Insurance - Health Insurance
Health insurance premiums for Californians jump as much as 39%
Lita Epstein
Feb 8th 2010 at 2:00PM
Filed under: Insurance, Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
Californians who get their individual health insurance from Anthem Blue Cross, the largest insurer for individuals who don't have access to group health insurance in California, got notice of increases in their premiums of as much as 39% on March 1. This is the second year in a row for many who faced an increase of 41% last year. Anthem Blue Cross would not comment on the number of members it currently has, but last year when it raised its rates as much as 68% it reported it had 800,000 members. With those types of increases, one might speculate that Anthem Blue Cross wants to get out of the individual health insurance marketplace.
Health care debate really about control
Lita Epstein
Jan 26th 2010 at 1:30PM
Filed under: Insurance, Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
When you think about whether or not you want the insurance companies or the government making decisions about the health care you receive, you probably quickly answer neither. But unfortunately, that's not an option unless you can afford to pay for all your health choices out of pocket without carrying a health care insurance policy.Since we're looking at what could be the demise of the national health care package now being held up in Congress, we'll likely continue to be solely under the control of the insurance companies. Knowing that they're going to be in control, insurance companies are flexing their muscles and making it harder for you to get the care you need.
When teens are stuck in the middle with no health insurance
Andy Miller
Jan 22nd 2010 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Insurance, Family Money, Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
Annie and Doug Schulte each have health insurance through their jobs. She works for a tiny nonprofit, and he is a truck driver.But neither of their employers offers coverage for children. As a result, their son, A.J., 16, is uninsured. That's a constant worry for his parents. "You always have this fear he'll get into a car accident,'' says Annie, 36, of Foley, Mo.
The Schultes make too much money for A.J. to qualify for coverage through Medicaid or the state Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). And private insurance for their son is too expensive, with insurers setting a high sticker price because of his allergies and asthma.
A.J. is one of more than 7 million U.S. children who have no health insurance. The good news is that number has dropped to its lowest level in 20 years, Census figures show. The decrease comes largely from government programs Medicaid and CHIP picking up more children as private insurance erodes among parents.
Baby Boomers and high-income seniors bear burden of Medicare increase
Lita Epstein
Jan 21st 2010 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Retire, Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
Most seniors will not see their premiums for Medicare Part B increase in 2010. That's because there is a "hold harmless" provision of Social Security that prevents Social Security payments from decreasing from one year to the next as a result of Medicare Part B increases. The intention of that provision was to protect seniors on a fixed-income from losing income if the premium for Part B increases.Well, for the first time in 35 years, Social Security payments are not going up, because there will be no cost of living increase. That means Medicare Part B premiums can't go up either, but only if you've already been collecting Social Security and have Medicare Part B taken out of your Social Security check.
Baby Boomers who won't reach full retirement until age 66 and who waited to start Social Security at that age to get a higher payout may be sorry they waited. Also, high-income seniors -- with incomes greater than $85,000 for individuals and $170,000 for couples -- will pay more as well. Both groups will bear the brunt of the Medicare Part B increase.
New law slashes HMO patients' wait time in California
Lita Epstein
Jan 19th 2010 at 6:00PM
Filed under: Insurance, Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
In 2002, voters of California passed a law mandating that HMOs, which serve nearly 21 million people in California, offer more timely access to medical care. Now the California Department of Managed Health Care finally is ready to implement those new rules, to be unveiled Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to a story in today's Los Angeles Times. California says it is the first state to set time standards for HMOs.What will these new rules mean? Patients who seek urgent care that doesn't require prior authorization must be seen within 48 hours. Otherwise, patients must get an appointment within 10 days for general treatment and an appointment within 15 days for specialist treatment. When I've been in HMOs in the past, I could usually get into my primary care physician within about a week, so that doesn't sound like a major change. But I've waited months to get to see a specialist.
Chubby Checker promotes program helping seniors pay for prescriptions
Lita Epstein
Jan 11th 2010 at 1:00PM
Filed under: Insurance, Retire, Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
Social Security is using Chubby Checker to help promote an expanded "Extra Help" program for one million more seniors who need assistance to be able to afford their prescription drugs. Seniors who were rejected for Extra Help in the past should reapply to see if they meet the new requirements. With Extra Help, seniors can pay as little as $1.10 for generics and $3 for brand name drugs. The Extra Help program also eliminates premiums and annual deductibles. Currently the Extra Help program provides assistance to more than nine million senior and disabled Americans -- saving them an average of almost $4,000 a year on their Medicare prescription drug plan costs. You can apply for Extra Help online at the Social Security Web site.
Say 'Ah!': Dental offices providing HIV testing
Andy Miller
Jan 7th 2010 at 10:00AM
Filed under: Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
A routine dental cleaning now may come with an unexpected option: an HIV test.Some dental locations, especially in New York City, are offering HIV screenings to patients through a fast and inexpensive oral test.
Dental clinics have screened hundreds of patients with the OraQuick Advance HIV test, a technique that uses a swab of fluid around the gum. Results can be available 20 minutes later, during the same cleaning appointment. No blood-work, no two-week wait for the lab report.
Health care professionals who support dental HIV testing note that more than 1 million Americans are living with HIV, but about one-fifth of them do not know they are infected. And many Americans at risk for HIV visit a dentist more often than they do a physician.
"The dental setting is a very natural setting for this to be done,'' says Dr. Stephen Abel, an associate dean at Florida's Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine. "Young people are using the dental office more regularly than a doctor's office.''
Medical identity theft: Fastest growing fraud can be deadly
Lita Epstein
Jan 2nd 2010 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Health, Fraud, Identity Theft, Insurance - Health Insurance
While you're probably well aware of identity theft and its impact on your credit, you may not be aware of a type of identify theft that can be even more harmful to you personally -- medical identity theft. You may not only end up with bills incurred by the person who steals your identity, but the crime can even prove fatal. When someone uses your identity, incorrect information gets into your medical files. When you seek care you can end up with the wrong medical history, wrong blood type, wrong allergies and other errors that could end up being deadly for you.
A black hole in health insurance
Andy Miller
Dec 25th 2009 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
At 63, Billie Hoke is two years and a ton of worry away from the health care goal line.
She will have to wait until 2011 to join the millions of Americans in the Medicare program for people 65 and older. Medicare provides relatively inexpensive -- and very secure -- coverage through the federal government.
Hoke has no security now. She lost her health insurance in August when her employer dropped its health benefits plan. Since then, she has gone without coverage, paying cash for prescriptions and medical services, skipping the more expensive care.
Ironically, Hoke is a licensed practical nurse in the Columbus, Ohio, area, working with people who have developmental disabilities.
She did get one recent price quote for private insurance: $2,200. That's twenty two hundred a month. For a nurse who is single, making about $40,000 a year, it was impossibly expensive.
Merry Christmas, unemployed: COBRA help extended through February
Lita Epstein
Dec 21st 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Insurance, Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
Early Saturday morning the Senate gave unemployed persons a Christmas gift. Through a trick in legislation, unemployment benefits were extended for the long-term unemployed who were slated to lose those benefits December 31. The Senate bill also provides up to 15 months of help with health insurance benefits through COBRA subsidies. Without the legislation benefits would have ended for any unemployed who already received nine months of help with their health insurance benefits on December 31.The House of Representatives approved a six-month extension for a total of 15 months of COBRA benefits last week, so now the legislation is ready to go to the President's desk for signature.
In order to get the legislation through the Senate, Democrats had to use a trick. They attached the extension to the must-pass 2010 defense appropriations bill.
Travel insurance: $213,380 says you need it when traveling abroad
Aaron Crowe
Dec 18th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Health, Travel, Insurance - Health Insurance
Why buy travel insurance? Cajya Darling, 28, was on vacation in Cancun in October with her husband when she had difficulty breathing. A trip to a local hospital revealed she had a collapsed lung, and a check of her health insurance revealed she was covered, so the Mexico doctors recommended she stay there for six to eight weeks to see if her lung would heal on its own, according to Darling.
Not wanting to wait for nature to take its course, her family quickly paid $28,940 for Angel MedFlight to fly her to a hospital in Texas for treatment. The total bill for the air ambulance service was $213,380, a fee Darling expects her insurer to cover because the hospital in Mexico where she stayed is based in Florida.
Healthcare reform: As the debate rages, remember Boss Tweed
Jason Cochran
Dec 17th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Make Money Fast, Insurance, Insurance - Health Insurance
As we watch the healthcare debate rage on in Congress, it's helpful noting that wholesale change of a flawed-but-longstanding system has happened in the past, despite the odds against it. A good example from the history books: Boss Tweed."Everything will fall apart if we change it." "The government will ruin it." "The government could never do it as well as the private citizen can." "Give us a way to opt out."
The refrains from Capitol Hill's healthcare debate may remind us of a past adventure in "socialism": not the time when we switched from private militias to standing government-organized armies (although that happened, too), but the pre-Civil War era in New York City, when the job of firefighting was wrested from the private sector and placed in government hands. It's hard to imagine that anyone today thinks that old system of response was superior. But that's pretty much how our healthcare system works -- and it's a mess, letting a whole class of people fall through the cracks.
Will obesity make Medicare go bankrupt?
Barbara Bartlein
Dec 2nd 2009 at 1:00PM
Filed under: Health, Bankruptcy, Insurance - Health Insurance
Americans are fat and are getting fatter. During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%.This increase in girth is also fueling the increase in chronic diseases such as heart disease, several types of cancer and diabetes. According to a new study by researchers based at the University of Chicago, the number of people with diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes will climb from almost 24 million this year to about 44 million in 2034. Over the same period, annual diabetes-related treatment costs are expected to increase from $113 billion to $336 billion in 2007 dollars. Medicare spending on diabetes is expected to jump from $45 billion to $171 billion and could exceed current projections for all Medicare costs.
Democrats play games with health care while Americans are hurting
Bob Cesca
Nov 24th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Health, Bankruptcy, Insurance - Health Insurance
I'm one of those 30 million people without health insurance. I don't have it, my wife doesn't have it, my daughter doesn't have it.The short version of the story goes like this. A couple of years ago, I received a note from my insurer that they were going to be tripling the monthly premium for my small business coverage. So I had no choice but to either go broke paying the new premium, or simply cancel the coverage. I canceled it.
In the meantime, I was hit by a car while cycling and fractured my T10 vertebra.
Uninsured more likely to die younger
Lita Epstein
Nov 18th 2009 at 11:00AM
Filed under: Insurance, Health, Insurance - Health Insurance
Whether you're a child rushed to an emergency room for care or an adult who has put off preventive medical care, if you don't have health insurance, you are more likely to die. That's been confirmed by three different health studies.- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine found that uninsured children who are hospitalized are 60% more likely to die.
- Harvard University found that large numbers of uninsured adults have chronic illnesses that are undiagnosed and under-treated, which means they are not getting treatments that could prevent strokes, heart attacks, amputations and kidney failure.
