Tonik Nevada 1500 and 3000 plans no longer available to new customers
August 17, 2010 By: Mark Solis
As of September 17, 2010 Anthem Blue Cross of Nevada said the following plans will not be available to new members. The list includes the popular Tonik 1500 and Tonik 3000. This will not affect current members who already have a Tonik plan.
- Anthem Blue HSA
- Anthem BlueSaver 2000
- BluePreferred PPO
- Legacy HSA
- Lumenos HSA, HIA and HIA+
- RightPlan PPO 40
- SmartSense deductibles 500, 1500, 2500, 5000 and 7500
- Tonik deductibles 1500 and 3000
Existing members who enjoy the benefits of their current plan may remain on their plan, and they may continue to add family members to their current plan after September 22, 2010. There are no benefits or rate changes associated with discontinuing sales of these plans.
How Will Health Care Reform Affect Tonik
March 17, 2010 By Marcus Wilip
It is too early to say exactly what the final health care reform will look like but we get lots of questions asking how will reform efforts affect Tonik Health Insurance. Here is what we know so far…
There is currently no public health plan on the table that will cover everyone for “no cost.” We occasionally get the person that says, “why buy Tonik if I’m just going to get covered under health care reform.” Any results from health reform will be a few years off and they won’t offer blanket coverage for young people like Medicare does for the over 65 set.
Congress is, however, scheduled to vote shortly on a reformed plan designed to get the bulk of young people to buy health insurance. The plan is supposed to use a combination of subsidies to help young people pay for the their monthly premium and fee penalties for those who chose not to purchase health insurance. If this passes there will be a health insurance coverage mandate. This is designed in part to get the additional 13 million young Americans who are currently not paying for health insurance into the system.
The proposed penalty is not that big. It looks like $95 dollars for the first year and it will start increasing to $750.
So how does this all affect Tonik. We don’t know exactly. The proposal talks of requiring all plans to approve everyone. That would be a change for Tonik as currently all applications must go through underwriting and everyone is subject to approval. If this were implemented on Tonik it would also raise the price as we have seen with the small group market when everyone is approved regardless of their health history, the monthly price is almost always higher. But it is unclear how a legacy plan like Tonik will work. They say that if you already have a plan you can keep it so maybe Tonik’s benefits will not change.
We will keep you posted with any new news of how health care reform will affect Tonik.
Tonik Application now available in Vietnamese, Tagalog and Spanish
March 08, 2010 By: Naya Jones
To accomodate non English speakers, the Tonik health insurance applications are now availabe in Tagalog, Vietnamese and Spanish. The application are currently only available.
We have added Tagalog, Vietnamese and Spanish applications.
Affordable options available to help the growing number of uninsured recent grads
May 14, 2009
Spring is here, bringing with it an important milestone for many young adults—college graduation. Graduating from college represents a transition from partial to complete independence. While some graduates continue on to graduate studies, many either take some time off or enter the workforce - an exciting time that also happens to be coupled with several financial and lifestyle obstacles.
Upon graduation, many young adults lose their eligibility for health insurance coverage. Former students are no longer covered by their school’s insurance plan and many are no longer considered eligible as dependents on their parents’ plans. As a result, many young adults join the ranks of the 47 million Americans who are uninsured, making recent grads the fastest growing segment of the uninsured population.
According to a recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, nearly 40 percent of college graduates and half of high school graduates who do not enroll in college have no health insurance coverage at some point during their first year after graduation.
Many graduates don’t know how long their job search will last and are reluctant to purchase coverage they feel is unnecessary. The challenge for these twenty-somethings is finding a flexible policy that provides coverage for up to six or 12 months that also allows them to pay for coverage one month at a time. Once they obtain permanent coverage through an employer, they can simply stop paying the month-to-month premium.
Individual medical insurance can give recent graduates and their parents valuable peace of mind by protecting them from the devastating financial impact a catastrophic illness or accident can cause.
“We know that young adults are facing the challenge of seeking health coverage that is affordable,” said John Martie, president, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Colorado. “Anthem has created innovative coverage options, like Tonik and Lumenos Consumer-Driven Health Plans that deliver practical coverage for a reasonable price.”
Though policy costs vary according to age, gender and location, they’re typically about one-third the cost of coverage through COBRA. Individual policies are easy to purchase.
