Rural America Hurt by Health Insurance Pinch

Even if a farmer or rancher has a thriving business and has health insurance coverage, he or she may have a tough time paying for doctor visits or hospital stays.

This was documented in a report issued by the Access Project, an affiliate of the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at Brandeis University.

The good news from the survey was that the vast majority of the farm and ranch families had health insurance coverage.

Nevertheless, 20% of respondents said they had taken on debt to pay for healthcare expenses.

The reports points a finger at high out-of-pocket health-care expenses, even for those with health insurance. The surveyors noted that about 33% of respondents had purchased individual health insurance, By comparison, only 8 percent of Americans as a whole are covered by individual health insurance policies, which usually offer less comprehensive coverage.

Allstate Raises Auto Insurance Rates in Illinois

While many auto insurance companies have been lowering their insurance rates recently, one major auto insurer just raised its premiums.

If you buy your car insurance through Allstate, you'll see a bigger bill soon.

Allstate raised its Illinois auto insurance rates an average of ~ 10%. Allstate saw collission claims rising and its business deteriorating so it had no choice but to pass along higher costs to its customers in Illinois

Allstate's higher prices comes at the same time that some of its competitors including State Farm, Progressive and GEICO all lowered auto rates in Illinois by ~ 6%.

Medical Bills? Protect Yourself

Health insurance horror stories like those in documentary "Sicko" happen everyday. No one wants to learn that their health insurance company won't pay a major doctor's bill.

Here are 3 tips to help protect against unexpected medical bills and get the most our of your health insurance coverage:

1) Check for benefit limitations. Read through coverage details, especially the "exclusions and limitations."

Some health plans include a "lifetime maximum," which represents the maximum amount of medical expense the health insurance company will pay for all medical claims in a lifetime (typically $2-$5million)

2) Make sure the doctor prescribes only drugs that are covered (if at all possible). Some health insurance companies maintain lists of all the prescription drugs that they are willing to cover (called a formulary). A doctor may or may not be aware of the health insurance company's formulary. Get a copy of the drug formulary from the health insurance company and consult it when your doctor writes a prescription.

3) Preauthorization. Health insurance companies will typically only cover services they consider medically necessary. When considering an expensive procedure , even one ordered by a doctor, make sure to apply for preauthorization.

Federal Rules Impede Health Insurance for Children

Governor Eliot Spitzer has launched an effort to reverse new federal rules that will impede New York’s groundbreaking efforts to insure that every child in NY has health insurance coverage.

Spitzer called on President Bush to approve a plan that will make health insurance available to nearly 400,000 uninsured children.

The new federal rules governing the expansion of state plans under the federal State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) block New York’s legislatively approved expansion of children’s health insurance, as well as roll back expansions or pending plans in 17 other states and the District of Columbia.

Spitzer announced that the state may fight the new federal administrative rules in court on the grounds that they contradict the provisions of the federal SCHIP law and were imposed without notice or the required comment period as required by the federal Administrative Procedures Act.

In April, New York State filed a State Plan Amendment with CMS, seeking federal approval to expand the income eligibility for its Child Health Plus program from the current maximum of 250 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), about $43,000 for a family of three, to 400 percent of the FPL, about $68,000 for the same family.

Universal Health Insurance

Despite the chorus of pleas for redesign of America's medical insurance system as the 2008 presidential race heats up, a makeover seems less likely than a series of small reforms to fill in gaps in health coverage.

The calls for a far-reaching redesign of the health care system are as loud as they were in 1993, when a newly elected Bill Clinton tried to persuade Congress to enact a form of national health insurance.

But while the 2008 presidential contenders are talking about health insurance, most of their ideas are familiar ones aimed at expanding health insurance coverage rather than reinventing the wheel.

Consumer Directed HealthCare plans

Consumer-directed healthcare plans don't have a reputation for being consumer friendly. In fact, the demand from consumers and employers for a better experience is creating $40 billion in new revenue opportunities for financial services firms and health insurance companies over the next five years.

For consumers and employers health/wealth innovations may be a means to curb skyrocketing healthcare costs, better manage the spending and saving of healthcare dollars, and even improve the quality of care. At minimum, tighter integration between the processes of paying for and receiving medical care should make it easier to navigate an increasingly complex U.S. healthcare system.

For more information about consumer driven healthcare visit healthinsurancesort.com

Auto Insurance Rates - impacts of credit score

Using credit scores as a factor in determining auto insurance rates & eligibility is a standard practice. For years, auto insurance companies have maintained that a person's scores are a valuable predictor of whether someone will file an auto insurance claim sometime in the future.

Consumer advocates say using credit scores to set auto insurance rates unfairly hurts blacks and Hispanics because those groups tend to have lower credit scores and thus end up paying more for their auto insurance. They also complain that errors in credit files can result in lower scores and thus higher insurance premiums.

The Federal Trade Commission recently weighed in on the debate, releasing a study that largely sides with the auto insurance industry.