Individual Health Insurance

[samuel77]

Hi

I wonder if there is a similar forum out there dealing with health insurance issues. If so, could someone direct me there?
The question:
What is in real world more common, what kind of expectation is reasonable as for renewability/guaranted rate in individual health coverage?
Thank you.

[DayByDay]

I have individual coverage through Blue Cross. The premium gets hiked way up every year, and we have also occasionally received notices letting us know certain benefits have decreased. Our premium just went up another 6% over what we'd been payng this past year. The guarantee seems to be that this will happen every year without fail. I don't think renewability is a problem as long as you are paying your premiums on time. The problem is, if you ever want to switch insurance companies, you probably won't be able to if you have any pre-existing conditions.

[fairy74]

I have Blue Shield, agree with Day by Day. Premiums go up every year, and also at set age levels (i.e. doubles at 40 years old, etc)..also benefits go down. All in all individual insurance sucks! For preexisting conditions the general rule is the new insurer won't cover for 6 months.

[Fern]

Yeah, just to expand on what fairy said, if you have a serious (aka costly) pre-existing health condition, avoid at all costs losing your group health insurance cus the wait can be as long as a year where they won't cover you.

[ilr58]

Our premium just went up another 6% over what we'd been paying this past year. The guarantee seems to be that this will happen every year without fail.

Rates will pretty much always rise over time just simply due to inflation, rising medical costs, the claims experience of the company, etc. Also, almost all health insurance companies practice what is called "durational rating" which in a nutshell hikes rates up over time on existing policy holders to make up for the fact that there are more unhealthy people staying on the plan than healthy people (because the healthy people can go find coverage elsewhere with minimal pre-existing condition worries. Note, that if you are on a group health plan or COBRA plan and are worried about pre-existing limitations then that is what the HIPAA health insurance laws are designed to help with).

If you are somewhat healthy and have an individual health insurance plan then you will want to re-evaluate your options on at least an annual basis and compare other health plan quotes.

[ilr58]

Also, if you are looking to lower your monthly out of pocket cost then you may want to consider a Health Savings Account with a higher deductible plan as there are many HSA tax benefits that are quite attractive (and even more so after the Pension Protection Act of 2006).