insurance
Anthem rate hike hearing Monday
Our state Health Care Advocate and Attorney General have been granted intervenor status in the Insurance Dept.’s public hearing to consider Anthem’s request for rate increases of up to 32% on health insurance premiums. These hearings are a rare opportunity for public input on the impact of such rate increases on consumers during these trying…
Read MoreFormer insurance executive tells the truth
We haven’t been blogging much on national health reform here at CT Health Notes. No need for it – that space is crowded with great blogs at the national level. Like everyone else, we’ve been following them and “official” developments closely. But yesterday something extraordinary happened. A former insider at two large insurance companies opened…
Read MoreGovernor vetoes common sense consumer protection
There is a loophole in the current CT law that doesn’t allow insurance companies to cancel your health insurance policy just when you need it. But Monday the Governor vetoed a bill to close that loophole. In 2007, CT passed PA 07-113, An Act Concerning Postclaims Underwriting, which was meant to stop insurers from claiming…
Read MoreJune CT Health Policy web quiz
Test your knowledge of small group health insurance in CT. Take the June CT Health Policy Web Quiz. This month’s quiz was written by Selina Tirtajana, CTHPP intern, Summer 2009.
Read MoreWSJ blog highlights uninsured people forming small businesses to get health insurance
The Wall Street Journal reports today on a little-known option for coverage – forming a business and buying group coverage, even for groups as small as one person. Luckily CT is one of the states that allows small group coverage for groups of one and requires insurers to offer coverage to all small groups (guaranteed…
Read MoreConsumers share of health care costs to increase 7.4% next year
The 2009 Milliman Medical Index predicts that the typical cost of health care for a US family of four will rise to $16,771 on average. Milliman estimates that the total cost of coverage for a average household of four, even if there are no claims, will consume 8% of income. Workers will pay 41% of…
Read MoreMedicaid Managed Care Council/Charter Oak update
The news from today’s Council meeting is that while Charter Oak’s enrollment continues to increase – 8,210 as of May 1st — the number of people denied coverage under the program is far higher — 18,635 so far. While 705 of those were denied because they have coverage or have had it in the last…
Read MoreLousy student health insurance – An update
Aetna Student Health finally returned my call about the $500 in medical bills they haven’t paid. Now I’m getting a completely different answer (I think I’ve been given about four different explanations so far). The most recent customer service representative said that I met the maximum benefit level for this medical service. I explained that…
Read MoreCourant article highlights medical causes of bankruptcy and foreclosure, if you read into the article
The headline of an article in Sunday’s Courant reads “In CT and elsewhere, more debtors choose personal bankruptcy,” but they missed an important point. The slant of the article is the growing number of bankruptcies resulting from foreclosures. The article describes Maryann Hagberg, a Waterbury woman, and her husband forced into bankruptcy to remain in…
Read MoreLousy student health insurance coverage
While I was a student at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, we were required to have health insurance. If we didn’t have insurance on our own, we had to buy it through the school and the only option was Accident/Sickness Insurance from Aetna Student Health. It was fairly inexpensive – $870 for…
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