If you’re a California health insurance shopper presently out on the marketplace looking for a California health insurance plan that is uniquely right for you, your family – even your California small business – you’re likely focused primarily on plan premiums.
We understand. But while the projected premium you’ll see when securing free quotes for California health insurance plans here at Vitality online will be uppermost in your thoughts when you go shopping for the California health insurance strategy that is uniquely right for you, we’d also like to remind our readers that your mission in this process is not just about securing affordability in a health plan but also securing something else you deserve: An affordable health plan with a leading California health insurance company here in the state who offers its members important member benefits that add value to your health coverage.
As an independent authorized agency, the Vitality California health insurance team of professionals works with an array of leading California health insurance companies. Among those are California Blue Cross company Anthem; Aetna; and Blue Shield of California to name just a few. Each of these companies brings value added features to the member experience by providing important benefits that can be key to helping you become a savvy health services consumer; maintain healthy lifestyles and even manage chronic health conditions such as asthma and diabetes.
If you’ve reviewed our website here at Vitality online we hope you’ve noted our dedication to the online venue in communicating with our clients: For ease and convenience, we believe the Web can be an incredibly important educational and buying tool for the California health insurance consumer. We’re dedicated to making your experience with Vitality online a Total Quality experience delivering complete consumer satisfaction. We’re confident that the health insurance companies whose plans we represent to California residents share our commitment to using the Web to enhance the member experience with their health insurance plan.
An example is Blue Shield of California which is providing a wide array of wellness resources to its members online in the form of:
- Locator tools that can help the member identify network providers like doctors, hospitals, and other health care services. As we have often noted: Staying in-network for your health care services saves the member money!
- Check an online drug formulary that helps you understand what your plan covers and if a less expensive generic option is available!
- Participate in a proactive healthy lifestyle program like Healthy Lifestyle Rewards that’s focused on helping you get or stay in shape, follow good nutritional strategies and even reduce stress or quit smoking!
- Programs with member resources that help manage chronic health conditions or compare hospitals and help find treatment options, are all examples of how Blue Shield is using the power of the Web to enhance the member experience!
In addition to both Vitality and Blue Shield’s focus on delivering a great user experience online, both companies are focused on delivering a great personalized one-on-one client experience offline as well: Blue Shield provides Health Coaching; a referral program giving you access to trained support personnel for personal, family and work issues along with a valuable ask-a-nurse program. As for Vitality? All Vitality client services are completely free and devoted to your complete satisfaction. Our personalized one-on-one careful, considerate client consultations can be easily arranged at a time and place that is convenient to your hectic California lifestyle. In addition to helping you find the best and most affordable California health insurance plan strategies and providing experience and expertise in a range of other insurance strategies including California life insurance and California long term care insurance, disability – even California travel insurance! – the Vitality client can also expect us to be ready, willing , and able to be your go-to resource should billing or claims issues arise.
Finding and securing the most affordable health plan is important but we know you’ll also want to secure your health coverage from a company that is dedicated to providing important value added member benefits that enhance the member experience with their California health insurance plan. We’re here to help you get that! Contact us via our Vitality website or call us toll-free at 800-607-1950 for more information and assistance!
California health insurance consumers should have a healthy lifestyle game plan and make use of preventive care services. Are you shopping for California medical insurance and an affordable California health insurance plan in particular? Pursuing a healthy lifestyle path can be a real difference-maker physically, mentally, and financially.
If you’re a regular reader of the Vitality Blog you know we’re huge proponents of encouraging clients to have a healthy living lifestyle game plan. What’s that? Well it’s a lifestyle that includes good nutrition, regular exercise and no smoking. Maintaining a lifestyle like that can also make you quite popular with the insurance company’s underwriter! If you apply for a health plan and have a medical history that includes an incident of illness or injury and/or currently take a prescription drug; the insurance company underwriter is going to make assessments about the risk you represent to that underwriter’s company. One way to impress the underwriter is to fall within the height/weight guidelines each insurance company has for applicants. Making a good impression on an underwriter can ultimately be the difference-maker in saving you money in the form of a lower premium rate or avoiding being declined coverage by an insurance company.
One component of 2010 Health Reform legislation was the mandate calling for the inclusion of recommended preventive services without charging you a copay, coinsurance or deductible – provided that these services are delivered by a network provider – in all new California health insurance plans purchased on or after September 23, 2010. This effort – contained within the Affordable Care Act – to help make wellness and preventive services a more affordable and accessible part of a healthy lifestyle strategy is an acknowledgment that prevention is a vital tool in helping to maintain health and wellbeing for the long run and that preventive services today can help prevent more expensive health care expenditures down the line for the California health insurance consumer!
Living and working here in Ventura, the team at Vitality has year round access to great exercise pursuits at local beaches, foothills, and an array of other recreational pursuits! One of our favorites – if we can get past the occasional chilly morning (Ouch!) – is the opportunity to swim year round at the Ventura Aquatic Center! We see for ourselves the benefits of regular exercise enjoyed by so many of our friends and neighbors in terms of better health and reduced stress. These very same pursuits can be important tools in both your fitness and your financial planning arsenal: Everyone wants the most affordable California health insurance strategy for themselves and their family. You can help make that happen with the healthy lifestyle strategies you and your family implement as part of your daily routine. And please: Once you’ve secured that affordable California health insurance? Be diligent about using the preventive services included in your plan. Preventive health care is an integral part of your healthy lifestyle strategy moving forward!
For California health insurance consumers, going uninsured is not a viable option. A just published UCLA Center for Health Policy Research states the number of uninsured residents continues to climb and that the severity of the loss is spread out amongst the entirety of the state. Ventura County – home to Vitality’s main office – was one of many California counties where the number of uninsured was on the rise as a result of the state’s economic downturn.
If you have lost your health insurance and find yourself searching for an affordable California health insurance plan for yourself and/or family, we can help. We do understand: This is an emotional time for many Californians: Jobs have been lost and along with those jobs, the health coverage you and your family were dependent on.
The first, most important step you can take is to be proactive in seeking out affordable individual California health insurance plans. While you may have COBRA coverage at present, you probably already know that is an expensive option. While you still have that COBRA coverage, take the time to reach out to a California health insurance professional here at Vitality and let’s discuss what your unique needs are as they relate to health coverage for you and your family. Our client services are always free as are the fast, easy, and convenient California health insurance quotes you can access via our website’s easy-to-use quote engine or via a personalized one-on-one client consultation with a member of our team.
Some thoughts before delving into the individual health insurance marketplace:
- First, it is important to put aside your emotional attachment to what you might have been used to as employee covered by group health insurance California businesses purchase on behalf of their employees.
- Next, it is important to look past any initial negativity you may have when you hear or see the words ‘high deductible health plan’. In the pursuit of affordability, you’ll want to look at these plans and especially the HSA-compatible high deductible health plans. These health plans are capable of being matched with a Health Savings Account and have been shown to provide important tax savings, typically lower monthly premiums, and – perhaps for the first time in your dealings with health insurance – have the very real ability to empower you and your choices in how your health care dollars are spent!
- High deductible health plans are exactly that: Health plans with high annual deductibles and higher annual maximum out-of-pocket expenses. These are perhaps quite unlike what you were used to as part of a group health coverage scenario but they still provide absolutely vital benefits to their owners:
- First and foremost: Owning this health plan is about protecting your long term financial wellbeing. You know that health care costs in this country are high. Encountering a serious illness or injury without access to health insurance can be financially devastating. Medical bankruptcies do occur. While a high deductible plan may not be your first choice for a health plan, they should still have an important place in your overall financial planning strategy.
- These plans typically provide varying degrees of preventive services. Plus – thanks to Health Reform – certain new preventive services will be added to all new plans sold on or after September 23rd, 2010 and these will be covered by your plan without charging you a copay, co-insurance or deductible – provided that these services are delivered by a network provider – as mandated by the Affordable Care Act. If using your preventive health care services wasn’t something you typically did before….? Please make sure it is something you do now. Being proactive with your preventive health services, practicing a healthy living lifestyle with regular exercise and good nutrition (And please quite smoking or don’t start!) are all part of successfully using the cost saving advantages offered by high deductible health plans.
- Owning a health plan makes you a member of that insurance company’s health plan: That means that when using network providers you’ll likely pay less for the services of the providers in that insurance company’s network! That’s budget friendly to your household budget. So here again, owning a health plan provides yet another important advantage.
We mentioned above that we understand California health insurance consumers. We also understand that the shopping process for the right California health insurance strategy can be frustrating. Some consumers have used group health coverage benefits their entire lives dating back to their parents’ plan(s). This may be the first time you have ever shopped for health insurance in California. This is where reaching out to the Vitality Health Insurance Services team can alleviate stress and helps you create a new California health insurance strategy for you and your family that removes worry and helps to ensure peace of mind moving forward.
We’ll help you understand the affordable options available to you; walk you through the health insurance underwriting process, and then – once your plan is in place – we’ll be your easy-to-reach point of contact for any future service related issues or questions you may have. Here again, our client services are always free and always dedicated to providing the client with a Total Quality experience.
