On Friday, January 20, 2012, the Obama administration announced that it would not expand exemptions for religious institutions under the guidelines of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that require health insurance benefits to cover contraceptives.

In its statement, however, the Department of Health and Human Services did grant an extra year for compliance to become mandatory for nonprofit employers, pushing their deadline from August 1 of this year to August 1, 2013.

Organizations that are pro-life and that support religious freedom said the one-year delay does not address their serious concerns about being forced to comply with a position to which their faith is opposed.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that the administration’s approach “strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services.” The department’s decision came after months of heated protest about the health care law provision.

In response, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission said in a statement, “Secretary Sebelius is stating that people who have religious convictions against contraceptives or particular types of contraceptives that are abortifacients will have a one-year reprieve before they will be forced to pay for health insurance for that which they find unconscionable.”

Land’s remarks are representative of the objections of many conservatives in America, and this aspect of what detractors label as “Obamacare” will be another portion of the president’s health care reform package sure to be a point of hot political debate in the 2010 presidential elections.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at Religious Conservatives Angered by Health Insurance Requirement on Contraceptives.

As the political debate surrounding the 2012 presidential elections begins to heat up, various measurements are being applied to President Obama’s health care reform package. An analysis by the Associated Press now shows that three out of four Americans who have no health insurance live in states that do not know how they will implement the required provisions of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Currently, only 13 states have plans in place to fully enact health care reform, with 17 making “headway” and 20 lagging seriously behind. Of those, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio have the most work to do. The non-partisan Urban Institute estimates that 7 million people in those states need health insurance. When that happens, total charity care will be reduced by $10.7 billion.

Some states with Republican governments are waiting for the Supreme Court ruling this spring on the constitutionality of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act requiring all citizens to carry health insurance by 2014. The court is set to hear arguments in March. The decision will directly affect whether or not states should proceed with the implementation of health insurance exchanges.

The Obama administration insists that the different rates at which the states are moving forward does not create disparities in America’s uninsured population. Health care reform, however, is set to be one of the hottest points of debate in the coming presidential election and on this, and other aspects of its implementation, detractors say the president’s supporters are on the defensive.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at Uneven State Implementation Damaging to Forward Progress of Health Care Reform.

According to a report released by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a non-partisan group, health-care reform being implemented under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does seem to be leading to improved health insurance protection for young adults.

Under the terms of the legislation, dependent children must be carried on group health plans until they reach age 26. This benefit is not dependent on their status as students, nor is there a requirement that their parents be supporting them financially. Coverage cannot be limited based on marital status, but if they are married or have children, the benefits cannot be extended.

The results of the study showed that the percentage of young adults between 19 and 25 now carried as dependents on employment-based coverage held by their parents is up from 24.7 percent in 2009 to 27.7 percent in 2010. That translates to just under 1 million individuals for a total of 8.2 million covered.

Taken in tandem with data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control on private insurance, which is up from 51 percent to 55.8 percent, and the number of uninsured young people is down to just 28.8 percent.

Unfortunately, the flip side of this situation is that older adults have become even more medically vulnerable during the recession even with Medicare benefits. More older Americans are delaying or missing doctor’s appointments and discontinuing or stretching their medications. In the middle, almost 50 million Americans still have no health coverage whatsoever.

As the nation enters the 2012 presidential election season, there are undoubtedly wide gaps in health insurance coverage and effectiveness, a topic sure to be front and center in the political debate.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at Studies Show Younger Americans Better Insured, But Wide Gaps Exist.

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act sought to reform health care in America in one sweeping, comprehensive package. The legislation could not, however, put purchasing power in the hands of consumers hard hit by the recession that began late in 2008. According to figures compiled by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and published in the journal “Health Affairs,” health care spending in the U.S. in 2010 increased only 3.9 percent. The second lowest increase in half a century.

High Unemployment Equals Lost Insurance Benefits

As unemployment hovered between 8 to 9 percent from 2009 through 2011, many Americans lost their job-based insurance benefits and could not afford private policies. As a result, more and more people put off medical care. Total health care spending in the U.S. for 2010 came to $2.54 billion (17.9 percent of the total economy), or approximately $8,402 per person.

Health care costs in the U.S. have increased almost 8 times from the 1980 level of $1, 110 per person. Many Americans who had already struggled with that upward curve for three decades lost the fight when they lost their jobs during the recession, or were forced to sharply curtail personal expenses to cover day-to-day necessities like food for their children.

Annual spending on health care in 2009 grew just 3.8 percent, the lowest rate recorded in 50 years. The miniscule 0.1 percentage point change in that level for 2010 is a clear indicator of the tight economic conditions under which Americans continue to labor more than a year later. Even given these statistics, however, per capita health spending in this country is the highest in the world.

Health Care Prime Political Point in Presidential Election

As the country moves into the 2012 presidential election season, these are the kinds of numbers that will be front and center in candidates’ remarks about the perceived success or failure of President Barack Obama’s health care reform package. Hailed by the White House as the president’s central domestic achievement, critics argue that the Affordable Care Act is actually Obama’s greatest failure and illustrates his ineffectiveness as a leader.

In March, the Supreme Court will be reviewing the constitutionality of one of the most hotly debated aspects of the Affordable Care Act, the requirement that all Americans have health coverage by 2014. Critics contend that the constitution does not give Congress the power to compel citizens to purchase any product in a free marketplace including insurance coverage. Although most Americans are compelled to buy auto insurance as a condition of holding a driver’s license, those stipulations are state, not federal laws.

High Cost of Medical Care Tied to Federal Debt and Spending

Health care reform also intersects with the ongoing acrimonious political infighting about the federal debt and deficit spending. By the second quarter of 2011, outlays for Medicare and Medicaid benefits were already up 10 percent for the year over 2010 levels, and on track to post a $90 billion hike for the year, sending the annual rate above $1 trillion for the first time.

Conservative candidates are hammering for both a repeal of key aspects of what is termed as “Obamacare” in the political jargon, as well as for a sharp decrease in “entitlement” programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Given the graying of the American population, spending increases in both programs are inevitable without legislative changes. Every day for the next 15 years, thousands of Baby Boomers will turn 65 and become eligible for both Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Additionally in 2014, the Affordable Care Act will extend coverage to some 30 million more Americans when Medicaid is to be expanded via a system of health insurance exchanges in each state. In 2011, Medicaid enrollment was up by 3.7 million as droves of Americans sought federal help when they could no longer afford private health insurance. The Obama administration, in an effort to help state governments, increased federal spending to share the Medicaid burden.

The Health Care Debate if Far from Resolved

Given the relationship between health care reform and deficit spending, President Obama will face an-ever growing challenge in defending the success of his health care reform package. In 2011, insurance premiums grew faster than benefits for the first time in approximately seven years. The price of coverage was up 8 to 9 percent on average, with some small group plans seeing even steeper hikes. Although small business owners tend to have a more intimate relationship with their employees and continue to offer insurance benefits even in hard times, many can no longer afford to keep their doors open and pay for health insurance.

Misunderstands and Rumors Complicate the Situation

Perhaps no other president in modern history has been at the center of so many swirling rumors as Barack Obama. When the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study in November 2011, the results indicated that the vast majority of Americans do not understand the Affordable Care Act, nor can they name its major provisions. Yet, 44 percent of those surveyed disapprove of the legislation and by extension, the president.

Outrageous claims continue to circle on the Internet, with one of the most prevalent being the so-called “death panel.” This rumor suggests that the president’s support of “end of life” counseling is actually an attempt to cut medical spending in the U.S. by killing off thousands of older Americans by denying life-extending care to them in their final years. Run the phrase “Obama death panel” through a search engine and more than 135,000,000 results are returned.

Facts Speaker Louder than Rumors

Even in the face of that kind of obviously inflammatory rumor mongering, however, there are hard facts that make the health care reform debate central to the overall feeling of frustration and decline with which American voters are struggling. Insurance is 8-9 percent more expensive and fewer Americans than ever are utilizing the services of a doctor. We are an overweight and out-of-shape nation, with a third of the population qualifying as obese. Diabetes and heart disease are on the rise, and the population is growing older.

These problems are set against a varied social backdrop. There is an ever-widening gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” in America, graphically illustrated by the Occupy protests in the summer of 2010. Government spending is out of control. The collapse of the mortgage industry and the sweeping wave of foreclosures led to a real estate crisis that left thousands of Americans homeless and starting over. And there is a widespread call for a clamp down on big business after the bailout of Wall Street failed to halt rogue behavior on the part of big business. The popularly perceived failure of health care reform is symptomatic of a larger malaise, with the common man suffering the hardships while the politicians debate.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at Ongoing Health Care Reform Debate Symptomatic of Larger Problems.

The on-going debate over the state of health care in the United States will move front and center in the 2012 presidential election year. For the most part, politicians will be focused on major policy points, like the highly contentious requirement for all Americans to carry health insurance by 2014. The decision the Supreme Court hands down after its review of that aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will contribute materially to all the subsequent political rhetoric. In the meantime, real people are dealing with real health insurance issues out of the national limelight, like the crisis of failed medical device implants, in particular, metal-on-metal artificial hips.

Widespread Failure of Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants

These devices, which were marketed to consumers in their mid-50s were touted as a significant improvement over the previous generation of implants. Specifically recommended for younger patients, implants like the DePuy hip, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, were supposed to have an operational life of 15 years or more. As many as half a million Americans may have received these implants, that once accounted for a third of all artificial knees and hips used in America. Now, however, more than 5,000 lawsuits are underway, with many more to come, targeting surgeons for improperly positioning the devices and seeking recompense from manufacturers for their faulty designs.

In addition to simple failure of the hip’s function, the all-metal devices, during the regular motion of normal wear and tear, can shed metal debris into the surrounding bone and tissue. If left unattended, this may lead to bone necrosis or “death.” If the damage is sufficiently severe, a second “revision” surgery may be impossible, since the bone will no longer hold an implant. Consequently, thousands of Americans are being left permanently crippled in their 50s. The costs for these defective implants ultimately trickle through the entire medical system; they result in higher insurance premiums as companies try to recoup their benefit expenses; and they are even felt by taxpayers via the cost of Medicare payments.

Individual Medical Bills Reach Staggering Levels

A case highlighted by the New York Times vividly shows just how expensive a prolonged medical crisis of the nature of a failed hip implant can be. The newspaper profiled a 55-year old man whose artificial hip failed. Although his insurance did cover all his costs, the associated hospital fees were in excess of $400,000 with an additional $28,000 in doctor’s fees. Insurance companies will make that money back, and they typically do so by raising premiums across the board. Since health insurance benefits have already seen an 8-9 percent hike in 2011, with some pundits expecting that much again in 2012, specific cases like the crisis of medical device failures materially deepen an already bad situation.

The medical device failure issue also points to the broader scope of a phrase like “health care reform.” Most Americans equate that simply with, “I want to pay less for my health insurance,” when the next statement should be “and I want the Food and Drug Administration to do a better job of protecting me.” As long as problems of the size and severity of medical implant failure exist, bringing the cost of health care down in the U.S. is going to be extremely difficult. No one wants to eat the expense of such a failure, and so a complex game of robbing Peter to pay Paul begins, with the consumer most often being the one who loses in the end.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at Failure of Medical Implant Devices Severely Escalates Health Care Costs.

During 2011, many small business owners in America dropped health benefits for their employees. Going into 2012, the next tier of disappearing job-related coverage may be waiting in the wings, as some pundits say premiums could increase by as much as 18 percent.

Small Business Owners Carrying the Full Insurance Load

Many business owners split the cost of health coverage with their employees, but small companies tend to foster an intimate work culture. Cognizant of the state of the economy, employers who have shouldered the entire burden of insurance costs may have to choose between keeping their business afloat or their workers insured.

Due to the recession, which began in 2009, and a job market that has hovered near 10 percent for almost two years, caring employers feared that if their workers had to pay the full cost of their insurance, they would opt out, thus depriving themselves and their families of health benefits.

However, if the rate hikes follow predictions, and assuming the average cost of group health plans, a small business of roughly 20 employees could mean a health insurance bill of $18,000 for the business owner. At those levels, medical insurance costs could easily sink a business already struggling to stay profitable in the recovering economy.

Legal Status of Federal Health Care Reform Under Debate

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to review the constitutionality of the provision of the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act that would require all Americans to have health insurance by 2014. Also, by 2014, all states must have formed insurance exchanges where consumers can shop for affordable coverage at competitive rates.

If those aspects of health care reform are implemented on schedule, approximately 20 percent of small business owners currently surveyed say they would discontinue health care benefits for their employees entirely. Under the new law, however, businesses with more than 50 employees who work, on average, 30 hours a week, would also be required by 2014 to provide health coverage or be fined $3,000 per worker.

Small Business Owners in a Holding Pattern

Small business owners are in a “holding pattern” on health insurance not just because of the impending Supreme Court review, but also because 2012 is a presidential election year. The conservative opposition to the Obama administration has made “Obamacare” a central point of debate and all the viable conservative candidates are promising some degree of “dismantling” of the current health care reform package if elected.

For his part, President Obama is having difficulty defending his health care program when cash-strapped Americans have actually seen an 8-9 percent increase in their premium rates over the last year. Thanks to job losses in 2011, approximately 52 million Americans have no health insurance and there is a general air of confusion and discontent with federal efforts to remedy that situation.

Going into the 2012 presidential election, voters are much more likely to cast an emotional ballot weighted toward the candidate and platform with the strongest economic appeal. To date, most Americans believe health care reform has cost them money, rather than delivering the promised savings, a situation that is particularly harsh for small, struggling businesses.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at Rising Health Care Costs Imperil Small Businesses.

In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Robert J. Samuelson discusses the extent to which the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may prove to be a political liability for President Obama in the 2010 presidential election. His discussion is based on what Samuelson calls Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ efforts to make the health care reform law “disappear” for the president. In particular, Samuelson cites Sebelius’ decision to pass the final decision on the definition of “essential health benefits” for minimum health insurance to the states.

Under the provisions of the act, all Americans will be legally required to carry “acceptable” health insurance by 2014. The specific meaning of that language, however, is left up to the Health and Human Services secretary, and its implications are enormous. By 2016, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 35 million Americans will receive subsidized health insurance through Medicaid or via policies purchased through state insurance exchanges. The “essential health benefits” definition will apply to that coverage, as well as to unsubsidized policies purchased by individuals or in small-group insurance markets for pools of employees of 100 workers or less.

The conundrum is the same one that has plagued health insurance for decades. The broader the provisions of the policy, the more expensive the premium, which, in this case, would escalate government spending levels at a time when trimming the budget and resolving debt is central to the national debate. Sebelius essentially, as Samuelson termed it, “ducked this question.” Each state will define essential health benefits based on its own existing policies. Whether or not this adheres to the letter of the health care law is highly questionable, and it certainly does not provide for a comprehensible and enforceable national standard.

In immediate political terms, however, the decision could deflect a great deal of Republican criticism away from the President who has had to contend with charges that his reforms create a health care strait jacket that forces “one size fits all” coverage on all Americans. In dealing with the conservative opposition, it’s hard to politically err on the side of states rights. This historic pull between federal and state prerogatives, however, beyond directly contributing to a civil war, most normally creates the one element that already exists in over-abundance in the health care debate — confusion.

Under the present decision then, the states will have to make a choice on the “essential health benefits” definition based on one of ten existing insurance plans in the state. Samuelson quotes an example of how the directive explains the available choices, “The largest plan by enrollment in any of the three largest small group insurance products in the state’s small group market.” That alone proves that what is good politics for the president in terms of the coming election is not good policy for the average American. Of course, the whole thing could be rendered a moot point if, in March 2012, the Supreme Court renders that portion of the Affordable Health Care act which creates mandatory health insurance unconstitutional.

The only thing that’s clear about about the ongoing health care debate is that it will become more confusing, not less so between now and November, when the entire matter could fall to a completely new presidential administration.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at Definition of Essential Health Benefits Good Politics, but Poor Policy.

With the recent Health Reform Act being put into play, the way people pay for medical expenses is constantly changing. Now more people than ever have affordable health care available to them in the United States, and insurance rates are changing to accommodate the developments in legislature. With these new developments in health insurance, the number of people using health insurance and how they are using it are statistics that are currently evolving.

More People are Insured than Ever

In the United States, more people are deciding to take advantage of health insurance and the benefits that come with it than ever before. With many people out of jobs, many are finding how necessary it is to become insured to protect themselves from financial hardship in the event of a medical emergency. In 2009, 255.3 million people had coverage and in 2010, that number increased to 256.2 million people and has remained steady since.

The Way People are Insured is Changing

Perhaps in accordance with decreasing employment rates, more people are insured through government programs now than ever before, with 31 % of the population insured through the government. In 2009, 56.1% of people were insured through their employers and that number has decreased to 55.3%. The number of people insured through private health insurance has been steadily decreasing since 2001.

Insurance Prices are Rising

Despite the fact that many more people are insured in 2011 than before, premiums are rising in cost as well. It’s becoming a little more expensive each year to insure everyone in a household. The average annual premiums for family health insurance plans are up 9% this year, topping $15,000, with possible yearly increases yet to come at as much as 30% depending on insurance provider.

Heath Care Costs are Rising

More money is spent on health care related expenses in 2011 than ever before. In 1980, only 9.5% of all personal expenditures were medically related, while today, that number has risen to 16.3%. Additionally, the United States government is also spending more on health care – in 2009, the US spend 2.47 trillion dollars but is projected to spend 4.5 trillion dollars in 2019.

Why Don’t People Have Insurance?

Some Americans claim health insurance just isn’t a viable option for them financially, even if it does protect them in the event of an unforeseen injury or illness. This can result in many untreated cases and many unnecessary deaths. People without insurance cite a number of reasons for not getting the proper medical care they need, including a loss of job, Medicaid assistance ending, or being unable to receive family coverage after graduating college.

Medical practices and the way people pay for them are constantly evolving – and in turn, so are the prices of receiving health care and being insured each month. Despite the way people choose to remain covered – or if they choose to remain covered at all –  health care is something that will always be in demand and necessary to survival. These statistics are a general depiction of how health insurance is changing in the United States.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at US Health Insurance Statistics 2011.

With the issue of health care reform poised to once-again move front and center in the national political debate thanks to both the 2012 presidential election and the scheduled Supreme Court review of the Affordable Care Act in March, some nasty facts about the state of health care in the U.S. are once again in the spotlight. Increasingly Americans are opting to go abroad for medical procedures to combat the outrageous price of care in their own country and because medical error is a rising problem in America.

Medical Error a Serious Cause for Concern

In 2006, the Institute of Medicine determined that 1.5 million Americans are harmed each year by medication errors alone. Corollary studies place the value of the additional medical care required by such errors at $887 million in 2000, a figure that has undoubtedly climbed right along with the cost of health care. Estimates vary widely, but it is likely that 100,000 or more patients die each year as a result of medical error, with more than a million injured in non-drug related mistakes including surgical error.

Medical Debt a Leading Cause of U.S. Bankruptcies

Researchers at Harvard have determined that in 2007, 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. were directly attributable to medical expenses. What was startling, however, is that 78 percent of the people who filed for bankruptcy had medical insurance at the beginning of their illness, with 60.3 percent of those covered by private policies, not Medicare or Medicaid. In 2010, more than 1.5 million Americans filed for bankruptcy. In the same year, the cost of cancer care in the nation climbed to $263.8 billion annually.

Not surprisingly, statisticians at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found a strong tie between a cancer diagnosis and bankruptcy. As compared to the general population, cancer patients are twice as likely to file for personal bankruptcy. The Duke University Medical Center’s studies indicate that even cancer patients with insurance faced monthly out-of-pocket costs that average $1,266.

Not only do medical costs on this level wipe out personal savings, destroy home equity, and obliterate retirement options, but the stress prevents healing. Many people with long-term illnesses say their number-one concern is not getting well, but the financial and emotional burden their condition places on their loved ones. These are all factors in a broken health care system that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Obama Administration in 2010 was designed to counteract.

Health Care Reform Has Raised Insurance Rates

Although the Obama administration has consistently maintained that the substantive cost-saving benefits of the health care reform package will be felt when the law takes full effect in 2014, the truth is that in the short-term, the legislation has increased the cost of medical care and insurance in the U.S. With mandated benefits and new restrictions cutting into their profit margins, insurers raised their premiums by 9 percent in 2011, a figure three-times that of the rate of inflation, and the greatest insurance price hike since 2005.

Medical Tourism an Increasingly Attractive Option

It is hardly surprising that some Americans are opting to leave their country to seek medical care. The Medical Tourism Associations says that in some instances, medical travelers can save as much as 90 percent on the cost of a single procedure while accessing care equal to or greater than what is available in the U.S. in terms of quality and effectiveness. For instance, a heart bypass surgery in America costs, on average $144,000. In Colombia, the same procedure is $14,802 and in India, just $5,200.

By 2012, medical tourism in Asia is expected to produce $4.4 billion in tourist income dollars, with Malaysia, India, and Turkey being particularly popular destinations for traveling patients. In 2012, Singapore expects to treat a million patients from foreign nations, while neighboring Malaysia estimates it will have 1.9 million annually by 2020. In an interview with the New York Daily News, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said that most of the patients now headed abroad are middle-class workers who can’t afford to be treated in their own country.

The option of treatment abroad has become increasingly attractive due to improved medical standards in destination nations, and by the fact that many foreign doctors are actually trained in the U.S. Over the last decade, more than 400 organizations in 39 nations have received accreditation from the Joint Commission International, an affiliate of the body that accredits American hospitals.

Health Care Will Be a Major Topic of Debate in the 2012 Election

All of these factors will undoubtedly figure in the political debate on health care as candidates vie to claim the White House in November 2012. The Supreme Court’s decision on the constitutionality of key points of the Affordable Care Act will also be an important indicator of the future of health care reform in the nation. Currently about 53 percent of voters support repeal of the law, with 40 percent of those strongly in favor of scrapping the effort.

The provision of the law requiring all Americans to carry health insurance by 2014 is a particularly hated provision of the legislation and is the basis of the Supreme Court appeal. Critics maintain that the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution does not give Congress the right to compel citizens to buy a product in the public market place, i.e. health care insurance. Approximately 63 percent of Americans surveyed single out the insurance mandate provision as the aspect of the law they most oppose.

It is arguable if the long-vaunted health care reform effort has indeed improved the care Americans receive. Skyrocketing costs tied to personal bankruptcies, frightening instances of medical error, and the growing trend of people leaving home to seek better, more affordable care abroad would seem to indicate it has not. The discontent this situation has caused, tied to the hardships of three-years of recession in the U.S. will figure heavily in the coming election as Americans are not only seeking, but demanding, real change and real improvements.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at Cost and Quality of U.S. Health Care Increasingly Drives Americans Abroad.

There’s no way around it – at a point in nearly everyone’s life, there comes a need for medical care. Unfortunately, medicine and its practices come at a high cost, and insurance is a good form of assistance in paying those costs. With so many providers available, it can be tough to decide which one is right for you. These health insurance companies have received the most business and heaviest volume of customers in 2011 so far.

Aetna

Aetna is one of the most popular insurance companies in the nation, serving over 30 million Americans. They provide HMOs, PPOs, and point of service plans, as well as dental, vision, and behavioral health options to their customers. Over 15 million people subscribe to their health plans, while their dental plan boasts 13 million members and their pharmacy plan serves over 10 million people.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield 

Blue Cross and Blue Shield is one of the largest and most recognizable insurance companies today, serving over 90 million customers as well as being responsible for administering Medicaid plans for the federal government in independent and locally operated facilities. They provide HMOs, PPOs, point of service, and fee for service plans as well as indemnity insurance and more specialized plans to individuals and families, spanning over 40 chapters nationwide.

CIGNA

CIGNA provides over 9 million people with insurance, not only catering to those who are looking for health insurance but also providing group accident, life, and disability insurance. Through their medical insurance programs catered to both individuals and employers, they have plans for PPO, HMO, POS, indemnity insurance, and consumer-directed products. CIGNA provides insurance internationally as well, and they also support Medicaid.

United Health Group

United Health Group, known as the second largest insurance provider today, offers HMOs, PPOs, and POS as well as assistance for Medicaid and Medicare recipients through six different businesses. United Health Group looks to provide assistance at all levels of care. They also prove health plans for large companies and have a branch for clinical research and drug marketing services. United Health Group provides insurance to over 75 million people all over the world.

Wellpoint

As the largest health care insurance company in the United States, Wellpoint provides insurance to over 34 million members in the country. In fact, one in nine Americans is insured through Wellpoint.They are affiliated with Blue Cross and Blue Shield and are sometimes known as Unicare. They provide a wide variety of medical plans to employers as well as individuals and are able to insure those with Medicare and Medicaid assistance.

Medical expenses can be extremely pricy, and in the case of an accident or an emergency, many people are left blindsided, unable to pay their medical bills. Having a good health insurance plan is the best way to avoid falling on financial hardship should an unexpected injury or illness occur, and these are just some of the many popular and reputable insurance providers available today.

Content provided by Affordable Health Insurance. You can find the original article at The Top 5 Health Insurance Companies of 2011.