A new direction for healthcare...
Another piece of the health reform law has fallen into place – new uniform, easy-to-use health insurance summaries that will help keep you from pulling your hair out over trying to understand your insurance policy. Available to over 170 million consumers with private health insurance coverage, this is the most far reaching reform to date.
Beginning September 23, 2012, all private insurers must provide a description of their health policy in a standard way. Plan descriptions will look like this example (page 1, at least):
We personally conducted consumer testing on the form to be sure it mades sense to people before it was finalized and much of our feedback went into the final product.
This testing shows it is much better than the confusing and varied health plan summaries we had before. When you get yours, look for:
- Definitions of key insurance terms like deductible and out-of-pocket limit.
- Plan benefits that are always organized the same way, so you can more easily compare your options.
- A list of services that aren’t covered all in one place.
- A new way of explaining how the plan covers certain medical scenarios, called Coverage Examples
Got ideas about how to improve your form? We plan to work closely with the federal agencies in charge of this form to improve it even more over time and we are collecting feedback from real consumers like yourself. After you get YOUR COPY of the form (not the image above), go to www.SBCFeedback.org to tell us what you think. If you enrolled in health insurance coverage this Fall (but not Medicare) and DIDN’T see this form, we want to know that to.
You have a right to this form and it may help you shop for coverage, so be sure to ask your insurer or employer for it. However, you won’t see this form if you’re shopping for Medicare (coverage for seniors and people with disabilities), Military coverage (like TRICARE or Veterans) or state Medicaid and CHIP programs. These insurers are not required to provide it.
Help me with my health insurance! I am without insurance because Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Medical Information Bureau will not insure me!
Please, I need help with insurance. Thank you.
Holli: couple questions
1. Did you have BC/BS and did they drop your coverage? If you failed to pay premium you have 30 days grace period during which you can be reinstated.
2. You are looking for a new health insurance policy and are uninsurable because of health issues?
3. In which state do you live?
How can we get a move started to have the HEALTH INSURANCE SUMMARIES available for Medicare vs Medicare Replacement vs Medicare Advantage plans?
I have been on Medicare and on my schools insurance policy for over 12 years. My partner has Oxfordmedicare which has a series of copays that are expensive based on the medical discipline. How can we figure out what would be the best insurance structure, Medicare and a secondary insurance to pick up the 20%? I don’t have this problem as my private progressive school has kept on the insurance plan since I retired in 1989. Is there anything written doing comparisons on these plans? It would be helpful if we can have something on these insurance policies. Thanks
Will Medicare Supplement (“Medigap”) and Medicare Part D Prescription Coverage plans be required to provide these forms?
This form is excellent and, no, Medicare and agencies that help you wade through the endless supplementary plans, do not address this issue. I was so disturbed last year by how many seniors could not make sense of their numerous options, that I thought to educate myself across the board and provide this service. Unfortunately, doing the research only brought more questions and little clarification! Hope this new form helps us eventually.
If we contact the different companies offering the Medicare plans will we be able to make any sense of the secondary plans.? The insurance companies that offered plans like Oxfordmedicare convinced Medicare that they would take care of coverage of Medicare’s 80% and the 20% of the secondary insurance. I see by what my partner pays for copay it is not nearly as good as my coverage, Medicare and Oxford as secondary insurance to cover the 20%. I know that our state representative has had some town meetings about this that I’m sorry to say that neither of us have attended, but we’ll try to go t them this year if she holds them. I do think that since we are not under a single payer plan in this country like all the other western countries, U.K., France, Germany, Spain,the Scandinavian countries.
When is Medicare going to inform Medicare age recipients with a simplified form that would help them make choices by what is available to them. Since those of us understand what a boon Medicare is, when are Americans going to understand that a single payer plan like Medicare would benefit everyone including the services of the medical structure.
Does this kind of Insurance stick only in Certain country or does even launch in each and every country ?
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