Personal professional enrollment support is available for all of the benefit plans listed on this page.
Send your question by e-mail for fast OnlineAdviser response.
Limited telephone support (800) 609-0683.
Office hours posted daily on Twitter
@FreedomBenefits
Most Liberal Eligibility
Core Health Insurance
- the nation's most popular defined benefit health plans with guaranteed acceptance
from US Fire Insurance Company
Value 24 Hour Accident
- up to $10,000 of supplemental health insurance coverage for emergency treatment of injuries at a cost of about $2 per day. Can be used as a stand-alone coverage or added to other insurance.
Value Emergency Room
- add $1,000 additional emergency room coverage for $1 per day for the whole family
Most Affordable
Secure Lite STM
- the lowest priced major medical insurance for 1 to 12 months
Secure Saver STM
- $2 million maximum coverage for 1-12 months at an ultra-low rate
Value Med Insurance
- 3 question simple medical eligibility and immediate approval for supplemental doctor and hospital benefits
Long Term Major Medical
CeltiCare
- well-known renewable individual major medical insurance for
discriminating healthy applicants
UnitedHealthcare
- Golden Rule Insurance, a member of America's largest health plan
Dental Insurance
Secure DentalOne
- one lifetime deductible of $100 and then up to $1,250 per year coverage
Online Life Insurance
International Term Life
- up to $2 million coverage issued by Lloyds online specifically for those who spend time outside of the US
QuoteIntelligence Term life insurance
- find the lowest rates, compare features &
eligibility requirements and then apply online with the
best insurance companies in less than 30 seconds.
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California health insurance exchange
More than 50
commercial health
insurance companies
offer individual
health insurance in
California and 32
companies that issue
small group
insurance in
addition to the
state-sponsored
health plans for low
income or disabled
residents. These
standard policies
may be more
expensive than some
residents can
afford. This Web
page lists the most
popular low cost
commercial health
insurance plans and
related benefits. All of these
policies offer
secure online
enrollment and professional OnlineAdviser
personal enrollment
support. Please note
that while many of
these choices could
be included in more
than one of the
suggested usage
categories, each
plan is listed only
once for the sake of
brevity. Your
enrollment adviser
is available to
discuss suitability
of any plan for your
specific situation
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California insurance & benefit news
California ranks 26th in health
insurance costs
compared to
all other states,
with average premium
costs slightly lower
than the national
average. (The
average annual
premium for a U.S.
family covered under
an
employer-sponsored
health plan in 2008
was $12,298
according to
The
Commonwealth Fund
report. The
overall quality of
health care
ranked 31st out of
the 51 states
(including DC).
California regulates the benefits required for both
individual major
medical and group
health insurance
plans, known as
"mandated benefits".
Short Term Insurance
Markel Smart STM
- popular and affordable short term major medical insurance with fast online approval
Secure STM
- along with its 12 month and 36 month options, this may be the highest quality short term
coverage
Intermediate Term
Inbound Immigrant
- up to five years of liberal health insurance coverage after immigration including maternity coverage,
emergency and other essential benefits
Supplemental Insurance
Smart Accident Insurance
- supplemental coverage for emergency treatment of accidents and injuries for as little as $20 per month. Can be used as a stand-alone accident plan or to increase other insurance benefits.
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California Insurance Law
The state insurance department can be reached by telephone at
800-927-HELP or by mail at P.O. Box 311, Sacramento CA 95812.
The state children's
health insurance
plan (CHIP) Web site
is
California Healthy Families.
Non-insurance Discount Plans
Careington PPO Discount Plans
- the nation's leading network PPO discount provider allows a no-risk trial
of any discount plan for only a $20 processing fee
Rx Pay Card
- $10, $20, or $30 payments for hundreds of popular prescriptions.
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California Insurance News
2/12/2011 With dozens of health plans
choices available online offering a wide range of pricing and benefits, how do
you find the best combination of price and benefits? Celtic Insurance realizes
that the choices can be overwhelming; the company offers more than 40 possible
health plan designs in many parts of the United States. A new feature called "Help
Me Choose" lets users easily and quickly select the benefits they value most
and narrows the list down to a few of the best choices. No personal information
is required other than zip code and date of birth.
2/3/2011 California is named as one of the
states most likely to cut back on Medicaid spending and coverage. The
Universal
Health Insurance blog discusses the impact on the state's commercial
insurance consumers.
1/30/2011 Patients with health
insurance and a credit card now have
access to VIP treatment when care is needed at a hospital emergency room. Tenet
Healthcare hospitals joined the growing list of hospitals in southern California
that allows patients to use
InQuickER, a
reservation system that books appointments and reduces waiting time in the
emergency room. The reservation system makes check-in easier by recording your
insurance and payment information in advance. The service costs $15 to $25. Of
course the nature unpredictable medical emergencies mean that the service cannot
absolutely guarantee that you'll be seen immediately at your appointment time,
but you get a full refund if not treated within 15 minutes after arrival. The
InQuickER service works in conjunction with any of the private health insurance
plans listed here at FreedomBenefits.net but is not available to uninsured
patients.
Partiicipating hospitals include
Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda,
Loma Linda University Medical Center (Children) in Loma Linda,
San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland,
John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio,
Fountain Valley Regional Hospital in Fountain Valley,
Placentia-Linda Hospital in Placentia,
Los Alamitos Medical Center in Los Alamitos,
and Lakewood Regional Medical Center in Lakewood.
1/19/2011 Child-only health insurance for children with
significant medical problems will be available through an open enrollment period
mandated by federal state law during the months of January and February
and during the child’s birth month. All children, regardless of medical condition, continue to be eligible for insurance when applying as a dependent on a parent’s policy and healthy children are eligible for child-only insurance at any time.
When applying for child-only insurance for more than one child, make a separate application for each child.
1/11/2011 Consumers will apparently not be
immediately affected by new emergency orders by Insurance Commissioner David
Jones that threatened to disrupt the availability of insurance. We had feared
that companies would stop offering coverage in the wake of the unprecedented
regulations by the new regulator but that withdrawal did not happen. Aetna
expressed an opinion that the state may not have the authority to override
federal health reform rules on minimum loss ratio but the company will not stop
offering new insurance policies. A new article "Effect
of Minimum Loss Ratio Regulation" provides more information on this topic.
1/7/2011 California Blue Shield announced
rate increases averaging 30%, with some as high as 59%. Our blog "A Closer look
at California Blue Shield rate increases" breaks down the issue and offers
suggestions on what policyholders can do about it.
12/16/2010 California Health and Human Services Agency
officials met representatives of 44 other states and numerous employees of the federal Health and Human Services Department in Washington DC this week for a two-day working meeting to discuss the next steps in establish a government-run health insurance exchange under the American Health Benefit Exchange Model Act. Their
attendance at this meeting was paid for by a $1 million federal grant awarded by HHS in September to the state for research how to set up an insurance exchange. Two states (Alaska and Minnesota) declined to participate, saying that it was a waste of taxpayer money. Four other states (not identified in press reports) that received federal grants did not send representatives to the meeting. Attendees included representatives of 16 states that are suing the federal government in an attempt to overturn the federal health reform law; specifically the requirement that forces individuals to buy health insurance on the insurance exchange or pay a hefty tax fine.
In its initial federal grant request for the insurance exchange project,
California said that it would:
1) Establish an Exchange Board and recruit key staff,
2) Analyze the current public and private insurance markets,
3) Convene stakeholders and the general public to gather input,
4) Develop a multi-year plan for Exchange planning tasks, and
5) Collect data on the demographics of the current and projected population, profiles of insurance markets offering coverage in California and estimates of how the Affordable Care Act will change the number of uninsured Californians.
The meeting reportedly did not address the role of the commercial health insurance exchanges on the implementation of new competing government systems. The model act does not address inter-state insurance exchange proposals nor insurance sales across state lines. Federal officials admitted that they may not be able to provide further guidance until 2012. Meanwhile, most states are motivated to continue to meet requirements to obtain additional funding promised by the federal government for the establishment of insurance exchange by 2014. Freedom Benefits has previously voiced the opinion that the huge amount of money being spent to set up alternate insurance sales system technologies could be better used
providing health benefits to the public. We proposed on the
Universal
Health Insurance blog that adequate commercial insurance sales systems are
already in place that could be modified in a public/private partnership to make
health insurance more affordable.
11/12/2010 One in ten Californians is now
covered by a consumer-directed health plan with high deductible insurance,
according to a new report issued by UCLA Health Policy Research. These plans
keep health care dollars in the hands of consumers rather than in health
insurance premiums and tend to appeal to healthy affluent individuals. Health
reform laws could increase the mandated coverage and premium costs but
legislative modifications are likely to eventually make high deductible policies
the dominant preferred type of insurance coverage in the United States.
California currently leads the nation with health plans at the opposite end of
the coverage spectrum with almost half of Californians now enrolled in HMOs that
the major health care decisions on their behalf. Nationwide, HMOs are far less
popular, attracting only about 21% of Americans nationwide. Freedom Benefits
Insurance Exchange is committed to offering a full range of high deductible
consumer-driven health plans to replace HMOs.
11/9/2010 Medi-Cal Expansion - California's Medicaid plan
now covers about 7.5 million mostly non-working state residents and will add an additional 500,000 residents by expanding program eligibility to residents with annual incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level.
In some counties the income levels are 200% of the federal poverty level. The
program expansion is likely to increase complaints that the state's lower
economic class receives better access to health care than the working class
especially if federal funding for premium subsidies is withdrawn as expected.
9/21/2010 Rate increases for October 2010 - The California Department of Insurance
approved
rate increases ranging from 14% to 29% for policies from the state's four
largest insurance companies that cover a large majority of those who but their
own health insurance in the state. The rate increases become effective October
1, 2010 so we anticipate a larger than usual number of healthy members will
attempt to move to one of the state's smaller health insurance plans.
8/24/2010 New restrictions for CA insurance shoppers:
The California Department of Insurance issued regulations
effective August 23, 2010 requiring health insurance companies to thoroughly investigate the histories of those seeking
insurance coverage before accepting any premiums. About 1.1 million Californians
covered by individual health policies are immediately affected by the department.
The rules affect those applying for coverage through the state health
insurance exchange as well as those applying though traditional channels.
Changing insurance plans could change from a one day process to a 90 day
process. Previously insurance companies were allowed to rely on the written
statements made by an applicant to determine whether the applicant was eligible
for coverage. The new law requires
companies to independently verify the eligibility criteria including health
history, age, citizenship, residency, eligibility for an employer-sponsored
health plan, and sometimes other factors.
The most difficult verification is an
applicant's medical history. Federal law known as HIPAA makes
it difficult, tedious and sometimes expensive to obtain
medical records. Doctors and hospitals typically
require pre-payment of a medical records fee ranging from
$35 to $75. An applicant with multiple medical service
providers could incur significant fees and delays in the
record transmittal. Insurance companies are allowed to
charge the insurance applicant for the cost of obtaining medical
records but none of the CA insurance companies we spoke with had
announced plans to raise application fees as of this date.
Insurance companies have
acknowledged that it will take significantly longer to
underwrite a policy in California under the new rules.
Freedom Benefits is working with the Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies to stop the
new rules and bring the health insurance application process
into line with that in all other states. We see no reason
that California should adapt a consumer protection policy
that is so different from the industry practices followed in
every other state in the nation.
Meanwhile, OnlineAdviser offers these
five suggestions to Californians who are shopping for health insurance:
- Do not cancel previous coverage or allow the previous coverage
to expire until after the new policy has been approved,
received and reviewed by you or your insurance adviser.
While we understand that many consumers cannot afford to
make an additional payment on their former insurance plan -
especially when premiums jump sharply - it is important to
be aware of the expiration date and the reinstatement
deadline (usually 30 days after the expiration date) in
order to ensure that the prior coverage is available as a
fall-back strategy.
- Use short term medical insurance for immediate issue
coverage while waiting for a new policy to be approved.
Short term major medical policies are issued immediately
online without the need to check medical history because
these polices are exempt from the coverage provisions of
pre-existing medical policies. As a result, buyers
understand the limitations of this simple form of coverage
and fewer disputes over claims. See
the listing of short term medical insurance plans available
in California on the
FB exchange home page.
- Collect all of your important documents and copies of all of your
personal medical records and keep a digital copy available
on your home computer.
While the insurer will collect its own information,
- Use limited benefit insurance like
Core Health Insurance and supplemental insurance like
Value Emergency Room and
Value 24 Hour Accident Insurance that
is exempt from the new regulations. This insurance is meant
to provide benefits in addition to coverage provided by
major medical plans but are sometimes used by Californians
in a pinch to provide some limited coverage when other
insurance is not available.
- Plan ahead for health insurance as if it is the most
important part of your personal financial planning. Too
many Californians have learned the hard way that lack of
adequate health insurance planning can be ruinous. The
new health insurance reform laws will amplify that
message.
The new law was designed to prevent insurance companies from
making illegal rescissions, but . Insurance companies are
still allowed to cancel policies if an applicant makes an
intentionally false statement on an application but also
places a new burden of checking the facts in advance. So
little is gained in terms of consumer protection and
industry officials estimate that the new law could add up to
$200 in costs to the price of an insurance policy.
California insurance buyers typically change insurance
companies every 2nd or 3rd year, according to Freedom
Benefits data collected since 1986. A typical health
insurance policy, including short term and limited benefit
policies, is in force for about 13 months.
8/23/2010 State funding planned for
insurance exchange: The California state legislator is considering
legislation to set up a state-sponsored health insurance exchange that would
provide $1 to $2 million per year to help consumers find health insurance
online. Presumably a state-sponsored exchange would be able to support a wider
range of health plans than the current private insurance exchanges. If approved
by the state legislature, part of the cost will be subsidized by the federal
government until 2014. Some consumer advocates express concerning
taxpayer funds to promote the sale of health insurance yet it is possible that a
state-sponsored exchange combined marketing program. The price and terms of
insurance is not affected by an exchange and insurance purchased on a state
exchange. Federal law allows a state to charge insurance companies for
participation in an exchange while there are generally no fees to participate in
the current insurance exchange system. OnlineAdviser will continue to
provide support for all health insurance listed on any exchange.
5/12/2010 Diabetes Coverage: A new resource to help with
health
insurance for diabetics in California is available
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