1 in 5 in U.S. lost health insurance since 2008 – And Not Getting Any Better

Also in the news this week from the Los Angeles Times, Blue Shield it telling people if they are late or miss a payment, cancelled. They do state that one can reapply but your premiums could stand to be higher along with additional restrictions. The grace period goes from 45 to 28 days, so that is not completely gone.

What is interesting though is that Kaiser gives patients 50 days, and they are a non profit, so shouldn’t all insurers be non profit, as we wouldn’t have this constant drive to keep “cherry picking” the best “scored” patients to insure. I can’t remember writing anything about Kaiser cancelling patients of late. Remember, those traded on the stock exchanges have to think about “dividends” and patient and healthcare seems to once again take the back seat. The non profit business model today is certainly outshining the efforts of where the profit folks are going. BD

From the LA Times:

“Presumably that means Blue Shield, with more than 3.4 million customers, doesn't want to be any more generous than most other private insurers. Anthem Blue Cross, for example, says it won't offer any more than the state-mandated grace period.
Kaiser Permanente, on the other hand, offers an impressive 50 days' grace period after a payment is missed before a policy will be canceled. Apparently Blue Shield doesn't want to be uniform with them, or even close.”

WASHINGTON - Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population — or almost 60 million — went without health insurance at some point since January 2008, according to government estimates released Wednesday.

The analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes as Democratic senators wrestle to pass their version of health reform legislation before the end of the year to help make good on President Barack Obama's top domestic goal of overhauling the nation's $2.5 trillion healthcare system.

The yanking away of additional grace-period time follows Blue Shield being ousted in October from California's high-risk medical insurance pool, which offers health coverage to people who can't get insurance anywhere else. State officials decided that Blue Shield's premiums were simply too high.

1 in 5 in U.S. lost health insurance since 2008 - Health care- msnbc.com