Insurance for college graduates

New data gathered by insurers shows that parents continue to be the driving force in a college graduate’s decision to buy short term medical insurance following graduation. Parents pay the premium in more than half of the short term medical insurance policies issues to those in the 21-24 age group. Without this parental financial support, a college graduate is four times more likely to go without medical insurance for a period of two months or more following gradation.

College graduates and their families are often surprised to learn how affordable health plans can be. MedSave.com, a leading provider of low cost medical insurance for college graduates, reports that the average cost of the six most popular health plans to young adults has dropped this year to for the first time in recent history. The price drop is due to the expansion of limited benefit plans rather than a reduction in overall health care costs.

But more health plan choices also means that there is more potential for selecting the wrong coverage. Not surprisingly, the least expensive health plans tend to be the most popular among young adults. This can lead to less than adequate protection. These health plans tend to provide up-front benefits for smaller medical expenses like doctors office visits but offer the least protection for catastrophic risks. It is important that college graduates choose the right plan for their own health situation. It appears that parents may be less likely to be involved in the selection of the insurance than in helping with the cost. Many college graduates are purchasing insurance for the first time and purchase trends indicate that some are making uninformed choices based solely on the cost of coverage or misperceptions of the risk/benefit aspects of insurance choices.

In most cases a high deductible short term medical insurance policy provides a young adult with the best protection at the lowest cost. Most college graduates and other young adults do not benefit financially by purchasing health insurance that covers routine health care like doctors office visits, lab tests and prescription drug costs.

Detriot business owners mirror national trends

A newly released survey of Detroit area businesses showed that while they are highly concerned with the effect of uninsured on their health costs, few support proposed legislation to require health insurance.

The results of this survey mirror those of other groups around the county. We want everyone to have health insurance, but we draw the line at requiring it by law.

The survey was conducted by John Bailey & Associates Inc. in preparation for the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Mackinac Policy Conference. Surveyors found that 46% of members would vote “no” on the proposed constitutional amendment to require health insurance; 27% would vote “yes,” and 27% had no opinion or were undecided.

In Michigan, as in most other states, there are more low cost health insurance options available this year than at any time in the past. Yet without a requirement to carry insurance, about 16% of the population is uninsured and those with insurance wind up paying for the cost of health care for the uninsured.

Short term medical insurance in New York

New York residents face a triple threat when it comes to short term health insurance. First, the insurance products used in most states that are specifically designed for this purpose are not available in New York. Second, the coverage that is available is slow; often taking at least a month just to get through the manual application process. Third, the coverage is expensive. No pricing discount is recognized for the likelihood that this insurance will not be in force long enough to accrue catastrophic claims.

The easiest solution is to buy temporary insurance while staying in another state. Insurance issued in another state is valid in New York and allows treatment with any doctor or hospital in the U.S. There is no requirement that the address on temporary health insurance be your permanent residential address. Some New Yorkers residents purchase health insurance while staying at their out-of-state colleges, while at their second home in another state or while on vacation or visiting relatives. The insurance covers treatment while they are away from home as well as with the doctors and hospitals at home in New York. Almost all short term medical insurance is purchased online and most offer immediate download of the policy and insurance ID cards. Most insurance companies allow you to have the policy mailed back to a New York address if you will be returning from your trip soon.

The only other possible alternatives we can offer are:
1. Core Health Insurance – a limited benefit policy that does a fairly good job at mimicking the benefits of major medical insurance
2. International Medical Insurance - for individuals who are not permanent residents of U.S.
3. Inbound Immigrant Insurance – for individuals who have recently moved to the U.S.

If none of these options will work then it is especially important to explore all options to keep, extend or convert prior health insurance regardless of the higher cost.

Masschussets learns that "insurance is not health care"

A flood of articles in recent weeks discuss the difficulties triggered by Massachusetts' experiment in mandadted health insurance.

The Kaiser Founation published an excellent summry report at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=51517 .

Several other states including California have declined similar proposals. Pols show that the majority of Americans do not wnt mandated health insuance, yet this provision remains a key provision in Hillary Clinton's campaign platform.

Health insurance in a recession

A new article titled "Health Insurance in a Recession" points out some general strategies that may prevent costly mistakes when making desicions about health insurance in financially difficult times.

great quote on nationalized health care

Nationalized health care will have: the compassion of the IRS, the efficiency of the postal service, the failure rate of government schools, the enforcement tactics of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and all at Pentagon prices!
-- Albert V. Burns

Bloggers condemn Families USA Report

Families USA, a liberal lobbying group launched a nationwide media campaign this month to push its agenda of universal health insurance. The campaign is based on propaganda that the lack of health insurance is contributing to an increase in pre-mature deaths. The press releases titled “Dying for Coverage…” are prepared separately for each state in order to peak local interest manipulating statistics on the number of uninsured people on state by-state basis as the basis for calculating a number of deaths for maximum media impact. The problem is that the re is no factual basis for the mortality calculations or for jumping to the conclusion that health insurance is the controlling factor in cases of inadequate health care. The majority of information published on this topic would directly contradict the Families USA opinions.

Surprisingly, a large number of mainstream media reporters picked up on the press releases and published stories that present the opinions without checking the background. These are a few headlines that appeared around the country:

“Lack of health insurance can be lethal for Alaskans”, 4/12/08, Anchorage Daily News

““Report: 460 Hoosiers die each year due to lack of health coverage”, 4/5/08, Lafayette Journal & Courier

““Deaths tied to lack of insurer: 1,000 in N.C. died for want of health plan, study says”, 4/5/08, Winston-Salem Journal

““Report: Thousands die from lack of insurance; Several Missourians of working age with no coverage die each week, study shows”, Springfield News-Leader

Normally the mainstream media would recognize this type of press release as a political spin and ignore it. We do not know whether reporters simply took the easy route of writing their story by reproducing the press release without gathering additional information or whether perhaps the writers personally support the efforts of Families USA. Some of the reporters indicate that they are covering only the published report, and are not implying that their article is a balanced news report on the topic. In either case, it is clear that the newspapers readers were not been as easily fooled.

Public comments on Web sites are sharply critical of the campaign. These are a few comments (without citations) posted by boggers on the newspaper articles:

“Lack of insurance doesn't kill people. Lack of treatment, lack of living a healthy lifestyle, lack of exercise, lack of a healthy diet.....those things are much more likely to kill someone. It might take some effort to find insurance or health care, but it's available”.

“Uninsured who live a healthy lifestyle will lead longer, healthier lives without the side effects from the pharmaceuticals that modern medicine uses as a band-aid. Modern medicine does not attempt to find the cause of a medical condition, but only treats the symptoms”.

“merely having health insurance is no guarantee that you will be able to seek out treatment”.

“the affordability of health care is not directly related or controlled by employment status, income or insurance”.

"5 out of 6 people who die prematurely do have health insurance! What does that say about the importance of health insurance in causing deaths?"

We did not reproduce any of the more crudely worded criticisms but a strong majority of bloggers found the report objectionable. Other comments pointed out that we have long known that 80% of our nation's health care costs are directly tied to five behavioral factors – smoking, over-eating, lack of exercise, lack of stress management, and poor nutrition. There is no indication that there is any connection between health insurance and these five key behavioral issues. Other writers pointed out that no one in America who actively seeks treatment is denied basic health care – regardless of their ability to pay. Every state has adequate welfare type health care for those who are willing to spend their own money before requesting public assistance for medical expenses. Free basic medical treatment clinics and hospitals that provide free care based on demonstrated financial need operate in most geographical areas.

The consistency of the theme of the strong majority of these public responses indicates that Americans are increasingly aware that additional regulation of health insurance without addressing the underlying health care affordability issues is pointless and will only cause further harm. The most comprehensive public opinion studies including a massive survey by the AFL-CIO covered in U.S. News and World Report in March 2008 indicates that the majority do not support mandated health insurance or additional government intervention in health insurance.

At MedSave.com, we consider ourselves to be activists in the health care reform movement and we support the lobbying efforts of many reputable organizations like America’s Health Insurance Plans, Kaiser Foundation and Covertheuninsured.org and we would financially benefit from national health insurance reforms, but we feel that it is ethically necessary to distance ourselves from the intentionally deceitful strategies of Families USA. This type of propaganda will not help promote a solution to the national health care affordability crisis.