SELF-INSURED TO RECEIVE LARGEST PREMIUM JUMPS.Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer Employers and their employees shocked by the sudden increase in group health insurance programs can be thankful thank·ful adj. 1. Aware and appreciative of a benefit; grateful. 2. Expressive of gratitude: a thankful smile. for one thing: They're not self-insured self-insured Self fund Health insurance adjective Referring to the practice of carrying an individual health insurance policy for oneself; self insurance is usually more expensive than group insurance . Inflation, increased pharmaceutical costs and demands by physicians for more stable pay are pushing group coverage prices up from 5 percent to 20 percent at most local health plans. But at two of the San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. Valley's largest insurers, those gains pale next to new higher costs for individual coverage. Premiums for Blue Cross of California's four most popular individual coverage health plans rose 8 percent to 58 percent Sept. 1, with an average increase of about 25 percent, said Peter O'Neill Peter O'Neill was an Irish soccer player who played in the League of Ireland during the 1940s. O'Neill played for the Bohemian Minors (i.e. schoolboys/youth team) of the early 1940s. , a spokesman for the plan. Down the street at Health Net, individual plan prices have gone up 6 percent to 60 percent since the spring, said Bob Hurley Hurley has become the English version of at least three distinct original Irish names: the Ó hUirthile, part of the Dál gCais tribal group, based in Clare and North Tipperary; the Ó Muirthile, based around Kilbritain in west Cork; and the OhIarlatha, from the district of , who oversees individual plans for parent company Foundation Health Systems Inc. In both cases, the companies said, unexpectedly high utilization of the plans' benefits have pushed the increases. ``The rationale rationale (rash´  nal´),n the fundamental reasons used as the basis for a decision or action. for this is that when the company developed these products (a year and a half ago), it thought members would probably use them . . . not that often,'' O'Neill said. ``But . . . people have been using them quite a bit. Actually, use has been very high. Exceptionally very high.'' In addition, both companies said that competition in years past forced them to price their plans unrealistically low for the benefits they provided. ``There was a marketplace being driven by creating richer and richer plans, and the utilization of those plans caught up with us,'' said Hurley. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion