laid Off Workers Retain Health Insurance

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[…] The number of Americans without health insurance is already way too high. And since most people get their health insurance from an employer, the rising unemployment numbers were sure to drive the number of uninsureds higher. Hopefully the stimulus bill will help to mitigate the problem for at least the rest of this year.

COBRA Only Helps If You Can Afford It

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[…] Most people just can’t afford COBRA premiums. In Colorado, unemployment hit 6.1% in December. I’ve seen conflicting reports about the stimulus bill and whether the final version will contain relief for unemployed Americans struggling to pay for health insurance. Without it, the number of uninsureds will likely be higher this year than ever before.

HB 1256 Not Really A Benefit To Consumers

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[…] The Colorado Insurance Commissioner regulates the health insurance market in Colorado to make it as beneficial as possible for consumers. Opening the health insurance market to allow for out of state plans to be sold here in Colorado would mean that consumers might end up with lower quality health insurance products, regulated by another state’s rules. […]

Daschle And Health Care Reform

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[…] The millions of Americans who lack any type of health insurance and the ever-increasing cost of health care are issues that must be addressed. And unfortunately they’re going to have to be addressed during a time when money is squeaky tight. I imagine partisan politics and lack of money will be a far bigger hurdle for health care reform than Daschle’s withdrawl.

Tough Times For Health Care Reform

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[…] everywhere I look these days, the outlook seems pretty bleak. I wonder how many of the optimistic ideas that were tossed about during last year’s campaign will be scrapped for the time being. Hopefully the people who don’t have health insurance (and all the people who are at risk of joining them) will not become a forgotten minority.

The Real Price Of Brand Name Prescription Meds

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[…] If a rep presents a new med to a doctor, mentions that it’s a whiz-bang drug, and brushes the cost off by saying something like “it’s a brand name drug, but the copays on brand names are usually only about 20 bucks more than generics” the fact that the drug actually costs more per month than most car payments will probably not factor into the doctor’s prescribing decisions. […]

Women And Healthcare

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[…] If you’re up for a little controversy, PalMD at White Coat Underground has written about conscience clauses that allow medical providers to refuse to to provide care if it conflicts with their personal beliefs. A very good point raised in the article and comments is that the conscience clauses tend to be invoked in matters of reproductive health. […]

Email It To Me

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I am a big fan of The Office.  Michael, Jim, Pam, Dwight… they thoroughly entertain me every Thursday night.  Michael isn’t known for his stunning wisdom, but last week there was an exchange between Michael and his boss David that deserves to be shared: David Wallace: I’ll fax over some of the things we’re looking… Read more about Email It To Me

Different Perspectives

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[…] Sometimes we need to be reminded that not everyone is aware of the actual cost of health insurance or health care. To us, reform that lowers costs across the board is a very important issue. But with such huge discrepancies in what people are paying for their health insurance, we’re not even in the same book yet, say nothing of on the same page.

Non-Profit Does Not Necessarily Mean Low Cost

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I recently posted an article on the Colorado Health Insurance Insider about my views on making Medicare available as an opt-in option for Americans younger than 65. I got a comment on the article that I thought brought up some good points and wanted to expand on some of the ideas. The reader pointed out that a good number of private health insurance plans are non-profit […]