I recently attended a Health Care form discussing Covered California in Rancho Mirage California. Here are the top three things I learned:
1) Not a government run health plan – health plans are run by private companies
2) 2 types – INDVIDUAL & Small Business plans available
3) The cost is the same whether you use a Certified Agent or go at it alone.
Covered California is not government run health insurance. Rather, the health plans are run by private health insurance carriers that PARTICIAPATE in the Covered California program. The goal of the program is get 5.3 million uninsured residence of California signed up for health insurance coverage. Here are some other fun facts:
1) Premium based off income only (NOT INCOME AND ASSETS)
2) Tax Credits are available to individuals and small business (NOT JUST INDVIDUALS)
3) There are 4 levels of coverage available (each with HMO & PPO options)
As of today there are 70,000 licensed health insurance agents in the state of California and 23,000 of them are certified to sell Covered California products. These agents are compensated by Covered California for each individual or group they enroll the program. Covered California is depending on these trusted advisors to help guide people through the health insurance waters and get them the medical coverage that fits their needs. If you use an agent to help you, rather than go at it alone and try to obtain coverage yourself via the website/phone, the cost is the same. That is correct! The premiums are the same whether you use an agent or not. So why wouldn’t you get this free help? You can look up a local agent on the covered California website by going to the “agent locator” OR you can send us an email and we can make a recommendation ([email protected] ). We don’t write Medical Insurance “in house” here at Linn T. Hodge & Sons, but we have a network of trusted advisors we can referrer you to.
Please don’t hesitate to ask us any insurance related questions. We are here to help!
Sincerely,
Kelly Hodge
(310) 477-2666