California Health Insurance Information and News

The U.S. Treasury Department has clarified that in certain instances an employee can have a Health Savings Account (HSA) and also participate in a Flexible Spending Account (FSA.) See this press release on the interaction of HSAs with FSAs.

Generally, participation in a Health Savings Account with a high deductible health insurance plan (HDHP) precludes participation in a Flexible Spending Account, however, there is some flexibility.

Specifically, a person participating in an HSA may also participate in a “limited purpose FSA” that restricts reimbursements to some permitted benefits such as vision, dental, or preventive care.

Also, a person with an HSA can participate in a “post-deductible” FSA that limits reimbursements to qualified expenses incurred after the annual medical plan deductible has been met.

Employees who seek to have both an HSA and FSA must ensure that their employer’s FSA has these added features. Generally, without these exceptions an individual can not participate in both and HSA and FSA.

For tax information always rely on an accountant or tax expert. For assistance with health insurance rely on BenefitsCafe.com. Click here for a California health insurance quote or call us at 800-746-0045.

Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest health insurance companies in California. Kaiser recently announced “Multiple Plan Offerings” for small employers in California.

With Kaiser California “Multiple Plan Offerings”, companies with 2 – 50 employees can allow employees to enroll in any one of seven different HMO plans. With some limitations, each employee can enroll in a different health insurance plan. This type of arrangement allows employers to pay a fixed dollar amount or “defined contribution” towards their employees’ health insurance. Employees are free to select any medical plan offered.

Kaiser California requires that at least three employees enroll in the health maintenance organization plan to offer multiple plans. Click here for a Kaiser group health insurance quote.

To learn more about health insurance, call BenefitsCafe.com at 800-746-0045 or click here for an instant medical plan quote.

If you are concerned only about financial ruin from a catestrophic medical illness or injury then focus on the “stop loss” also known as “out-of-pocket maximum” or “co-pay limit.” Generally, this is the most you will have to pay in a calendar year if you have huge medical bills.

Some of the Health Savings Account (HSA) compatible insurance plans have relatively low copay limits. See specifically, the Blue Cross 3500 HSA, Blue Shield of California 2400 HSA plan and the Nationwide 2400 & 4800 HSA plans. Each of these have low copayments limits.

To learn more stategies for keeping your health insurance premium low, call BenefitsCafe.com at 800-746-0045 or click here for an instant medical plan quote.

If you’re a college student, recently graduated from college, or you’re a parent of a college student or recent grad, you may want to consider an HSA (Health Savings Account) medical insurance plan.

HSA compatible health insurance plans have high deductibles (typically $2,000 to $5,000 per calendar year.) HSA plans also have VERY low monthly premium payments to the insurance companies. Finally, when someone is covered by one of these medical insurance plans he/she can open a special tax-favored savings account in a bank and pre-fund the insurance plan deductible. Because deposits to an HSA savings account are deductible from Federal income taxes the IRS puts limits to the amount you can deposit into the account. Click here for HSA Account Info.)

These unique features make this an ideal plan for students and recent graduates. The student or recent graduate can pay the monthly insurance premium (usually well under $100 per month) and the parents can help fund the high deductible in the HSA account. When the patient needs medical care he/she can withdraw money from the HSA savings account and pay for medical services and prescription medicine. The patient uses either a debit card or checking account to withdraw money for qualified medical expenses.

Beware that many of the HSA insurance plans specifically exclude maternity benefits. Blue Cross, Nationwide and Blue Shield all offer HSA compatible plans that DO include maternity benefits and are well priced, so consider these plans first. Here is a good description of the Nationwide HSA compatible health insurance plan.

HSA plans are more complicated but they allow you to obtain health insurance at a low cost.

For more information, see the California HSA plans section our web site. You can obtain online quotes for qualified HSA compatible health plans or call BenefitsCafe.com at 800-746-0045.

Young women seeking to purchase health insurance that includes coverage for baby delivery (i.e., maternity coverage) should consider the Blue Shield Spectrum 2000 PPO plan.

This plan has a large deductible ($2,000) but also a low monthly premium (likely under $100 per month for people age 29 and younger.) Under this plan members only pay $45 for a doctor’s office visit – before having to pay the calendar year deductible.

Also, the plan allows members to purchase medications (Rx) prior to paying the $2,000 deductible. Generic medications cost only $10 with this plan. The plan also covers brand Rx with a $35 copayment following a separate $500 Rx deductible.

One potential problem with this plan is the high out-of-pocket maximum, or stop-loss, which is $5,000 PLUS the $2,000 deductible for a total of $7,000 per calendar year. So be aware that you have a high financial obligation under this plan should you experience a major medical illness or accident.

This may be a great plan for someone who wants a PPO plan, a low monthly premium, and benefits payable prior to satisfying a deductible. Also, the Blue Shield PPO network has many participating providers.

Click here to obtain an online California health insurance quote for the Blue Shield Spectrum 2000 PPO plan or call 800-746-0045.

If you are about to graduate from college and need to purchase your own health insurance you have many options.

Young, healthy men and women often seek a low monthly payment to the insurance company (premium) and safe guards against major financial loss from a serious illness.

Here are some specific plans you may want to consider:

“Calculated Risk Taker” from Blue Cross of California: with generic prescription medicine, no offer maternity coverage, low cost.

Right Plan 40 from Blue Cross of California: 3 plans with different coverage for prescription medicine (Rx)- no Rx, generic Rx, and generic and brand Rx. No maternity coverage. $40 payment for doctor office visits. No deductible.

Blue Shield Active Start: $25 and $35 payment for doctor visits, no deductible. No maternity coverage.

At BenefitsCafe.com, you can get medical insurance plan quotes online or call 800-746-0045.

If you have a family and want health insurance coverage here is some helpful advice: Examine the cost of medical insurance coverage for each member of the family separately – as well as combined as a family.

For example, young children can often enroll in their own individual health insurance plan at a lower cost than the cost of family coverage. The resulting cost of coverage for employee and spouse or two parents on an individual policy combined with the cost of the children’s medical insurance plan may be less expensive.

Keep in mind that separate health insurance policies have separate out-of-pocket maximums (stop loss) and this may be a problem if everyone in a family were to get sick during the same calendar year. In this case a family with separate medical insurance policies for various members would likely pay more than if the entire family were on a single health insurance policy.

You can obtain health insurance quotes online for separate members of your family or call BenefitsCafe.com at 800-746-0045.

The latest trend in individual health insurance in California is to offer “individual only” policies. This means that only one person is covered by the policy.

Examples of these new policies are: Blue Cross
Right Plan 40 PPO, Tonik Calculated Risk-Taker Plan, and Blue Shield Active Start plans.

This is no problem if you are single. However, this could be financially ruinous if you have a child who has medical needs. New born children would be excluded from these types of policies.

New born children with medical problems may not be able to pass the insurance company underwriting process and therefore be unable to obtain medical insurance. Accordingly, a parent would have to pay all of the cost for medical care for the new born child – with no help from the insurance company.

Many older generation individual medical insurance policies in California (e.g., Blue Cross PPO Share $2,500 cover new born children.

Get a California individual medical insurance quote online or call BenefitsCafe.com at 800-746-0045.

Many of the individual health insurance policies offered in California do not include maternity coverage. This means that if you have a baby – plannned or unplanned – you will pay for all of the expenses.

Normal child delivery and pre and post delivery medical costs could range from $5,000 to $10,000. Complications of pregnancy can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. So be careful if you don’t have maternity coverage.

For information about individual medical insurance in California call the helpful staff at BenefitsCafe.com 800-746-0045.

As the monthly cost of medical insurance rises people search for ways to keep spend less. Health insurance is priced so that you can either:
1) spend more on a monthly basis and less when you receive treatment; or,
2) spend less on monthly premium and more when you receive treatment.

This is the health insurance balance or trade off (see related article “How do insurance companies price individual health plans.”)

One way to lower your monthly health insurance premium is to enroll in a high deductible plan. With these plans you pay more (in some cases, such as Pacificare‘s HSA plan, up to $10,000) before the health insurance company begins paying for treatment. If you can afford to pay the deductible you may be better off saving the amount that you would have paid had you enrolled in a lower deductible PPO plan.

The high deductible health plans (HDHP) are usually compatible with Health Savings Accouts (HSA) and you can arrange to make the money you spend towards your medical insurance plan calendar year deductible Federally tax deductible.

Call BenefitsCafe.com for more information on this option 800-746-0045.