Wellpoint Allowed to Hike Insurance Rates in California

Published: August 27, 2010 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Earlier this week, The California Department of Insurance announced that it wouldn't stand in the way of Wellpoint raising premiums for its customers. This from an article in The Sacramento Bee entitled, "California won't block individual health care rate hikes". This news paves the way for Anthem Blue Cross as well as their competitor, Blue Shield of California, raise rates around fourteen to eighteen percent on average for most customers.

Insurance Commissioners Try to Define What Constitutes Medical Care

Published: August 20, 2010 in Health In Politics, Health Reform | Leave a comment

In a follow up to last week's story on a gathering of Insurance Commissioners meeting in Seattle to determine what constitutes "medical care," the same media outlet as last time, The Palm Beach Post, has a story entitled, "Patients win first round: Define health care costs with emphasis on care, not profit." The commissioners filled out the guidelines in the form of "blanks," which are documents that insurers must file listing all of their expenses so the government can determine the companies' medical loss ratio. If you recall, the MLR is the portion of money that goes to patient care rather than administrative costs and salaries.

How Does One Define Medical Care?

Published: August 13, 2010 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Affordable Care Act -- the new health care legislation signed by President Obama back in March -- is supposed to help trim costs, make the system more efficient and help save money for consumers and companies. One provision of the law, which takes place next year, says health insurers must spend eighty to eighty five percent of consumers' premiums on medical care, instead of things like CEO salaries, administrative costs and so on. However, what, exactly, constitutes "medical care"?

Repealing Health Care Reform Disastrous in Terms of Administrative Costs

Published: August 6, 2010 in Health In Politics, Health Insurance Costs, Health Reform | 1 Comment

Opponents to the recent health care reform are getting more and more vocal, especially given the recent vote in Missouri in which their voters rejected the reforms. However, in an article from the Center for American Progress entitled, "Repealing Health Reform Would Mean Billions More in Administrative Costs", they try to remind opponents as to one of the other big facets of the health care reform bill...efficiency.

Amount of Uninsured Americans Varies Widely from State to State

Published: July 30, 2010 in Health Reform | 1 Comment

One of the main goals of the recent health care legislation signed by President Obama is to help many who currently don't have kind of health insurance coverage. While the general numbers of the uninsured are well known -- around forty-seven million at this point -- finer and more detailed information about the numbers of uninsured are just coming to light, thanks to the recent census. According to an article in The Washington Post entitled, "Census data reveal broad differences among states in rates of uninsured", recent census data shows that the amount of uninsured individuals varies widely from one state to another.

Health Insurance Appeals Getting an Overhaul

Published: July 23, 2010 in Health In Politics, Health Reform | Leave a comment

Recently, it was announced that the Obama administration is changing and improving the way customers appeal to their health insurance companies when they’re denied a claim or when their health insurance coverage gets canceled. According to an article in the Associated Press entitled, “Feds move to improve health insurance appeals,” the legislation will start in 2011, to give time to insurance companies so they can deal with its complexities.

A New Plan to Make Health Care Even More Accessible?

Published: July 16, 2010 in Health In Politics, Health Reform | Leave a comment

A new piece of legislation called The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) is being touted as bringing even more people access to health insurance and health care by 2019, according to an article entitled "Hijacked: Stolen Health Reform III: How Much Will Access to Care Be Expanded?" in The Huffington Post.

U.S. Government Launches Health Care Website. How Effecitve Will it Be?

Published: July 9, 2010 in General Health Insurance, Health Reform | Leave a comment

We're all about the merger of technology and health care here at Health Insurance Online. We believe that the medical profession could be strengthened and made more efficient if they used more online services to give better access to health records, allow more communication with doctors and patients, and much more. While there are providers and companies that are offering these options, it doesn't feel as widespread as it should. Well, according to several sources, the U.S. Government is getting on the technological bandwagon with a new website at http://www.healthcare.gov/, which is to work alongside the recently signed health care legislation that will take place in 2014.

California Insurer Rate Hikes to be Scrutinized by Analysts

Published: June 18, 2010 in Health In Politics, Health Insurance Costs | Leave a comment

It's been big news here for a while now that several companies such as Blue Shield of California, Health Net, Anthem Blue Cross and Aetna have been proposing massive rate hikes for a long time, which has come under scrutiny of customers, legislators and heck, even the President. Well, in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled, "Health insurance rates will get outside look," state health regulators will hire third-party analysts to review the rate increases.

COBRA Subsidies Coming to an End Soon?

Published: June 9, 2010 in General Health Insurance, Health In Politics | Leave a comment

COBRA, if you are unaware, is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act which was created in 1986, and is a government run health insurance plan for people who have recently lost their jobs. COBRA is a pretty expensive health care coverage plan, but that changed back in 2009 when Congress passed a stimulus bill that subsidized sixty-five percent of the costs of COBRA, making it much more affordable for nearly everyone who needed it. Sadly, that subsidy might be ending soon.