There are a lot of families who save money by making bulk purchases of groceries at places like Costco. People go to Costco to stock up on paper towels, cereal, and frozen foods. Now, you can pick up an individual health insurance plan from Costco, through a website that is partnered with Aetna.
Costco has officially stated that the Costco Personal Health Insurance program is going to offer five health plans that are being offered through Aetna. That may sound a bit strange, at first.
However, when you think about it, Costco has already been offering some types of health care to their members. Some stores have Costco Optical, which provides eye exams, glasses, and contact lenses. Some of them have offered dental coverage. Perhaps the full health insurance plan was the logical next step.
Aetna is a health insurance company. They are the third-largest private health insurer in the United States, and they had around 18.5 million people enrolled in their health insurance plans at the end of 2011. The majority of those people are covered through an employer-sponsored health plan.
So, why would Aetna want to partner with Costco? It has something to do with the Affordable Care Act. There are many states that have been working on setting up health insurance exchanges where consumers can go find individual health insurance plans.
The Supreme Court has not yet made any decisions regarding the parts of the Affordable Care Act that they heard arguments about in March of 2012. No matter what they decide, there is a good chance that they will be health insurance exchanges anyway. Insurance companies want to get into that market.
There is a website that Costco members can go to if they want to buy health insurance. You have to be a Costco member, or the spouse or domestic partner or dependent of a Costco member in order to qualify for the health insurance. Aetna will charge less for the health insurance plans that they sell through Costco than they charge for the individual plans that people purchase directly through Aetna.
There will be five health plans that Costco members can buy. Each provides major medical benefits, dental coverage, and lower copays on prescriptions filled at Costco pharmacies.
At this time, the Aetna health insurance that is offered through Costco is only available in Connecticut, Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Virginia, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. There are plans to expand the plan to more states in 2012.
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