More on Healthcare Ministries
Back in the bad old days where we had medical underwriting for health plan thins were...well not that bad. In NC where we have a lot of business the individual product of choice was Blue Cross of North Carolina. The advantages of the NC Market were that BCBSNC had a policy that basically didn't impose pre exisiting conditions...I know that was the impetus for the Affordable Care Act but BCBSNC's proprietary underwriting process allowed them to look at the risk as a whole and decide yay or nay. For the most part if you had something pretty common like Blood Pressure or high cholesterol they would look at the sum of the parts and decide that they could support it.
Blue Cross also had the lowest individual rates as well. So...pretty much a win win situation. You could also choose any plan they wanted to offer and buy it at any time you chose to do so. Many a times we would get a call from some twenty something that never had insurance who decided to purchase insurance to avoid large unforseen medical bills. Healthcare Ministries are underwritng now as insurers did 20 years ago with a blanket pre existing condition exclusion. Take a $3 generic prescription...not covered. The condition it treats...not covered. After two years (generally) Home Free!! But that seems to be changing too!
The Healthcare ministries are finding what the insurance companies learned about 15 years ago. Just because someone has an existing medical condition does not mean that it will result in a catastrophic event on their watch. Also the cost for detective work to find out every aspect of someone's overall health costs more than (sometimes) just paying the bill. Some of the healthcare ministries are offering a de minimus benefit even for pre existing conditions. One in particular offers $20,000 for hospitalization due to existing medical conditions. As time goes on I suspect that they will continue to expand coverage for smaller pre existing condition situations. They should because they are the only game in town at this time that can.
More to follow I'm sure!