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Why UniCare's health insurance rates are so stable?
Unicare health insurance plans offer some of the lowest cost major medical plans in the industry. The Unicare HSA, FIT, Saver, and Sound plans offer the greatest values in health insurance depending on where you live.
Best values are found in the $1000 to $5000 deductible plans. When you have a Unicare plan, you will pay the same premium as an existing member, not an artificially low rate for the first year like other companies. No tiers, or blocking of business. uniCare never close out a block of business and allows exiting members to upgrade to new model plans when they become available. This kind of practice keeps their pool healthy and avoids the infmaous death spiral.
Unicare HSA's have only had two price increase's in the last eight years. The Unicare HSA is probably the best valued product of any carrier. Deductibles over $1000 had only a zero to one percent trend upwards last year. Your prices will however go up with age, there is now way you can stall father time, the older you are the more expensive health insurance becomes.
How can we help keep health costs down?
First of all pick a company like UniCare that has shown a stable renewal rate history. typically the larger and more stable the company, the more stable the renewal rates will be.
One of the best things that we can do with the public, legislators, and so forth is to really understand that uninsured population in great depth. A third of them are in households that have incomes of $50,000 or greater, and, for whatever reason, they're uninsured. Our job is to reach out to them with affordable products with lots of education, and that's what we're trying to do with things like UniCare Sound, Tonik or Blue Access, for example.
The second segment is a third of the uninsured that are actually eligible for either federal or state programs. They're simply not enrolled. Then the balance are really the working poor. There, we really need to work collaboratively with the government and our industry and figure out what the right solution is.
We've been in favor of tax credits. We've been in favor of giving those people incentives that would allow them to purchase some sort of coverage. So far the goverment has only addressed tax incentives for HSA's which are designed for the over 50 market which has borne most of the brunt of medical inflation these past few years.
The key to keeping health costs down nationally is to make the best effort to make sure as many people as possible are insured. UniCare has the largest block of insured's in the country and that number is increasing daily, and that is a major factor in keeping the cost of their plans affordable, volume equals cost savings. By not closing of blocks and letting people have the opportunity to upgrade coverage when neccesary without changing carriers it keeps the overall costs down as the block continues to increase in size.
Would a larger role for the government in health care be a good thing?
A public/private system is what best serves Americans. We're a culture of people that want choice. I just can't imagine us going to a place that's going to be a one-size-fits-all. It's just not our makeup as a culture.
The impact of Medicare and Medicaid in overall health rates
Medicare and Medicaid continue to limit reimbursement to providers, putting providers under greater pressure to shift unreimbursed costs to their commercial patients. With over 60 million healty people uninsured in this country it puts a burden on the health care industry to pick up the slack to take care of the have nots. The cost of providing health benefits to the uninsured makes up a large slice of your health insurance premium each month.
State Goverments
In addition state governments mandating coverage of certain benefits for example (price bands, expanded mental health) the federal government has also entered the mandate business.
Hospital Costs
Hospitals are under increased regulatory scrutiny, which increases their costs and puts pressure on them to raise their fees. Hospitals have been consolidating as well. This gives them greater leverage with managed care organizations resulting in higher negotiated fees. Providers have shown an increased willingness to drop our of managed care networks if reimbursement levels are viewed to be substandard. This also helps in negotiating higher fees.
Malpractice Insurance
The higher risk of medical malpractice leads providers to offer more diagnostic tests to avoid litigation.. The advances in medicine create a healthier society at a higher cost.
Prescription Drug cost and usage
Aggressive direct marketing has helped raise the overall increase in Rx drug costs. US prescription unit usage and unit pricing has been rising at greater than double digit rates for the last 4 years. People are taking more lifestyle drugs which is fueling drug company profits, but it is also a major factor in the rise of health insurance rates.
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