Dropping Health Insurance for Veterans, San Francisco Saving Money on Health Care, and Relief from High Health Insurance Costs
Welcome to this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. This time we will look at three articles covering various, yet interesting health insurance-related topics. Our first article comes to us from the Los Angeles Times and is entitled, "Make injured veterans use private health insurance? Proposal stirs controversy". In this article, they cite the Kansas City Star -- who originally ran the story -- as well as The Daily Show and the Huffington Post, all reacting to news about the Obama administration proposing to drop veterans for health insurance who also have private insurance through a spouse or parent.
The article looks at the various reactions to the proposal from veterans groups, news organizations and the like, and much of it falls under the "outrage" category. As Jon Stewart said, "You know veterans? The men and women that risk their lives to defend our country? Well, when they get injured, do you know who foots the bill? YOU! The taxpayer! I know! It's incredibly ... FAIR!" While some understand the nature of trying to save money being proposed here, many see it as unfair and unnecessary. What would most likely save more money is to find out where money is being wasted in the health care system and try to make it more efficient, rather than taking something away from the very men and women who defend our freedoms. Hopefully, as many in this article said, this proposal will never live to see passage.
On a different topic, we move onto an article from the Kaiser Network entitled, "Healthy San Francisco Costs Less Than Private Health Insurance, Report Shows." In this article, they look at a recent report from the San Francisco Department of Public Health in which they have found that San Francisco's Healthy San Francisco plan, is actually cheaper in many ways than private health insurance. According to the report, coverage under Healthy San Francisco cost about $280 per month, which is pretty affordable compared with a $388 monthly plan for Kaiser Permanente or a $618 plan from Anthem Blue Cross.
The writers of this report hope people won't give up their private health plans for the Healthy San Francisco plan, since the plan only covers one specific area. However, the director of the Department of Public Health said "From the point of view of financial viability, this is the first proof we have that Healthy San Francisco works." This is a positive step in the right direction, it seems, for covering the uninsured, but probably not the answer for long-term health care reform.
Our final article comes from BusinessWeek and is entitled, "Some Relief from the High Cost of Health Insurance". In this article, they look at how the high cost of health insurance is affecting many people, but in this article they seem to focus on baby boomers and retirees. Many baby boomers are getting downsized, which means many of them are turning to either COBRA or traditional individual health care plans in order to get the health insurance they so desperately need.
According to the article, health insurance has become a much larger portion of people's budgets than ever before, and many people need to shop around for the best deal on their health insurance. An example in the article is that of a financial adviser in North Carolina helping a family go from a $1,700 a month COBRA plan to a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan for $900 a month, which is a very significant savings. The article also suggests that, if one has a pre-existing condition which might make it difficult to get private health insurance, to look into state-run programs.
This concludes this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. As always, we hope you have found it interesting, informative and useful. Until next time, have a great day!
