We've Moved

The news and ideas haven't stopped, starting on September 7, 2006 you can find the Colorado Health Insurance Insider here... http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1/. With more tools, we think you'll like the new location much better.

Skeptical about Aetna

After a five-year hiatus, insurance heavyweight Aetna Inc. has returned to Colorado's small-group health insurance market.
The insurer has been meeting with brokers and already has sold plans with a Sept. 1 effective date. The company is offering 13 plans for small employers, including two high-deductible plans that are compatible with health savings accounts.
In 2001, Aetna announced it was pulling out of Colorado, saying it couldn't turn a profit on its plans for small businesses.
It dealt a huge blow to the state's small-group market, which includes self-employed individuals and groups of two to 50 people. In 2000, Aetna's was the state's second-largest small-group carrier, and the move affected about 100,000 members, who had to either find new coverage or go without it.
Bill Berenson, Aetna's regional head of sales, based in Chicago, said the company is "completely different" than it was five years ago. It has a new management team and a better understanding of which products are profitable, an understanding it lacked five years ago.
Aetna grew rapidly before it pulled out of Colorado's small-group market -- from fewer than 30,000 members in 1999 to more than 100,000 in 2001. Aetna's plans for small employers were the cheapest in Colorado. But the prices were so low, the insurer couldn't turn a profit.

Of course, we will include them in our comparisons for our small business clients to get an idea of what their options are. When people are given this information and are aware that the company has recently pulled out of Colorado, about half will still decide to take the risk if the price is right.

But Aetna's return to Colorado comes as the state's small-group market has been shrinking. The number of people getting health insurance through Colorado's small-group market dropped for the fifth year in a row in 2005, according to the Colorado Division of Insurance. Last year, there were 358,264 employees and dependents covered in small groups, compared with 456,151 in 2001. That's a 27 percent decrease.

Irresponsible?

An article in the Denver Post yesterday talked about the number of people age 19 to 29 without health insurance.

As snowboarding season approaches, so does the time of year when Katie Neal's mom really freaks out.

What bothers her mom, Neal said, is not the speed at which the 26-year-old slashes through powder.

It's that she does it without health insurance.

Nationwide, about 13.7 million people ages 19 to 29 didn't have insurance in 2004, making them the largest group of uninsured adults in the country, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit health- research foundation.

That is true in Colorado as well, according to the Colorado Health Institute.

Young adults 19 to 29 make up 17 percent of the population but account for 30 percent of those younger than 65 who don't have health insurance, Commonwealth Fund noted in its report, "Rite of Passage? Why Young Adults Become Uninsured and How New Policies Can Help."

Neal, a server at Governor's Park tavern, knows she's not invincible.

Neal's employer does offer insurance. She just can't afford it.

"I would like to have it," Neal said.

At about $200 a month, health insurance would eat up about a quarter of Neal's monthly income.

"I'm working my way out of debt, and having another bill, I just can't do that," she said.

I'm also a snowboarder. When I graduated from college and didn't have any money, snowboarding was a lower priority than health insurance. I missed several years of it and got a bit rusty, but I didn't risk having tens of thousands more in debt from an unpaid hospital bill.

For $96/month, Neal could get a $5,000 deductible / 100% coinsurance policy from Tonik, or she could pay $77.43/month for a $5,000 deductible plan from Rocky Mountain Health Plans - like they talk about in the article.

The best deal on lift tickets in Colorado is the Buddy Pass (unlimited to Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, and Breckenridge) for $349. She might have gotten a used snowboard/bindings for around $300, and another couple hundred for gear (coat, pants, socks, gloves, etc).

There are examples out there of people who can't afford health insurance yet make too much to qualify for medicaid. But there are far too many examples of people who can afford health insurance, yet have their priorities mixed up. As Bob Vineyard from InsureBlog pointed out in today's post:

According to U.S. Census Bureau data released Monday, Americans with annual incomes between $50,000 and $75,000 per year saw the biggest increase in uninsured rates, up to 8.3 million, an increase of 600,000 people. 800,000 more people with annual incomes of over $75,000 are now uninsured.

Why are more and more people making health insurance less of a priority? If health insurance isn't mandatory, what could make it more of a priority than the consequences of not having it?