Kaiser Health Insurance for your business can be a real value, depending on what you want to offer. I have a Kaiser plan for our agency. I’ve had it for many years, and for the most part, its been a terrific value. Hey, there is no such thing as cheap Health Insurance anymore. That went away with ObamaCare and the Affordable Care Act. There used to be plans that had a fairly high deductible, hence the cheaper price. Insurance companies are betting you will not reach your deductible, and them having to pay kicks in. When you raise the deductible, the odds that they pay get even better. With Health Reform, that ended. There are limits of deductibles and out of pocket maximums now, which increase pricing.
Health Reform has changed the pricing structure of Health Insurance, cheaper plans are gone
When you think about the plans that allowed employees to have a fairly high deductible and then “underfund” it with other insurance products, the pricing was pretty good. With Health Reform, that went away. No more super high deductibles…..everything has to be in one of the 4 boxes, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. And, all the plans within the metal level are basically the same. There are minor tweeks, but overall, the plans are very similar. They have to be. The Affordable Care Act mandates that each of the plans in each level be within 2% of the actuarial value of the others.
Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum plans. So what’s the difference?
Each plan has a “value”. The Bronze plan has a 60% value, Silver a 70% value, Gold 80%, Platinum 90%. That means that when someone has that particular plan, they will pay 60%, 70%, etc of the bill. In reality it never works out that way, but actuarialy speaking, that is how they are designed. Basically, the deductible is higher with the Bronze plans and Silver plans and lower with Gold and Platinum plans. Usually the yearly maximums are about the same, but its how you get to those maximums that is important. If you have small copays and pay very little, like with Gold and Platinum plans, it takes way longer to hit your yearly max. Either way, hire a broker that is a specialist. When you have a broker that is a generalist, you are not getting the benefits of a specialist. Its like going to a General Practitioner for an issue with your heart. You probably would want to see a specialist. Same basic concept with insurance. Brauer Insurance, you Bay Area leader of Health Insurance products.