insurance
Lousy 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…
Read MoreHealth Care Advocate’s Office saved CT patients $5.07 for every $1 spent on the office last year
The annual report of our state Office of Healthcare Advocate (OHA) describes the importance of this office and what CT consumers could lose if the Governor is successful in eliminating it. The number of patients getting help from the office has grown every year reaching 2,143 last year. Those cases returned over $5 million to…
Read MoreCOBRA calls to the consumer helpline
I have been getting more phone calls from people who are losing their jobs and are looking for health insurance. We discuss COBRA as an option but it is usually too expensive for them. For one consumer and his two children, it would cost $1000 per month for the COBRA premiums (under the recently passed…
Read MoreCT insurers push plan for universal health care; Rests on individual mandate
According to today’s Hartford Courant, CT’s insurance industry is promoting a plan to cover everyone in the state. The industry is proposing to create a pool for individuals who can’t get or can’t afford insurance in the market now. They expect state subsidies to make the coverage affordable – there is no mention of the…
Read MoreThe federal stimulus and SCHIP: How much help is there for CT’s health?
A new analysis by the CT Health Policy Project details significant relief for CT’s consumers and our state budget in new federal legislation. CT can expect $1.3 billion in higher Medicaid reimbursements raising our matching rate from 50% to 56.2% until the end of next year, but the money comes with strings. To qualify the…
Read MoreMore companies conducting dependent coverage eligibility audits
Until recently most companies have just taken an employee’s word that the people they list for coverage under their family benefits are eligible. However, as health costs rise and margins drop more employers are checking, according to the Wall Street Journal. Almost three in four large US companies intend to conduct “dependent eligibility audits” this…
Read MoreCT insurers push plan for universal health care; Rests on individual mandate
According to today’s Hartford Courant, CT’s insurance industry is promoting a plan to cover everyone in the state. The industry is proposing to create a pool for individuals who can’t get or can’t afford insurance in the market now. They expect state subsidies to make the coverage affordable – there is no mention of the…
Read MoreFebruary health policy web quiz
Test your knowledge of an individual insurance mandate – what it would mean for CT, the challenges, and costs. Take the CT Health Policy Project February health policy web quiz. For more on the individual mandate, go to our policy paper or issue brief.
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