Search Results for: blog excessive care increase cost of health insurance

Health Insurance Benefits Will Improve for Exchanges

Posted on by

Every state is expected to have a health insurance exchange up and running by 2014. Insurance companies who would like to have their plans offered through the exchanges are going to have to make improvements to the benefits in those plans. This will result in more coverage for consumers. It might also raise the cost of premiums. Part of the Affordable Care Act include requirements that must be met in order for insurance companies to participate in the state health insurance exchanges. Many insurance companies are going to have to make improvements to the benefits that they currently offer in … Continue reading →

California Proposition Could Reduce Insurance Rates

Posted on by

In California, thousands of people have signed a petition that would give the California Insurance Commissioner the right to reject health insurance rates that are excessive. Several other states have already given their Insurance Commissioners this authority. A group of insurance companies is completely against this proposal, of course. There has been some ongoing issues with health insurance rates in California. In 2011, Blue Shield decided to raise its customer’s health insurance rates by 59%. The insurer said that the rate increase was necessary because the bad economy was making their costs go up. Obviously, a 59% rate hike was … Continue reading →

Excessive Care Increase Cost of Health Insurance

Health insurance is expensive. This is true whether you get your health insurance from your employer, from a private insurer, or from one of the government’s public insurance programs. One of the things that increases the cost of health insurance is when patients are given too much health care. There are reasons why doctors feel compelled to do too much for patients. There are a number of factors that make health insurance expensive. Doctors in America are paid a much higher salary then their counterparts in other countries are receiving. Insurance companies can influence the cost of certain types of … Continue reading →

New Rules Make Insurers Explain Rate Increases

A new requirement of healthcare reform makes insurance companies provide an explanation, and justification, about why they intend to raise the cost of their health insurance premiums. The idea is that rate review will drive market competition, and lower the cost of health care. You might remember earlier this year when Anthem Blue Cross of California threatened to raise its health insurance rates by 59%. Insurance regulators in California declared that this rate was “unreasonable”. Unfortunately, the Insurance Commissioner in California didn’t have the authority to prevent that rate hike from happening. New rules now require health insurance companies to … Continue reading →

California Assembly Passes Insurance Bill

Posted on by

A controversial insurance bill has been approved by the California Assembly. Next, the bill must be passed by the state Senate, and then signed by the Governor. If this happens, then it will become a law that gives California state regulators the power to reject excessive health insurance rate hikes. The bill still has a way to go, but it is heading in the right direction, in my opinion. Currently, regulators in California, including the California Insurance Commissioner, lack the legal power to prevent insurance companies from imposing unreasonable rate hikes on their customers. They do have the legal right … Continue reading →

Blue Shield Postpones Rate Increases

Blue Shield Insurance has agreed to postpone implementing the huge rate increase it was planning on forcing upon it’s customers in California, at least for a little while longer. This will give the California Insurance Commissioner time to review the proposed rate increase. Unfortunately, the Insurance Commissioner of California doesn’t actually have the authority to stop Blue Shield from increasing it’s rates. Blue Shield has said that the 59% rate increase was necessary because their costs are rising quickly. They have said that many providers of health care have increased their costs, which, one would assume could mean that Blue … Continue reading →

Lower Health Care Costs with Exercise

Posted on by

My husband just got taken on full time at the place he is working. I am thrilled, because after three years as contractors this means we get to have full on health insurance again and no more hospital bills ringing in the $20,000 range (and no, I’m not kidding, that’s what it cost us for his emergency appendectomy last year). We have been very fortunate that we haven’t had excessive health care costs over the last few years, with small exceptions, because we didn’t have insurance. In January, we applied for and received an independent form of health insurance that … Continue reading →