In California, the companies that dominate the individual health insurance market are under fire for revoking coverage after some policyholders become seriously ill.
Several lawsuits accuse Blue Cross of California and its rival Blue Shield of looking for any excuse to dump people with costly medical problems in an effort to escape their obligation to pay the bills.
State regulators are investigating the allegations. The companies have denied wrongdoing, saying the cancellations are usually because policyholders did not make full disclosure of prior health problems that would have made them ineligible for coverage.
Unlike group plans, which must accept everyone, individual plans can deny coverage based on preexisting conditions.
The Commonwealth study did not look at the revocation problem. But it did find that people with individual insurance coverage tended to have higher deductibles, along with high levels of dissatisfaction with their healthcare.
The report is based on findings from the Commonwealth Fund's latest biennial health insurance survey.
The study found that more than a third of adults with individual insurance had to spend $1,000 out of pocket each year before coverage kicked in. More than half of those with individual insurance pay at least $3,000 a year in premiums and about a third pay $6,000 or more.
People on such plans were more likely to report that they did not get needed healthcare or prescription drugs because of prohibitive out-of-pocket expenses.
One in five people with a high-deductible plan reported taking on credit card debt to pay medical bills, compared with 8% of those with lower deductibles.
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lisa.girion@latimes.com
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