Health Insurance

In an effort to help more Marylanders obtain health insurance, a state task force recommended yesterday several steps to make individual policies more affordable, easier to obtain and harder to cancel.The recommendations would affect Marylanders who can't obtain insurance through employers or other groups.About 300,000 people now hold individual policies, and another 600,000 have no insurance. Many of them might benefit from the recommendations.If the recommendations are followed by the General Assembly, insurers would be required to offer a comprehensive benefits package identical to the one the state has directed insurers to offer to small businesses and groups.

BEFORE too long, college seniors will be getting diplomas -- and one of their first financial lessons in the real world: As new graduates, they face being dropped from parents' health insurance. Policies differ, but young adults typically lose their parents' coverage at age 19, or if they go to college, at 22 or 23. So just as they are intent on a job hunt or moving off campus, they have the added hurdle of finding insurance. Many don't bother. About one in four young adults, age 18 to 24, are without health insurance, making them the least likely of any age group to have medical coverage, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

THERE IS an effort under way to create support for a single-payer health insurance system in Maryland. The issue will certainly become prominent in the 2002 gubernatorial race. The details of the reform plan are not yet clear. It is possible that monies which once took the form of private insurance premiums will flow into state government coffers and from there into a single insurance entity -- possibly Blue Cross/Blue Shield -- which would manage the plan. Yet it does not really matter what the details are because the fundamentals of a single-payer system are seriously flawed.

Losing your paycheck isn't the only problem when you're laid off. You probably need to decide what to do about health insurance if your employer has been providing your coverage. The temptation might be to go without it to save money, hoping nothing befalls you before you find a new job with insurance. That would be a mistake. Even the young and healthy can suffer broken bones playing sports or through a car accident and rack up steep medical bills. So what other choices are there? When you lose a job, you have certain insurance rights under federal and state laws.

WASHINGTON -- At a judge's urging, an NAACP lawyer pledged yesterday to extend the health insurance coverage of fired Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. through the end of October, when Dr. Chavis' wife, Martha, is due to have twins.The move came during a status hearing on Dr. Chavis' suit against the NAACP in District of Columbia Superior Court. An Oct. 24 hearing was scheduled on Dr. Chavis' request for a preliminary injunction to block the NAACP from firing him.Attorneys for both sides said they would try to settle the dispute before then.

I work for a company with about 100 employees. Health insurance is a contentious issue because of the high costs and few options. The company offers two plans, which cost the same. (One bills $200 per employee weekly, the other $800 a month.) The company pays one-third of the amount, and we pay the rest. I pay the equivalent of one-quarter of my take-home pay under either plan. Do we, as employees, have any rights here, or are we stuck with the high cost of health care? When you begin with the fact that employers don't have to offer health insurance, it's easy to understand that they have a wide latitude in choosing what to offer and how much to charge you for it. "There is no requirement that the contributions required from employees be reasonable or affordable," said New York employment attorney Richard Kass.

Sometimes owning a health insurance policy is not the same thing as being covered. Many more American workers may be about to learn this hard lesson, and employees in Maryland have more to lose than most. A measure that is nearing a final vote in Congress would greatly expand the reach of insurers offering bare-bones plans that saddle policyholders with no cap on their payments once their paltry coverage limits are reached. Maryland, like New York and a few other states with strong consumer insurance protections, has so far been spared the misery inflicted by such junk insurance.

WASHINGTON -- A business trade group formed to focus on just one issue -- mandatory health insurance -- claims the zTC enactment of such legislation could cost millions of Americans their jobs; labor, community action and consumer activists say the group is spreading false alarms about what should be a basic job benefit for all workers.The battle is over whether the federal government should requirmost businesses to provide health insurance for their employees. A measure to do that was approved by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee in July last year.

Individuals who find themselves a victim of a layoff or find a new job that doesn't offer health insurance face a difficult task in deciding how to replace that insurance. While the options may be more expensive than a subsidized corporate plan, some do offer tax benefits an employer cannot. The first option is to continue your previous employer's insurance through COBRA. While this maintains your coverage, it's expensive, as you now must pay the full premium and employers usually tack on an extra 2 percent to cover administrative fees.

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Peter Boulware will break from training at McDaniel College tomorrow to urge uninsured Carroll County families to enroll in a low-cost or free health insurance program. Boulware, a spokesman for the Covering Kids & Families Coalition, will speak at a junior football training camp to encourage families to take part in the Maryland Children Health Program, which covers the cost of doctors' visits, hospitalization and prescriptions. "We want to make sure we're reaching those families that would be eligible," said Linda Reynolds-Wise, the health program's director.