| Health Insurance Consultation Website Launched In Massachusetts
Health Insure Options offers Massachusetts residents and small businesses free one stop shopping for health insurance solutions. Norton, MA (MMD Newswire) August 12, 2009 -- This innovative health insurance consultation web-site (www.healthinsureoptionsma.com) services primarily Southeastern Massachusetts self employed, small business, families and individuals seeking affordable health insurance. Numerous health insurance choices in Massachusetts including state alternatives make health insurance shopping a confusing maze which takes considerable time, expertise, and effort. Health insure options provides an efficient and effective method for health insurance shoppers to connect with a knowledgeable and local health insurance expert to help them identify health insurance solutions to fit their unique coverage and budget needs.
Bupa loses custom for its private medical insurance
The group said that while its UK private medical insurance (PMI) volumes had remained stable, "retention has proved challenging with both employer and individual segments experiencing higher lapses in the period". Bupa said net PMI policies had fallen by 3 per cent since the start of the year. However, revenues at its UK and North American division grew by 1 per cent to £1.07bn in the six months to 30 June, after price increases and a strong performance from its American Health Dialog business boosted its performance. Bupa has launched Health Dialog, its chronic disease management business, in Britain and France and also plans to introduce it in Spain and Australia. For the half-year, Bupa delivered revenues up by 26 per cent to £3.38bn, which included 5 per cent of organic growth, 16 per cent from acquisitions and 5 per cent from foreign currency movements.
Insurance consolidation leads to cries for public plan
Four health insurance companies dominate the country. And in most cities nationwide, one or two firms dominate, according to the American Antitrust Institute. Montana isn't much different. Two companies control more than 80 percent of the health insurance coverage for individuals in the state. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana has 54.5 percent, and Time Insurance has nearly 26 percent of the market share, according to the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance. There's a little more variety when it comes to small group health insurance plans, which cover two to 50 people and include the vast majority of Montana employers. Three firms control about three-quarters of the market. Blue Cross Blue Shield has nearly 42 percent of that market, followed by John Alden Life Insurance Co.
"This American Life" On Health Insurance's Fine Print
This is when people with individual insurance policies come down with an illness (or get pregnant) and the insurance company denies coverage by claiming it was a preexisting condition. As exhibit A, the segment focuses on Robin Beaton, a woman diagnosed with invasive breast cancer whose insurance was rescinded after Blue Cross Blue Shield misinterpreted an old acne diagnosis of Beaton's as pre-cancerous. You can listen to or download the segment online for free here. It is excellent. Ira Glass looks at the fine print in health insurance [PRI] .
Health reform fact check: Keeping your insurance
THE ALLEGATION: The bill will not force you out of your current insurance plan into a government-sponsored plan or force you to change doctors. WHAT THE BILL SAYS: Sec. 102, "Protecting the Choice to Keep Current Coverage," addresses "grandfathered" insurance coverage and current employment-based plans. Grandfathered coverage refers to an individual insurance plan that is in effect before the health reform regulations go into effect. For instance, if your plan year begins Jan. 1, and the rules go into effect May 1, your plan would be "grandfathered." However, if any of the terms of that plan change — including benefits coverage and cost-sharing — the plan would lose its "grandfathered" status. Most insurance plans update these terms annually. For an employment-based plan — a group health plan as defined by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which essentially includes most plans offered by large employers — the bill establishes a five-year grace period for that plan to meet the same benefit standards as "qualified" plans.
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