Health Insurance Plan Of California

Medical Cooperative Reports Cut in Premiums: The Health Insurance Plan of California, the statewide medical coverage purchasing cooperative for small businesses, has negotiated an average reduction of 5% in premiums with more than 20 health maintenance organizations. The premium reductions, effective July 1, will affect about 4,500 businesses that together employ about 85,000 people.

Two nonprofit corporations are slugging it out in Sacramento over who should run a health insurance pool for small businesses. Millions of dollars are at stake in the battle over the Health Insurance Plan of California, a 5-year-old, relatively obscure state-run public-private insurance pool of 7,400 small businesses statewide. As required by the state law that created it, HIPC is converting to all-private ownership and operation.

PacifiCare of California, a subsidiary of PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., said Tuesday that it has received approval to participate in the Health Insurance Plan of California, the state's alliance through which small businesses can purchase health-care coverage. Introduced in July, 1993, the state insurance plan covers 2,500 businesses and 44,000 Californians. The program offers coverage to small employee groups of five to 50 employees through a pool of health-care and insurance companies.

A California program that provides health insurance for small businesses has granted Kaiser Permanente--the state's biggest HMO--a rate hike of up to 14% next year while negotiating more modest increases with many other health plans. Employers statewide are bracing for the largest medical premium hikes since about 1993. The increases will be felt throughout the economy, experts said, and the rate hikes for small businesses could result in some employers dropping coverage for their workers.

A California program that provides health insurance for small businesses has granted Kaiser Permanente--the state's biggest HMO--a rate hike of up to 14% next year while negotiating more modest increases with many other health plans. Employers statewide are bracing for the largest medical premium hikes since about 1993. The increases will be felt throughout the economy, experts said, and the rate hikes for small businesses could result in some employers dropping coverage for their workers.

Two nonprofit corporations are slugging it out in Sacramento over who should run a health insurance pool for small businesses. Millions of dollars are at stake in the battle over the Health Insurance Plan of California, a 5-year-old, relatively obscure state-run public-private insurance pool of 7,400 small businesses statewide. As required by the state law that created it, HIPC is converting to all-private ownership and operation.

Forty thousand workers at small California businesses will get an extraordinary piece of good news on Tuesday: At a time when health insurance costs are climbing by 6% to 8% a year, their premiums will actually be reduced for the year starting July 1.

A little-known state program offering affordable health insurance to small businesses aims to toot its horn. The Health Insurance Plan of California, which lets employees of participating small businesses choose from among 23 health plans, wants to scare up new policyholders at a marketing fair June 26 at Downey Savings & Loan in Newport Beach. "Exposure is the thing.

Health insurance can be nasty business. Note, for instance, how Blue Cross of California just canceled its contract with a big insurance broker. The Orange-based broker, Word & Brown, acts as a middleman between insurers like Blue Cross and agents who sell policies to small employers. The broker recently included Blue Cross' archrival, San Francisco-based Blue Shield of California, among plans participating in a new product that it's offering.

In the debate over health care reform, health care "alliances," or group purchasing pools, have become one of the favorite whipping boys in Washington. Under President Clinton's health care reform plan, a health care alliance would be a government-established regional agency; as a patient-doctor go-between, it would negotiate for the best prices for medical services.

Medical Cooperative Reports Cut in Premiums: The Health Insurance Plan of California, the statewide medical coverage purchasing cooperative for small businesses, has negotiated an average reduction of 5% in premiums with more than 20 health maintenance organizations. The premium reductions, effective July 1, will affect about 4,500 businesses that together employ about 85,000 people.

PacifiCare of California, a subsidiary of PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., said Tuesday that it has received approval to participate in the Health Insurance Plan of California, the state's alliance through which small businesses can purchase health-care coverage. Introduced in July, 1993, the state insurance plan covers 2,500 businesses and 44,000 Californians. The program offers coverage to small employee groups of five to 50 employees through a pool of health-care and insurance companies.

Forty thousand workers at small California businesses will get an extraordinary piece of good news on Tuesday: At a time when health insurance costs are climbing by 6% to 8% a year, their premiums will actually be reduced for the year starting July 1.

Health insurance rates nationally rose just 3.3% during the last year, a considerably slower rate of growth than some experts had forecast, according to a new study by KPMG Peat Marwick. Medical premiums rose a more brisk 4.2% in California, where managed care is more dominant and HMOs weakened by stiff competition are seeking sharp premium hikes, according to the survey released Monday.