By Melanie Rose

Finding coverage that meets your healthcare needs and fits your budget can be challenging. This is because health insurance that covers more tends to cost more. Listed below are 5 useful tips to keep in mind when shopping for a health plan.

1) Do your best to balance the cost (monthly premium) of a policy with the protection that it offers.

2) Determine what you will have to pay out-of-pocket for covered services (such as a deductible, coinsurance, or copayments).

3) Estimate costs for non-covered care (services excluded or limited by the policy). Also be aware of any additional fees (charges above what the plan recognizes).

4) Avoid policies that don’t have some kind of out-of-pocket limit on covered charges. (An out-of-pocket limit is the maximum amount that you are required to pay per calendar year for services under a health plan)

5) Don’t mistake insurance-like products for comprehensive coverage.

For pricing information on available health plans, please refer to our Health Insurance Quote Tool. You can also contact a MediCoverage Agent at (800) 930-7956

By Josh Millings

Health Insurance for Under 19 Background

In 2010 most health insurance companies in California ceased offering plans to individuals under 19 after last year’s federal health care guaranteed issuance law went into effect. Under the law, insurance companies were forced to accept anyone younger than 19, regardless of their health history.  The insurance companies response was to stop selling any plans to individuals under 19 rather than comply with the law. This created negative feedback the White House and other patient rights groups, who accused the health insurance companies of caring more about profits than the 80,000 under 19 children with no health coverage.

The insurance companies argued that the law unfairly punished them. They claimed there would be adverse selection as parents would only enroll their kids in a health plan after they got sick and costing the companies millions. Parents with healthy kids would not pay into the health insurance system in advance because they knew they could join later at any time.

To address this Health Insurance issue, the State of California has done two things:

1) Told insurance companies that if they don’t offer under 19 insurance they cannot sell any individual health insurance in the state for 5 years. Many claim this punishment would teach companies to not over look our students and children.

2) Created an enrollment period from Jan 1. to March 1 (or in the month after their children’s birthdays) where parents can sign up their kids on child-only policy and they will be approved regardless of health condition. If under 19 individuals sign up during this time the most they would be charged would be 2x the best rate.  Those signing up outside the enrollment period could be charged a much higher rate.

In response to these new state insurance law, many companies the companies — including Aetna Inc., Anthem Blue Cross, Cigna Corp., Health Net Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. — resumed sales of child-only.

“The law is only effective if parents take advantage of it — the time is now,” said Assemblyman Mike Feuer. The trick is to educate parents that they need to sign up their kids before March 1 or during the month of their birthday to take advantage of the new law.

Special thanks to Jared at The National Teachers Alliance for bringing this to our attention.

Mike Solis

We got the following message from Anthem Blue Cross today in a section called “Getting to the bottom of your health care costs.”   

“Did you know: 10-year study indicates spending for prescription drug use in America is on the rise? U.S. spending for prescription drugs more than doubled to $234.1 billion over the 10 years covered by a study released by the Centers for Disease Control in September 2010 as part of its National Center for Health Statistics data brief. Among those ages 60 or older, 37% used five or more prescriptions per month.”

Obviously, Anthem has an agenda to show America that there is a reason for their raising health insurance premiums.  What do you think? Are high cost prescriptions and our over reliance on them the cause of our health insurance problems?

Let us know what you think about insurance costs and its relation to prescription drug cost.

By Mike Rose

If you have been uninsured for at least six months because of a pre-existing condition, a new law may provide you with new coverage options. As part of the recent Affordable Care Act, the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan was designed to provide alternatives to uninsured Americans with pre-existing condition. Each state can choose to run this program or, if not, to be part of the plan established by the Department of Health and Human Services.  The plans cost are expected to be higher than comparable traditional health insurance and benefits may be limited. If you are not sure if you can be approved for traditional health insurance due to a pre-existing condition, please contact a Medicoverage associate to assist you.

Medicoverage Staff

President Obama has approved another short-term extension of COBRA premium subsidy. With this new extention, employees terminated from April 1, 2010 through May 31, 2010, will receive the 65% subsidy on their COBRA premiums. This means if you were recently laid off (or fired) you could purchase your COBRA plan at a significant discount. You will want to compare that discounted price before purchasing individual health insurance.

Prior to this most recent extension, the old cut off date to qualify for subsidies was March 31, 2010. President Obama has been asking lawmakers to extend the COBRA premium subsidy through the end of 2010. It looks like the Senate is currently working on this new extension. We will update you as soon as we have any new news.

Author: Marcus Wilip Editor-at-Large

No surprise but when you are 22 years-old you have the greatest odds of being uninsured. A recent February 2010 Gallup Health Survey shows that only 66% of Americans at age 22 have health insurance. That’s the lowest health insurance coverage of any age demographic. Why is it that this group doesn’t have a comparable percentage of health coverage as others?

Here what I think:

1) When you are 22 years-old you are often no longer eligible for your parent’s plan. By contrast roughly 84% of 18-year-olds have health coverage.
2) Many 22 year-old individuals have recently graduated from college and no longer qualify for school sponsored health insurance.
3) A large amount 22 year-old Americans find it hard to land a job that offers health insurance as a benefit.
4) Many 22 year-olds are expected to purchase health insurance for the first time. The process can be overwhelming and expensive. Many young people give up trying to purchase health insurance and just assume it’s too expensive.

Now many experts say this demographic is under insured because they don’t value health insurance. They media says this group thinks they are invincible. I’m not buying this. Young people do care about health insurance. Every young person knows someone whose last ER trip cost 1000s of dollars and they don’t want to be next.  I’m sure there are many recent grads today that are stressing because they “need to get covered.” I think reasons 1-4 above explain why this group is the least likely to be insured not because they think they are supermen (or superwomen). So if you 22 all you really need is to find a individual health plan that is easy to understand, affordable and doesn’t require that you be a full time student. There are actually a few plans that fit this requirement, the most publicized is Tonik. 

Here is the good news according to Gallup: From age 22 on, the percentage of individuals health insurance number begins to climb.  By the time their 65, roughly 95 percent of American’s are covered. So we all have something to look forward to.

What should young people do for health insurance

My opinion is that all young people should have an HSA. That’s a health saving account. They are less expensive and allow you to put away 1000’s of dollars each year tax free. If a young person were to set up an HSA at age 22 he would save so much money on the high cost of traditional premiums that his HSA bank account would be loaded with more money than he knows what to do with. Learn more about HSA’s here.

by Medicoverage Staff

Anthem Blue Cross of California has announced that they will launch two new low cost health insurance plans for 2010: CoreGuard and ClearProtection.  While the plan details have yet to be confirmed, both plans are said to offer a range of deductibles which are designed to meet individuals and family’s unique needs.

The CoreGuard plans were designed for clients “who simply need a lower-cost alternative and can handle a higher share of the cost.” The projected cost of the CoreGuard plans confirm this goal. The CoreGuard 10000 plan shows a monthly premium of under $75 a month for a male under 40 but clients must first satisfy a 10,000 deductible before receiving many of their benefits.

The new Anthem ClearProtection plan, on the other hand, is designed for clients who want “affordability along with the convenience and assurance of some first dollar coverage, and a broad range of benefits.” The same under 40 year old male would pay $69 a month for the .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

The CoreGuard plans are slated to be available in January of 2010 while clients interested in the ClearProtection plan will have to wait until February of the same year. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

Medicoverage Press Release

The new site,  features general overviews, plan details, online applications and rankings of top plans that are best suited for young adults. The company hopes to provide a needed service to individuals who, if they are not careful, can find themselves without health insurance coverage shortly after receiving their diplomas. Most family insurance plans will only cover children to age 19 if they are not full-time students and many insurance plans stop dependents’ coverage immediately upon graduation.

Healthygrads.com is designed to help recent grads avoid a gap in coverage and is specifically targeting young people between 19-29 years old. A demographic that company CEO Eric Scheinbaum says has been largely underestimated. “It’s a myth that young people don’t care about insurance. Anyone who is smart enough to invest in his or her education is smart enough to know that health insurance is a must have. Young people are our fastest growing group of new customers.”

Scheinbaum goes on to explain that while recent graduates value health insurance, they seek different benefits than your typical health insurance customer. “Recent grads don’t want to pay for expensive benefits that they believe they will not use such as brand-name prescription coverage.” What they do value, according to Scheinbaum, is being able to visit a doctor or the emergency room without having to pay a deductible. They also gravitate towards plans that offer dental and vision benefits but no lengthy contracts.

Healthgrads.com features only the top youth-oriented plans that fill the criteria above. All recommended plans are underwritten by top insurance providers such as Blue Cross, Blue Shield and UniCare with GenY plan names such as Tonikplans, SoundPPO and EssentialPPO. According to the site, Medicoverage never refers their clients to “fly-by-night” insurance companies that may not be around when you need them.

Although the company designed the site for young adults, they believe the previous generation will also find the site useful. They expect about 1/4 of the Healthygrads.com visitors will be parents. “While we have been impressed by the number of recent grads that have taken responsibility for researching and purchasing their own insurance, we know that sometimes a parents nudge in the right direction makes all the difference in the world,” says Medicoverage Director of Marketing, Chris Mihm. “Many parents will email a link from healthygrads.com to their recent grad and let their children take it from there.”