After the Honeymoon: Insurance Advice for Newlyweds Want to demonstrate your true love for your new spouse? Take out an insurance policy. Compared to planning your wedding and honeymoon, buying insurance may not seem very romantic but, in reality, coverage that protects you and your spouse against life’s unforeseen risks is an important part of [...]
Health insurance cheap? Â To learn more about the accounts and to find MSA providers, check the website run by the Council for Affordable Health Insurance (www.cahi.org). Even if the bill doesn’t pass, MSA holders can continue their coverage as long as they qualify. Although the law authorizing MSAs is set to expire next year, [...]
It’s a familiar problem for businesses of almost any size: to attract and keep the best employees, you need to provide benefits. But benefits can be a headache to manage, and the cost of premiums can take a big chunk out of your bottom line. What’s a business owner to do? Turns out, your options [...]
How to get started on your search for an individual health insurance policy, and what to look for in your policy.
Choice and competition work in health care. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t lucky enough to have access to a market driven and shaped by them. This year employer health-care costs have risen 7.7 percent, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, more than twice the rate of inflation or workers’ wage growth. This is lower than it’s been in recent years (costs rose almost 14 percent in 2003). But health costs are still high – and likely will go even higher next year.
Some of your fellow citizens are luckier. This month, millions of federal workers and retirees, including members of Congress, get to pick and choose their health plans for 2007. According to the Office of Personnel Management, which runs the civil service, their insurance premiums will rise, on average, just 1.8 percent. About 63 percent of them will see no premium hike at all.
These Americans are enrolled in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), a consumer-driven system in which many different carriers offer a choice of 284 private plans nationwide. FEHBP plans include a variety of benefit packages, including health-savings accounts. The bottom line: Feds get high-quality care at competitive prices. No wonder they’re highly satisfied.
The FEHBP isn’t the only example where intense competition works. Another, paradoxically, is Medicare. The overall cost of the new Medicare drug benefit is a serious problem, but at least drugs are being delivered to seniors through competitive private health plans. The result: lower drug prices. When the drug benefit was enacted, the projected average monthly premium was $37.
Now, intense competition among competing plans has brought this under $24 per month, nearly a 40 percent reduction, accompanied by growing patient satisfaction. That’s what choice and competition can deliver.
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It may cost millions to provide government health insurance to poor children – but it’s more expensive not to cover them, a new study asserts.
In fact, the lack of insurance costs society an annual $2,121 more in health care costs per child, it found.
Published in this month’s Pediatrics journal, the research showed that cutting back on subsidized insurance programs forces poor children to bypass doctors’ offices for more expensive emergency room care and leads to longer hospital stays.
While the findings are based on children in California, the results apply to Utah, said Richard Butler, the Brigham Young University professor of economics who co-authored the report.
“It turns out [restricting insurance coverage] is a false savings. The total cost to society increases when they’re disenrolled,” Butler said.
Those in the health-care industry have generally known that poor, uninsured children are more likely to go to an emergency room – where they can’t be turned away for lack of coverage – and that they tend to stay in hospitals longer because their conditions are worse by the time they see a doctor.
As Cover the Uninsured Week approaches, a new Commonwealth Fund report by researchers at the National Women’s Law Center finds that even women with health insurance coverage are more likely than insured men to go without needed health care because of costs. Also, a higher percentage of women than men struggle with medical bills.
The report, Women and Health Coverage: The Affordability Gap, by Elizabeth M. Patchias and Judith G. Waxman of the National Women’s Law Center finds that women are at a disadvantage because they have greater health care needs and lower incomes than men. More specifically, the report finds that 38% of women are struggling with medical bills compared with 29% of men. And, the high cost of health care services and premiums is forcing many women, even women with health insurance, to go without needed care. In fact, 33% of insured women and 68% of uninsured women don’t get the health care they need because they can’t afford it. In contrast, 23% of insured and 49% of uninsured men are avoiding care because of cost. Further, 16% of women are underinsured, meaning they have high out-of-pocket costs compared to their income, while only 9% of men are underinsured.
“Women are more likely than men to go without needed health care services because of costs, yet they still have higher out-of-pocket expenses. This disparity exists for both insured and uninsured women,” said Waxman, vice president for Health and Reproductive Rights at the National Women’s Law Center. “As policymakers and advocates explore how to expand and improve health coverage, they should ensure that any proposal provides comprehensive benefits and low cost-sharing.”
Other factors contribute to this gender gap in health care coverage and access: women are slightly more likely than men to purchase coverage in the individual insurance market which is often more expensive and less comprehensive than employer coverage. Women are also more likely than men to take prescription drugs.
“These findings show that comprehensive health care coverage that doesn’t require high out-of-pocket costs is vital to ensuring that women get the care they need to be healthy,” said Sara Collins, assistant vice president for the Program on the Future of Health Insurance at The Commonwealth Fund. “As policymakers consider health care reform initiatives, they should consider plan designs that will result in meaningful, affordable, and equitable access to health care for everyone.”
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