Monday, September 20, 2010

Ohio Health Insurance: Now on hold

Bob's been doing a yeoman's job keeping us updated on the Peach State's health insurance market; now it's my turn to recap what's going on in the Buckeye State.

First, Anthem Blue Cross is in hibernation: no rates, no plans, no quoting for anything past Wednesday (in anticipation of the 9/23/10 mini-Armageddon). We can quote and write Short Term Medical and conversion plans, but that's it on the medical side. No major medical plans for either adults or children. You might say they're on a self-imposed "lockdown."

Next, Humana and Medical Mutual will continue to quote and issue adult-only policies, but no "family" plans which would include children. Humana will not write children-only plans, and it's unclear whether or not Medical Mutual will continue to offer them past the 22nd.

Aetna says that they'll continue to write plans with children if one or more adults are also included. Unfortunately, we don't have rates or plans available yet.

Assurant Health (a relatively minor player in this market) is also closed for business after the 23rd, but hopefully will have plans and rates available in time for October effective dates.

Finally, United HealthCare's individual plans seem to be in flux: for one thing, the soonest you can have coverage effective is 30 days from when they receive the application (or when it's completed online). So the soonest one could have coverage is now October 20th. The quoting system also still includes lifetime and other caps, which are a no-no going forward. I spoke with the Home Office, which confirmed that the caps will not, in fact, be included but the rating system doesn't yet reflect that. They also confirmed that they will also no longer offer child-only coverage.

Hope and change for all!

[Thanks to Kelly W for her help on this post]

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