Saturday, September 18, 2010

Changes for Health Insurance in Georgia

Affordable health insurance in Georgia is about to become as scarce as hen's teeth.

For those who wanted change you can believe in, here is what has happened so far to health insurance in less than 6 months since Obamacrap was signed into law.

In GA and other states, some health insurance companies have thrown in the towel. More will follow over the next 18 months or less.

Fewer health insurance companies means fewer choices, less competition and higher prices.

Plans that were affordable before will no longer be available due to Obamacrap mandates. They will be replaced by plans that are higher in premium.

Some new plans will come on the market, and in an attempt to lower premiums, will not cover things like brand name drugs. Some will restrict access to certain doctors, hospitals and medications by moving these services to out of network items.

BCBSGA has approval on two new plans with fewer doctors, fewer hospitals and fewer brand name drugs in the mix. Other health insurance companies will follow suit.

Maternity benefits as part of an individual health insurance plan is almost non-existent any more. When you can find it the cost of the add-on benefit is cost prohibitive.

If you want to insure your child under the age of 19 you will have to buy a policy on yourself. No longer will you be able to buy health insurance policies on children as stand alone coverage.

Even with the new law, your child can still be denied coverage if the condition is severe enough and the allowed rate adjustment is insufficient to support the risk.

Before 9/23 if your child had a pre-existing condition a rate up would be applied to that child's premium alone. If the maximum allowed rate up was sufficient to cover the risk, coverage would be issued. If not, coverage would be denied.

Depending on the health insurance company, the maximum allowed rate up was between 50% and 150% before they could decline coverage.

Post 9/23 the maximum rate up can be applied to ALL family members applying for coverage. That means a standard family rate of $500 can grow to $1250 before the carrier can deny coverage.

Smaller cars, bigger health insurance, Poppa Washington

Note: Similar changes have been occurring in other states, but we are only addressing these situations on a state by state basis since every state is different.

blog comments powered by Disqus