Access to quality heath care is essential, especially in this day and age when medical costs may soar and drain an individual or family of its lifetime savings. Not everyone, though, can afford to pay for it. Not having a health insurance coverage puts people in a precarious situation not just financially but physically.

Everyone needs health insurance young and old alike. However, some people simply do not earn enough money to pay for it with ease. Certain companies do not offer health insurance for low-income earners, particularly short-tenure workers, retail workers, construction workers, and other low-wage earners. Many of them are just not eligible for a group or employer plan. In some cases, a professional organization may make it possible for them to get into a group plan.

For individuals who can wangle the means to sustain payments for an individual plan, there are ways now to obtain a good package of health insurance for low-income earners. Some research is in order. Look up the rates offered by various health insurance companies who, in their desire to outdo one another, will offer some unique features or advantages redounding to consumer benefit. Beforehand, you may want to check your local government agencies for the possibility of qualifying for health insurance subsidy.

Speaking with an authorized insurance agent may also help you explore options for an affordable health insurance for low-income earners, without sacrificing coverage. Know that there are other factors, like your health or clear family history of illnesses, that may drive your insurance cost down. Whether it’s for the young and healthy, or for seniors or the working poor (who form majority of the uninsured) people should not imperil their lives by going without health insurance.

By: Jack Adams

Five Ways to Cut your Health Insurance Costs

Nearly one-third of all health-insurance premiums increased to 30 percent or more. At that rate, the average cost of health insurance per employee will exceed $3,000. Seventy-three percent of senior executives believe health-care costs will continue to increase 20 percent or more each year for the next three years. The message here is clear: If you haven’t already gotten serious about cutting your company’s health-insurance costs, now is the time. It can be done. The first thing you should do is learn how the system works–or doesn’t work. Most small employers spend fewer than four hours a year thinking about their company health plans. Learn what your options are. Your insurance agent can help you shop for cheaper plans. But don’t stop there. Compare plan benefits, insurance-company records, and service guarantees.

Consider Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans and HMOs (health-maintenance organizations), even if your agent doesn’t handle them. The Blues in some areas, offer clear advantages to small companies. Experts regard HMOs as the best buys in health care. Find out if your company is eligible for new, low-cost health insurance plans now available in five states. In addition, foundation-funded pilot projects in several parts of the country are demonstrating that it is possible to cut health-coverage costs 30 to 40 percent. In short, health insurance isn’t as simple as it used to be. And the pace of change is accelerating, offering new hope for a truce in the business battle with exploding health-care costs. The next couple of years present as much potential for change as at any time in the past 20 years. You can be part of that change by putting at least some of the following 5 ideas to work for your company.

1) Increase Cost Sharing By Employees

This recommendation is at the top of every consultant’s list. Small companies tend to pay far more of their workers’ total health-care bill than large companies do. Yet research shows that insulating employees from the costs of care encourages unnecessary use of health services. Fifty-two percent of the companies responding to the Nation’s Business health survey said they pay 100 percent of their employees’ health-insurance premiums. But 45 percent said they intended to implement or increase employee contributions to these premiums. An equal number said they plan to increase employee deductibles. Insurance companies first attached $100 deductibles to major-medical plans in the early 1950s. But 40 percent of employers still set deductibles at $100 or less. Raising a $100 deductible to $250 would cut premium costs for single coverage by about 11 percent. A $500 deductible would cut costs by about one-fourth. A $1,000 deductible would save about one-third.

2) Allow Employees To Pay For Health Premiums With Tax-Free Dollars

Set up a so-called flexible spending account, which allows your employees to pay their share of health-insurance premiums and un-reimbursed health-care expenses with pretax dollars. A flexible spending account could save employees 20 cents to 35 cents on the dollar, because state and federal income taxes and Social Security taxes are not imposed.

Moreover, the company saves by reducing the employee’s base salary on which it pays Social Security and other taxes. Hire an outside payroll accounting firm to handle the paperwork. You can pay the service fee and still come out with a net savings. The monthly administration fee would run between $2 and $5 per employee.

3) Transfer High-Risk Employees To The State’s High-Risk Pool

Insurance premiums soar whenever someone in a small-group plan becomes very ill–with cancer or heart disease, for example. As an employer, you should explore the possibility of moving employees with serious health problems into a state high-risk pool and then negotiating a lower premium for the healthy members of your group.

4) Switches To An Open-Enrollment Blue Cross And Blue Shield Plan

Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans operate as de facto high-risk pools in a number of states by providing “open enrollment” periods during which any group can buy insurance. Among the 74 Blue Cross and Blue Shield organizations nationwide, 21 offer open enrollment. All the Blues once used community rating to set premium levels. But that began to change in the 1960s when commercial insurers started to lure away firms with low risks by offering them cheaper health insurance.

5) Replace Your Traditional Health Plan With An HMO

Unlike traditional health insurance, HMOs cover all medical needs, including routine preventive care, for a flat monthly fee that typically is less expensive than traditional health insurance. Moreover, two types of HMOs, the staff and the group models, have proven to be more effective at controlling costs than any other form of health-care delivery. Staff models employ physicians directly and put them on salary.

For more articles related to this subject and others please visit Health Insurance.info

By: XTRA INFO

As stated by the Texas Department of Insurance, the Texas Legislature enacted three bills that allow small business employers to form cooperatives for the purchase of employer health benefit plans in Dallas, Houston and throughout Texas. All three types of cooperatives are private purchasing cooperatives under state law. Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1501, Subchapter B provides for the formation of Purchasing Cooperatives. Two of the three have special characteristics; for clarity, we will refer to the broader category as “private purchasing cooperatives.”

Who may form a cooperative?

Two or more small employers may form a small employer health coalition. Any person – other than a health carrier – may form a health group cooperative. A health carrier may assist a sponsoring entity in forming a cooperative. A health group cooperative must have at least ten participating employers.

How do I start a cooperative?

All three types of purchasing cooperatives must be formed as a nonprofit corporation. For more information on how to form a nonprofit corporation, you should consult the Texas Secretary of State, specifically the Filing Guide for Business Organizations and Non-Profit Associations.

Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1501, Subchapter B provides for the formation of Purchasing Cooperatives. Small business employers interested in assistance with forming or joining a small employer health coalition should also consider contacting their insurance agent or one of the existing small employer health coalitions. Once the cooperative has received a certificate of incorporation or certificate of authority from the Secretary of State, the cooperative must file that document and the cooperative’s organizational document with the Texas Department of Insurance. The address for filing these documents is: Filings Intake Division, Mail Code 106-1E, Texas Department of Insurance, P. O. Box 149104, Austin, Texas 78714-9104.

What Type of Cooperative Should I Form?

This decision will be based on the goals for the cooperative and the employers interested in joining. You should consult the description of the types of cooperatives available and review the statutes and regulations associated with each. Things you should consider when forming a cooperative include the potential for growth in the cooperative, the complexities associated with potential growth, interest from a carrier and a sponsoring entity in the cooperative, and carrier requirements, such as participation levels.

How Do I Join a Cooperative?

All of the cooperatives registered and listed with the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI). Contacting a cooperative in your area is the first step you should take in joining a cooperative. For certain cooperatives, there may be an annual open enrollment period, which will limit your opportunities to a certain period each year. Small employers interested in joining a cooperative should also remember that, as individual employers, they are guaranteed issuance of coverage from an insurance company or HMO that offers coverage to small employers. Similarly, a small business employer must be allowed to join a health group cooperative and purchase coverage during the next annual open enrollment period.

What Type of Cooperative Should I Join?

Various factors will influence your decision about the type of cooperative to join, including whether your company is a small or large employer, the rates offered by the cooperatives in your area, a cooperative’s administrative or membership fees, and whether a particular cooperative is accepting new members or currently enrolling new members in an open enrollment period. You should review the different types of cooperatives to determine whether a particular type offers advantages for the employer. There is also a revolutionary individual health insurance plan you can offer your employees.

Health Group Cooperative – Sub (p)

SB 805, enacted by the 79th Texas Legislature (2005), created a new type of health group cooperatives with special rights and requirements.

- Any person, other than a health carrier, may form a sub (p) health group cooperative.

- Once a sub (p) health group cooperative is formed, it must have at least ten small employer members to be eligible to purchase coverage from a health carrier that is participating in the health group cooperative market.

- A sub (p) health group cooperative is not required to allow a small employer to join the cooperative if the cooperative has elected to restrict membership in the cooperative in accordance with legal requirements, and after the small employer has joined the cooperative, the total number of eligible employees employed on business days during the preceding calendar year by all small employers participating in the cooperative would exceed 50.

- A health group cooperative must make the election to restrict membership at the time the cooperative is initially formed.

- Employers that join a sub (p) health group cooperative must commit to purchasing coverage through the cooperative for two years, but may cease purchasing coverage upon demonstrating financial hardship.

- A sub (p) health group cooperative is considered to be a single small employer for the purposes of issuance of coverage and rating. Accordingly, a health group cooperative may purchase coverage from any small employer health carrier that is not already providing coverage to a health group cooperative in that county.

- Health carriers providing coverage to a sub (p) health group cooperative may offer a health benefit plan, specifically allowed by SB 10, which does not include state mandated benefits. This freedom from state mandates is specific to SB 10, but it is similar to that which authorizes consumer choice health benefit plans.

If you have a number of temporary, part-time or seasonal employees working for you, cooperatives have a number of limitations and may not be the best health insurance option for your small business. Group health insurance can be unaffordable for many small businesses, not to mention an administrative headache. Another alternative to group health insurance plans is to offer individual health insurance options to your employees. By law, an employer is not allowed to contribute to these plans, or that would be treated as group insurance under Texas state law. But you can still help your employees become insured in a good plan and improve their health and well-being and also improve employee retention in the process.

If you’re a small business owner who would like to offer affordable health insurance plans to your employees, but can’t afford group health insurance, you should consider offering your employees the revolutionary, comprehensive individual health insurance solutions created by Precedent specifically for young, healthy individuals.

Precedent offers affordable, individual health plans with catastrophic coverage, but without a high deductible, and we’ll offer these plans to your employees at a discount. For more information, visit us at our website. We offer a unique and innovative suite of individual health insurance solutions, including highly competitive HSA-qualified plans, and an unparalleled “real time” application and acceptance experience.

By: Pat Carpenter