For California health insurance consumers there’s no better convenience than using Vitality Health Insurance Services for that next California health insurance plan you’re shopping for! Vitality is an independent authorized agency representing an array of leading insurance companies serving the California health insurance marketplace.
Why is that significant to the California health insurance consumer and what are the advantages of our relationship with these companies?
- Vitality’s representation of these companies’ health plans is focused on consumer convenience and savings: The client can simply visit one resource and review the plan offerings of an array of different insurance companies in one convenient location – either online or via our personalized one-on-one client consultations. By law, if you find a health plan you like, you cannot find that same plan cheaper elsewhere. So – if you’re shopping for health plans and find the one you like here at Vitality, there’s no need to take that same plan and comparison shop it elsewhere. Our variety also means you have more options as a consumer: More options means increased consumer buying power and that means savings!
- Why do we like working with leaders like Anthem Blue Cross of California, Aetna, and Blue Shield of California? We like that these companies are proactive in their offerings to consumers in the form of preventive services and ‘wellness tools’ members can use to lead healthy living lifestyles and/or deal effectively with chronic health conditions. As Health Reform and its new rules about preventive services has made clear, a proactive approach to healthy living lifestyles is key to long term health and wellbeing and the avoidance of higher health care costs down the road. The health insurance companies we represent have the resources and the dedication to make important inroads in this area and help members lead healthier, more active lifestyles. That’s a long term winner for the consumer!
- You’ll note that another key advantage of working with Vitality on your insurance strategies is the versatility and convenience we offer the consumer in that you can rely on us for your California health insurance strategy as well as a host of other insurance strategies such as a California life insurance policy, California long term care insurance – even a California travel insurance plan if you’re traveling abroad! That’s another reason to like the leading health insurance companies we represent: If you’re applying for a California health insurance plan with California Blue Cross company Anthem or Blue Shield of California, you’ll also have the easy convenience of securing an affordable California dental insurance plan and even a term life insurance plan to protect your family’s tomorrows in your absence. What could be more convenient to a client with a busy work and family life than to have the easy, one bill convenience that comes with one company for multiple insurance needs!
- Grow with Vitality; grow with your insurance company: As your insurance needs grow and change over the course of time, you’ll have the peace of mind that comes with knowing your insurance resource has an understanding of your needs and your preferences in insurance strategies developed over the course of a lifetime. We’ll be there to help should you decide that the purchase of an affordable California long term care insurance plan is the right thing for you and your spouse to help ensure personal and financial independence should the need for long term care become a necessity. Do you like and trust the individual California health plan you’ve had to date with a company like Anthem? We can help you move easily and seamlessly into an Anthem Blue Cross Medigap plan when the time comes for new health coverage strategies to serve the changing health coverage needs of you and your spouse.
- Your access to the best health plans offered by the leaders in California health insurance via Vitality is always 100% free: Our client services are always 100% free – you never pay a commission for the health plan you select nor do you ever pay Vitality for the Total Quality client service we’re here to provide you and your family after the plan has been purchased and is being used. Have a billing or claims issue? We’re here to serve you and deliver a Total Quality client experience each and every time you reach out to us!
So much of what we’ve talked about here today is about convenience: Your convenience in finding the right insurance strategies quickly and easily. But it’s also about peace of mind: The peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re working with insurance professionals who represent reliable insurance resources who can serve the variety of your insurance needs throughout the different stages of a life lived well here in California.
For California health insurance shoppers the first part of a scenario that has been playing out around the state during this economic downturn is job loss. The second part of the equation has been many California residents saddled with the cost of paying for COBRA continuation coverage. At present, there are two possible scenarios we’d like to deal with in this article:
- Individuals who were eligible for COBRA coverage because of their own or a family member’s involuntary termination from employment that occurred during the period from September 1, 2008 through May 31, 2010 and who elected COBRA may have been eligible to pay a reduced premium. Eligible individuals pay only 35% of the premium for COBRA coverage under their plans for up to 15 months.
- It is an unfortunate reality that the economy is still struggling. Companies are still shedding jobs and if the summer of 2010 saw your job eliminated or a reduction in hours occurred after June 1st, resulting in your eligibility for COBRA continuation coverage, the 15 month COBRA subsidy is no longer.
If you are presently eligible for and receiving the 65% COBRA subsidy, you’re well aware how vital this subsidy is to a household budget impacted by the specter of unemployment. Understanding the limitations placed on your finances and discretionary spending, you have probably already completed a thorough review of your personal finances in the wake of separation from your employment. It’s possible, however, that review didn’t include an analysis of your California health insurance strategy, but maybe it should have? There’s one great reason to review the COBRA coverage you have now – even if you have the 65% subsidy to go along with it: It’s just possible that you’re still overpaying for the health coverage that is uniquely right for you. Your employee health plan may be more benefit ‘rich’ than the plans you’ll find on the individual market. More benefits mean higher premiums and even subsidized premiums may still be too rich for a monthly budget impacted by the lack of a regular payroll check.
Let’s say you’re a bachelor, healthy with no pre-existing conditions that could raise your premium above the standard rate and beyond the use of your preventive care services you don’t even know what the inside of a doctor’s office looks like. Your currently subsidized group health plan coverage may have an awesome collection of benefits – like maternity coverage! – but all  these benefits may be costing you money:  You may be paying more for your subsidized COBRA coverage than you actually would if you owned an individual California health insurance plan with benefits that are uniquely right for you!
If this summer included an incident of job loss or a reduction in hours resulting in your eligibility for COBRA continuation coverage you have our condolences and our sincere concern for you and your family’s emotional wellbeing. We understand that job loss and the period that follows can be an emotionally gut wrenching time and also a time where it can be difficult to make sound long term financial decisions in the midst of the fog of emotion. If you chose to continue receiving health coverage via your previous employer’s group plan and COBRA continuation coverage, you have given yourself a justifiably necessary period of adjustment to this new situation, some breathing room that will be necessary to helping you make sound strategic decisions about your health care coverage needs moving forward.
First and foremost – with COBRA – you have health insurance. That is absolutely necessary and vital and helps to ensure that in the midst of everything else, a serious illness or injury will not have a devastating effect on your family’s finances. Secondly: Those without subsidized COBRA – while appreciating the fact that they have health coverage – also are seeing just how expensive their group health plan is when it isn’t being paid for or subsidized in large part by your previous employer. You are now responsible for 100% of a premium that was once the responsibility – in whole or in part – of your employer.
Our best advice: Don’t let a gap in your health coverage occur. Even if you need to pay the higher, unsubsidized, cost of your COBRA coverage as you’re shopping for a privately-owned family health plan, don’t allow a gap in your health coverage to wreck havoc with your financial future. It is always best to make certain you and/or your family has made it through the medical underwriting process and have a new plan in hand before severing your ties with your previous health coverage.
Your attachment to your COBRA coverage may also be related to the presence of a pre-existing condition in your medical history. Here again – keep the coverage you have in place – but also use the experience and expertise of a Vitality California health insurance professional: Our client services are always free and we can provide insight that can help you sort out your options moving forward.
You know, it occurs to us that in reviewing the above, this article is about having options and maintaining hope in a situation you might feel lacks both. Affordable options do, in fact, exist. We understand that this is a tough situation to find yourself in. It seems like there are a lot of things coming at you all at once. Here’s what we can do to help:
- Our California health insurance quotes and all client services are always 100% free.
- We provide our always caring, careful and considerate client consultations at a time and place that is most convenient to your schedule.
- We bring innovation and creativity to the process of finding a health coverage strategy that is uniquely right for you and your family. We are an independent authorized agency representing health plans from an array of leading health insurance companies operating here in the state. Combining innovation and the widest range of health plans to choose from delivers buying power and savings to the California health insurance consumer.
Out of this present situation can also spring the hopes for better tomorrows. We’ve seen many successful small businesses launched in tough economic times and your career path may be headed in the direction of being an independent businessperson and a California small business owner. If that’s the case, then keep us in mind too: We also provide winning strategies for small group health insurance California business owners can depend on and it’s interesting to note that small group health plans offer certain distinct advantages to Californians in search of both a next chapter in their business careers and affordable health coverage! Contact Vitality to learn more!
Important news for California health insurance consumers: If you’re shopping for a California health insurance plan at our website and entered in a coverage start date of October and don’t see the wide selection of plans from the array of different carriers we typically represent, don’t be alarmed or discouraged. Plans from companies such as Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, and others are being updated to include Health Reform-mandated benefits as spelled out in the Affordable Care Act legislation.
Once the California Department of Managed Care and California Department of Insurance have approved these new PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) compliant plans for sale to the public, they’ll be right back up and visible at our always fast, free, easy, and convenient California health insurance plan quote machine here at the Vitality website.
It should be noted that Blue Shield of California and Health Net have both interpreted their obligations regarding this process differently than other insurance companies operating here in the state and will not be submitting their new PPACA-compliant plans until the New Year. So – if you see only these companies’ plans for coverage with a October, 2010 start date…that’s why!
Here’s another example of the many changes to the health insurance landscape here in California due to Health Reform: Your team of California health insurance professionals is keeping current with all the changes and is prepared to help the California health insurance shopper make informed decisions about the California health insurance strategy that is uniquely right for the consumer, their family – and yes even their California small business! – post Reform. Health Care Reform has affected both the individual and group health insurance California marketplace: Our versatile team of California health insurance professionals brings the expertise, experience, and the versatility to help Californians navigate the post Reform health insurance landscape! Our client services are always free and we’ll be happy to schedule a personalized one-on-one client consultation at a time and place that is convenient to your hectic California lifestyle!
