Affordable California health insurance
Reader question:
Why is it so hard to get affordable California health insurance?
Mary Anne
Great question.
It is hard, isn’t it? To be completely honest, it’s hard everywhere, but it is true that in recent times getting affordable health insurance in California has gotten even harder than before, and it’s become more of a public issue. With rising health care costs, more and more people are without California health insurance and a lot of new laws and proposals have come up in the state legislature about the issue.
Even though things are getting worse everywhere, in California it’s worse than ever. The issue isn’t even about getting affordable California health insurance anymore. It’s about getting health insurance in California at all. The California Health Care Charterbook states that eighteen percent of the population of California is not covered by health insurance as of 2002. Just looking at the elderly, 20% aren’t covered at all, and they are often the ones that need it most.
One of the main reasons for this large lack of coverage is the burgeoning immigrant community in California. It takes up 27% of California’s people, and 52% of that 27% who have been in California less than five years don’t have health insurance. The number only goes down by twelve percent after the five year mark.
Those under the age of eighteen are doing the best as far as health insurance in California. But mostly this is because of Medicaid, and as soon as those kids hit eighteen, they will join the uninsured population. The same will be true for many of those kids who are insured under their parent’s plan right now.
All of that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to get affordable California health insurance, although it is difficult. It will take more shopping around than in other states, but eventually, if you get enough quotes and know your business, you can find a health insurance provider that is satisfactory.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
What you need to know about group health insurance
There are about five things about group health insurance that lots of employers don’t know but should. Providing group health insurance for your employees is a big deal, and you should educate yourself as much as you can about it. Most employees can agree that they want to get the cheapest group health insurance that they can, but also realize that they need to get quality group health insurance for their employees. If you’re sincere about this desire, it’s important to know as much as you can about group health insurance rates.
- Competition and law. There’s a lot of it going on in the state of Texas, especially in the Houston the health insurance business. It’s also regulated by the Texas Department of Insurance, which enforces the Insurance Code. Every year new laws make insurance policies even more complex than ever before and make it more expensive for companies to get group health insurance plans. The congress in your state has an effect on what you’re paying for group health insurance.
- Lying about rates. Group health insurance agents try to get more customers by lying and saying that they can get you cheaper health insurance rates. That’s not the case. Considering that group health insurance is regulated by the state, the prices are the same all across the board among agents.
- Agents don’t really know. Agents don’t know what insurance companies’ rates will actually be, they can only guess. It will depend, in the end, on the company and on each employee employed by it and their medical condition. If you have a company with as few as 50 employees, you can get rates from an agent that up to 67% off from what you’re going to get from the actual insurance company.
- Bribes. Getting some gifts for giving your business to a group health insurance agent may seem like it’s okay and many might not realize what it really is. Exchange of cash or gifts can make the group health insurance agent lose his or her license and is against the law.
- Knowledge. Just because group health insurance agents can’t know for sure how much a certain insurance company is going to charge, they can still help your company save up to hundreds of thousands of dollars on group health insurance costs. Things like programs that help employees maintain themselves in good health can contribute to these huge savings.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.