| Blue Cross Of California Health Insurance - Clear Answers To Tough ...
Northridge, California (FV Newswire) - Blue Cross of California health insurance provides clear answers to tough questions. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently proposed a plan to provide affordable health insurance to everyone in the state under the age of 18. The ultimate goal, according to Chuck Mondrus of American Health Insurance / Blue Cross California, is for everyone in California to have affordable health insurance.
"Blue Cross California," Mondrus adds, "shares the Governor's concern with California's cost and coverage challenges, and we view many components of the Governor's proposal as very positive. Theoretically, if everyone is insured, the cost of insurance would be less on a per-person basis."
He adds that, until a finished proposal exists, it's impossible to know the legislation's real impact.
Multicultural Agents Launch Online Service to Give Minorities Easy ...
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 14, 2007 -- A former industry executive and a network of leading multicultural agents later this week will launch One Voice Insurance Services, an online portal designed to provide minority consumers and business owners with in-language and culturally relevant information about health and life insurance products in California. One Voice Insurance Services will host a launch reception on Friday, March 16, 2007 at 5 p.m. at City Club on Bunker Hill, located at Wells Fargo Center, 333 S. Grand Ave., Suite 5450, in Downtown Los Angeles. .
Coalition plans rally in support of universal health care bill
TRACY A coalition of local organizations in support of universal health care will be staging a rally in front of the post office today. The demonstration is intended to raise awareness for Senate Bill 840, the California Health Insurance Reliability Act, which would provide universal health coverage for every resident of the state, regardless of their ability to pay. Today's event is being organized by the San Joaquin Coalition for Universal Health Care, as part of the statewide "365 Day One Care Now Campaign." The goal is that each day, one community in California will host an educational/informational activity to raise awareness and offer solutions for the skyrocketing costs of health care. According to One Care Now, the bill would "create one plan and one public trust fund which would pay all health care bills and collect all the monies already being spent on health care and insurance plans." If enacted, the bill would "replace all health premiums, taxes, deductibles and co-payments now paid by employers, employees and individuals with one affordable premium." The organization states that more than 5 million Californians have no insurance at any time during the year, with an additional 2 million lacking insurance for part of the year.
State health care reform worth another try
When the state legislature actually did its job in September and passed a real solution to the health care crisis (the California Health Insurance Reliability Act), The Record claimed this could be the beginning of an inefficient bureaucracy similar to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The current system we endure is inefficient - with 6,000 insurance plans and 69 government agencies attempting to deliver care to 37 million Californians. Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed last year's bill, claiming it was socialism. This year, he has his own universal health care proposal. A step in the right direction, his plan leaves many exemptions and assumptions that don't add up to universal care for all Californians. Health-insurance company profits soared 246 percent from 2000 to 2004.
Las Vegas Insurance Firm Announces Full Support of the New Anthem ...
Knox Associates, a Las Vegas based Employee Benefit Insurance firm is announcing full support for the new Anthem Blue Cross EmployeeElect Product Line. “We have been waiting for this small group health insurance product for over two years" Explained Jennifer Knox, president of Knox Associates. “When WellPoint and Anthem merged in late 2004 we knew this offering would eventually make it to the Nevada market because it has been offered to California business's for several years – it's finally here!" The plan is being offered to small groups throughout Nevada (2-50 employees). It works by giving the employer the flexibility to create a benefits package that can be custom tailored to fit the employer's needs. Nevada small businesses now have the flexibility to construct their own package of plans, giving them the choice of how many and which plans to offer to their employees. The plan offers six traditional PPO plans, five Consumer Driven plans (including Health Savings Account qualified plans) and three HMO plans to build from.
Blue Shield of California Gives Californians’ Health Care Concerns ...
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blue Shield of California, a not-for-profit health care company, is launching a new website, www.blueshieldca.com/chatbox showcasing video comments recorded by consumers who discussed their concerns and frustrations with the healthcare system during the recent grassroots "Chat Box" campaign throughout California. Throughout February and March, teams from Blue Shield of California hit the streets of Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego to take California's healthcare pulse, giving people a chance to sound off with video "Chat Boxes." Blue Shield is committed to making health insurance easier for consumers, and set up the "Chat Box" for a chance to listen to people's concerns, experiences and stories – the good, bad and unbearable – honest and uncensored.
Yee touts universal health care
The likelihood of Californians receiving universal health care was just one of many hot topics discussed during the first of several town hall meetings featuring state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo. The South San Francisco meeting Saturday led off a series of meetings to be held in both counties designed to allow residents the opportunity to voice their concerns to their representative. Lee focused on health care and discussed a series of recently introduced bills that could improve the health of kids, help stop dead-beat parents, provide emotional education to young students and stop citizens from using major roads as their own personal used car sales lot. Many Californians have no health care at all and those that make up the "working core" are steadily receiving less and less health insurance, Yee said.
Marchers rally for state health care
TRACY - Supporters of a health care plan to create a state-run single-payer system covering all California residents took to the streets of Tracy on Wednesday afternoon. About 30 children and adults took part in the rally, which sought to build support for state Sen. Sheila Kuehl's California Universal Healthcare Act. Kuehl's proposal would create a statewide fund into which employers and employees would pay. That fund would pay medical providers for health services they provide to residents, including the estimated 6.5 million uninsured. "I feel like we should all have insurance, regardless of our money situation," said marcher Josie Lopez, 75, of Tracy. Support for the bill is not universal. A number of business groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce, oppose Kuehl's bill.
LinkValu.com Debuts its Performance Based Affiliate Network at e ...
The focus of the LinkValu Affiliate Marketing Network is in the realm of financial services. One of the primary goals of the company during its trade show debut at e-Com Xpo will be to make new contacts with Advertisers and Publishers interested in health insurance, auto insurance, banking services, etc. Mission Viejo, CA (PRWeb) March 16, 2007 -- Based in Orange County California, LinkValu has its origination in internet based life insurance offers. As the founder of AmericanLifeDirect.com, renowned to be "The World's Fastest Life Insurance Policy," the company is the number one seller of ecommerce life insurance in the country. The continued growth and success of AmericanLifeDirect.com and related offers, with revenues that doubled annually since their conception in 1999, led to the launch of an already highly developed internal network: LinkValu.com.
SF long-term care costliest in California
Care in a nursing home or other long-term facility is more expensive in San Francisco than in any other city in California, according to a study released Tuesday by the nation's largest long-term care insurer. A private nursing-home room in San Francisco averages $110,121 a year, or about $301.70 a day, ranking it ninth out of 90 regions in the country surveyed by Genworth Financial. Among states, California was the eighth-most-expensive for nursing-home care at $87,845 a year. The study focused on a range of services that go under the heading of long-term care, from nursing-home services to home health assistance. Insurance for such care represents a growing segment of the health coverage market. But while long-term care coverage can provide consumers much-needed protection from the high costs of services, the insurance is expensive.
Insurance associations falling by the wayside
A major source of health insurance for people who work for themselves has all but disappeared, casting thousands of contractors, freelancers and solo practitioners into the ranks of the uninsured with little hope of obtaining new coverage. Health plans offered by professional associations were once safe havens for millions of people who couldn't obtain coverage anywhere else. But, as medical costs have soared, groups representing professions as varied as law and golf have been forced to stop offering the benefit or been dropped by insurers. More than 8,000 California Realtors and their families could be next if Blue Shield of California succeeds with its plan to cancel their association health coverage. "It's a real stab in the heart," said Marcy Garber, 62, a Los Angeles real estate agent whose history of breast cancer makes her an almost-certain reject if she seeks similar coverage on her own.
Hospitals joining push for universal insurance coverage
While the year is still young, serious proposals for universal health insurance already have been issued by two states (California and Pennsylvania), one U.S. senator (Oregon's Ron Wyden), a former U.S. senator and current presidential candidate (North Carolina's John Edwards), and one influential insurance association (America's Health Insurance Plans).
And now the Federation of American Hospitals has weighed in. Late last month, the group representing the country's largest commercial hospital chains unveiled its "Health Coverage Passport," which the federation estimates would cover 96 percent of Americans.
The plan would leave alone those currently covered by health insurance while requiring all other legal residents to have health insurance -- with government subsidies to help the uninsured obtain affordable, basic insurance.
STUDY: ILLUSION OF HEALTH INSURANCE CAN FAIL TO PROTECT CALIFORNIANS
Sickness or injury can leave people in serious financial jeopardy even when they have health insurance, according to a report released today by The Access Project and Brandeis University. The Illusion of Coverage: How Health Insurance Fails People When They Get Sick, reports findings based on in-depth interviews with dozens of insured Americans in seven states. The report spotlights how some patients in California with insurance discovered too late that their coverage was capped or that certain procedures weren't covered. Some mortgaged their homes, others racked up credit card debt, some even died. “Widespread debt and access problems among insured people represent major product failure in our private health insurance market," stated Carol Pryor , Senior Policy Analyst at The Access Project and co-author of the report.
Senior Center helps with Medicare
DUARTE - Free Medicare help is offered to seniors the second and fourth Friday of every month from 9 a.m. to noon at the Duarte Senior Center. A counselor with the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program provides unbiased information, counseling and assistance on Medicare and related health-care coverage. To make an appointment call (626) 357-3513. Intersection to be modernized ARCADIA - The intersection of California Boulevard and Michillinda Avenue will be updated with new left-turn signal on both the north and south approaches. The intersection will receive modifications that include replacement or installation of traffic signal poles, lights, structure and pedestrian pushbuttons. Los Angeles County will engineer and build the project, with the city and county sharing the $107,500 cost, which will be subject to federal reimbursements.
Self-employed losing health care options
A major source of health insurance for people who work for themselves has all but disappeared, casting thousands of contractors, freelancers and solo practitioners into the ranks of the uninsured with little hope of obtaining new coverage. Health plans offered by professional associations were once safe havens for millions of people who couldn't obtain coverage anywhere else. But, as medical costs have soared, groups representing professions as varied as law and golf have been forced to stop offering the benefit or been dropped by insurers. More than 8,000 California Realtors and their families could be next if Blue Shield of California succeeds with its plan to cancel their association health coverage. "It's a real stab in the heart," said Marcy Garber, 62, a Los Angeles real estate agent whose history of breast cancer makes her an almost-certain reject if she seeks similar coverage on her own.
Read policy fine print for long-term care
Long-term-care insurance can help ensure future nursing-home expenses don't burden children or grandchildren or force seniors to turn to government health-care programs such as Medicaid. The insurance is designed to protect assets and give people peace of mind.
But that's assuming the insurer actually pays the bills when a policyholder enters a long-term-care facility.
According to an investigation by the New York Times, some long-term-care insurers are denying a substantial number of claims. Some insurers have "developed procedures that make it difficult - if not impossible - for policyholders to get paid," the Times reported, citing findings that in California, one in every four long-term-care claims was denied in 2005.
The Times tells the story of Mary Rose Derks, who bought a long-term-care insurance policy from a door-to-door salesman in 1990.
State Senate Bill Provides Health Care for All
Fifty percent of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are caused by a medical situation; either a person's insurance has limits and he or she surpasses them, or the person cannot be insured at all due to a preexisting condition. Last April, California State Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles) introduced Senate Bill (SB) 840, the California Universal Health Care Act, to solve grievances with California health care. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill in September of 2006, but its supporters continue to campaign for its passage. In order to promote SB 840, the Santa Cruz Health Care for All Chapter is putting its One Care Now Campaign in the spotlight on March 30 at the Veteran's Memorial Hall. According to Carol Robertson, co-chair of Health Care for All Santa Cruz, the primary goal of the event is to educate the public about the bill.
Blue Cross of California Improperly Canceled Health Insurance ...
Blue Cross of California improperly canceled individual health insurance policies after some members became pregnant or sought medical treatment for chronic conditions, an investigation by the California Department of Managed Health Care has concluded, the Los Angeles Times reports. DMHC officials on Thursday informed Blue Cross of their intent to file an accusation against the company and issue a $1 million fine in the case. Under California law, health insurers must prove that members intentionally misrepresented their medical histories on policy applications to cancel policies. State investigators reviewed 90 cases from 2004 to 2006 in which Blue Cross canceled individual health insurance policies and found the company had violated the law in each case. According to state investigators, Blue Cross used computer programs and maintained a department to review the policies of members with chronic illnesses and women who became pregnant to consider cancellation.
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