Health Insurance | Lee Health Insurance Services

Applying to the right California Health Insurance Plan

June 11, 2009 By Phil Lee

Depending on your health condition, you may not be accepted into some plans like individual and family health plans.
Since health plans and rates are vastly different between the individual/family health insurance market, the Small Group market, the Cobra and HIPAA markets. You need to determine which is the most advantageous plans to apply to first. Usually this would depend on which plans have the lowest rates. If in the event you do not qualify for your top plan choice, you need to determine which alternatives to explore and in what order.
Frequently this is dependent on certain deadlines. For example you may be given 45 days after your termination from an employer to decide if you want to accept the Cobra that you are offered. Or you may have a 63 day window to decide if you want to apply for a guarantee-issue HIPAA plan after your Cobra expires.
In addition, the cost of each of these alternatives will have to figure into your decision. If you are unable to figure out the best course of action on your own, you may need the assistance of an experienced health insurance agent to help you select the most appropriate plans to apply to in different markets and in different orders or priority, based on your personal health and medical care needs, your pre-existing conditions, your guarantee-issue options, your risk tolerance and your budget.

Learn about California’s Efficient Health Insurance Market

January 1, 2009 By Phil Lee

California regulates health insurance to protect consumers, but does not overly restrict competition and free market forces.

California has a good number of insurance carriers each offering a wide selection of PPO and HMO type plans to consumers, small business and large corporations, in a free market environment.

All the rates, the plans and the benefits offered by all the health insurance carriers in California are pre-approved by the state’s regulatory agencies: the Department of Managed Care and the Department of Insurance. All rate increases are also pre-approved by these state agencies.

Consumers in California can find affordable individual and family health insurance plans that are often one half, one third or less than those offered in states like New York and Massachusetts where well-meaning but misguided state regulations have driven out affordable health insurance plans.

California has a much larger network of physicians and hospitals than most other states. Also, a very high percentage of doctors and hospitals participate in PPO and HMO Networks.

Applying to the right California Health Insurance Plan

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