People who purchased certain individual health insurance plans from Anthem are in for an unpleasant surprise. Aetna is about to raise the deductibles on several of their policies. This will happen in May of 2011, and is connected to the insurance policies that one would least expect to see this kind of change happen to.
Anthem has several PPO health insurance policies. These types of health insurance require consumers to pay a copayment when they visit a doctor. There will be a network of providers that the consumer will be expected to seek health care from, if they would like their insurance to cover it. Many of these plans will come with a deductible that must be paid for before the insurance will kick in and cover the medical bills of the consumer who is covered by the plan.
Most people would consider the amount of the deductible to be a very important piece of information. This is one of the many factors that a person checks on when shopping around for health insurance. The higher the deductible, the more that a person must pay out of pocket, in addition to their premiums, before that person can expect to receive any financial help from the insurance company. People who want to buy health insurance are often thwarted by the cost of premiums or deductibles. The amount is frequently higher than what a person can afford.
Enter Anthem’s cleverly named individual health insurance policies. Consumers could select the Anthem Blue Cross Individual PPO 500 Share Plan, and be assured that the deductible would be $500. Those that chose Anthem’s Individual PPO Share 1000 Plan would pay $1,000 for their deductible. People who purchased Anthem’s Individual PPO Share 1500 Plan would be paying, you guessed it, $1,500 on their deductible. It makes a certain amount of sense.
Unfortunately, it’s about to make a lot less sense for consumers, and a lot more dollars for Anthem. As of May 1, 2011, Anthem is going to raise the deductibles on all of these types of individual health insurance plans. Those with the Individual PPO 500 Share Plan will soon be paying $550 on their deductibles, an increase of $50. Those with the Individual PPO 1000 Share Plan will soon be paying $1,150 for their deductibles, or an increase of $150. People who purchased the Individual PPO Share 1500 Plan can expect to soon be paying $1,700 for their deductibles, an increase of $200.
This change will take place in less than a month from today. Overall, it means that a lot of people are going to be paying more money than they originally agreed to for health insurance. They won’t be getting anything more for their money, either.
Image by Steven Depolo on Flickr