Cash back health insurance in Connecticut

Successfully placing benefit plans for businesses and individuals comes down to forging solid relationships built around trust. It helps also to have a unique product or offering that your competition does not offer. One product that fits this description is with a plan design offered by Trustmark.

All premiums collected by insurance carriers get divided up and placed into separate “buckets” for costs such as claims and administrative expenditures.  While “healthy” group trend lower with rate increases at renewal, one company takes this a step further.  

Trustmark processes their premium income the same way as above, but puts aside the claims portion of the premium into a separate account.  If the claims activity of the group is low throughout the contract year, then the company receives a reimbursement check.  This plan works particularly well with groups that tend to skew younger such as some of the blue collar trades, coffee shops, or those companies offering many entry level positions. 

One hurdle that can be problematic is that while carriers require all enrollees to fill out family health statements at time of application,  Trustmark needs all this information prior to the application in order to determine the exact premium.  There are cases when this program does not price out competitively with the other market options due to the health history of the group,  but when it is a right fit, it can be a boon to both the agents and their prospective new clients.

Shopping for Individual Health Insurance Online

So you wake up this morning and decide, today is the day that I am going to find a really good health insurance plan.  Where to start?  While the internet has been a boon to consumerism, and assisted millions of people in finding just about anything from cars to paper clips with just a click, purchasing health insurance on the web is fraught with pitfalls. 

While a large number of States allow purchasing health care over the web, this discussion will be focused on those plans offered in Connecticut.  Anthem, Connecticare, Aetna, Celtic & United Health One all market individual health plans in CT.  All offer several plan designs featuring a dizzying array of co-pays, co-insurance & deductibles.  Further, the ways in which these plans are underwritten vary widely amongst each carrier.  (Remember, guaranteed issue plans for adults are not available until 2014, if Obamacare remains intact.)    

Typing in the words “health insurance Connecticut” into Google yields an astounding 12,600,000 results.  Several companies under these search results allow you to input your birthday and gender, choose amongst several plan design options, and receive an instant quote.   From there you may apply directly using the online application process.  At that point your application is in underwriting and a determination will be made usually within 7 to 10 business days, unless further medical information is needed. 

Anthem & Connecticare are accept or reject companies in that they either accept you at the rate quoted, or reject your application based upon health status.  All other carriers who offer health insurance in Connecticut reserve the right to increase the premium at time of application based upon underwriting review.  Further, 2 of these carriers reserve the right not only to rate up the policy, but to also rider (exclude) certain conditions.   The online application does not notify the applicant of these rate-ups or riders, so the assumption is that the policy will be issued as quoted.  I have gained many a client who has been approved with riders and rate ups they know nothing about until the policy is mailed to them.

Utilizing an agent familiar with the application process above will save you time and headaches, and won’t cost you anymore as agents are compensated directly by the insurance companies.   

Kevin Murray – HIQS Group 203-730-8304

Obamacare & Supreme Court

Given the recent ruling of District Judge Vinson, and the 26 States suing the Federal Government, the constitutionality of Obamacare will ultimately be determined by the Supreme Court. The question is, why wait?

At the heart of the matter is the requirement in 2014 mandating all Americans to purchase health insurance. Crafters of the legislation point to the Commerce Clause as the legal basis to compel Americans to own health coverage. The Clause has been used over the years by Congress to regulate commerce amongst several States, and defendants of the legislation argue that it applies in this case, since every American at some point will need health care. Requiring them to own it would just be a way for to pay for these services. Judge Vinson’s rejected this reasoning, as he writes: “Congress could require that everyone above a certain income threshold buy a General Motors automobile—now partially government-owned—because those who do not buy GM cars (or those who buy foreign cars) are adversely impacting commerce and a taxpayer-subsidized business.”

Several Governors & their AG’s felt this should put a stay on implemenation of the next phases of Obamacare. Faced with critical budget shortfalls, States need to know sooner rather than later if this legislation will be upheld. As it is inevitable that this matter will be headed to the Supreme Court, then it is in the best interest of everyone that this should happen sooner rather than later.