Health Insurance and You!

We often speak with consumers every day that are struggling to make sense out of health insurance pricing. Today, I thought I would illustrate it with a small example. I encourage you to try it for yourself.

I went to the getinsured health insurance quoting site and tried to obtain quotes for myself — zip code 94303, 40 years old with no health conditions.

Then, I looked for plans with a medium sized deductible (generally about $2,500) that support doctor visits, wellness and benefits for both generic and branded drugs.

The variation in pricing can be quite dramatic. The cheapest plan offered by Anthem was $686/month while the cheapest plan offered by Blue Shield of California was about $190/month.

Now bear in mind — both carriers offer excellent networks in California and are generally quite competitive. Yet there was almost a 3x difference in pricing — why?

It turns out that the Anthem plan offers both mental health and maternity benefits while the Blue Shield of California does not.

The lesson here? Not all plans are created equal and it helps to carefully evaluate what you really need. Perhaps you really need maternity and mental health benefits and can afford
$686/month. In that case the Anthem health insurance plan is right for you.

However, the vast majority of our customers, with stretched household budgets would likely opt for the Blue Shield plan with a premium of $190/month.

To your health,
Chini

Every day, we talk to hundreds of young people who are looking for low cost health insurance solutions..

Lets think about how to achieve this for a second — young adults tend to be healthy, which means they could probably afford plans with higher deductibles (which, in turn, would have lower premiums). At the same time, they would want the basics — a well-ness benefit and also potentially a plan that allows them to see a doctor for a fixed co-pay.

We think there is a smarter way to do this — you can save a lot of $$ by buying a higher deductible plan. At the same time, you could reduce your risk of hospitalization from a skiing or biking accident by supplementing your health insurance with a low cost accident medical insurance plan.

To your health,
Chini

I just came across this rather heart-rending tale of the risks of being under-insured.

Families like the Martins (depicted in the story above) are struggling to make ends meet. I’m hopeful that reform would help families like the Martins afford better health insurance plans. But for now (and pretty much until 2014), families with stretched budgets are very likely to accept the insurance plan offered by one of their part-term employers, even if it is not the plan that is perfect for their family situation. In this case, it came back to bite them, in the form of health bills that they are needing to pay for expenses incurred — about $400/month.

Our recommendation is this — when you’re backed into a corner with a stretched family budget — and you know your health plan is not perfect, please do consider targeted forms of health insurance coverage. An accident medical plan would pay for any medical expenses incurred in virtually any form of accidents. An E.R. plan would pay for E.R. visits. Usually, such plans pay for coverage in addition to your usual health insurance plan. Also, they can be quite affordable, under $50/month.

To your health,
Chini