Covered California sent a letter to everyone that has a PPO plan and told them that their insurance company would assign them to a Physician on January 1st 2017 as part of a new feature.

Is this a “feature” to you?

Read this article to learn about what’s happening.Read More →

california health insurance rate increases 2017

Learn What Steps You Need To Take To Minimize The Increases Covered California just announced health insurance rates are rising in 2017. This is not just a Covered California issue. If you get your insurance directly from an insurance company you will see your rates rise as well. It has never been more important to understand the steps you need to take to keep your costs down. We’ll show you what the California health insurance rate increases are going to look like. Then we’ll show you what steps you can take to make sure that your 2017 rates don’t skyrocket. Quick Overview Of 2017 CaliforniaRead More →

Don't Be Puzzled By The 2015 Open Enrollment Period

The next open enrollment period begins on November 15th and ends on February 15th, 2015. During this period you can choose to stay on your current plan, move to another plan, or enroll in health insurance for the first time. For the 2015 Open Enrollment Period in California there are many changes taking place, and you need to be aware of the following: Changes to health plans. a. Health plan benefit changes. b. Standardization of all health plan names. c. Health plans that are going away. d. Rate Changes. Timeline for open enrollment changes. Covered California renewal process. a. Required income verification authorization. b. RequiredRead More →

United HealthGroup Leaves California

  The second domino in a linked chain has tipped over. Two weeks ago Aetna announced its departure from California’s individual and family health insurance market, and yesterday UnitedHealth Group, Inc (parent of UnitedHealthcare) announced that UnitedHealthcare (UHC) is leaving California. With UnitedHealthcare leaving California, about 8,000 members will need to get new health insurance before December 31st, when their UHC coverage ends. In this article, we’ll show you the best replacement health insurance plans from the remaining California insurance companies. In California, UHC provided individual health insurance through their Golden Rule subsidiary using the brand name UnitedHealthOne. Golden Rule was created by UHC overRead More →

What Do We Do About Health Insurance After Having A Baby? Bringing a new baby into the world is an honor and a joy, so first off we want to congratulate you on that. Within those first 30 days there are big decisions to be made and what we’re going to do is give you a look at how choosing the right California health insurance after having a baby can be simpler than you might expect. The key to being empowered to make the best decision for your family is understanding your options, knowing what steps to take, and that’s what SPF Insurance will helpRead More →

Blue Shield of California this week disclosed the new health insurance plans they will offer beginning on July 1st. These plans will replace all but 4 of the company’s current plans, and will add maternity care and mental health therapy for Autism. The only existing plans that will continue to be offered after July 1st are the Spectrum PPO 5000, Spectrum PPO 5500, Access+ HMO, and the Access+ Value HMO. Blue Shield of California Plan Overview The new replacement plans are the Shield Secure Plus PPO, Shield Secure PPO, Shield Wise PPO, and the Shield Saver plans. Each of these plans offers similar benefits withRead More →

With the beginning of April it becomes time to start running quotes for individual and family health insurance rates with a May 1st effective start date. The new rates and changes that Anthem Blue Cross of California announced in March now become very evident. Many Anthem customers that have older health insurance plans have seen their rates finally reach the “pain threshold” and as a result they are looking for lower cost alternatives. My quick assessment, from the first half dozen quotes I’ve run, is that Anthem has given up a huge chunk of their lead over the other individual and family health insurance companiesRead More →

In the search to find good maternity insurance California mothers have found fewer options to choose from over the last few years. However, new mandates in 2012 will require that all health insurance plans in California provide maternity health coverage. Both the Individual/Family plans as well as the Group plans will be affected by these new rules, which take effect on July 1st, 2012. Senate Bill SB222 by state Senator Noreen Evans, and Assembly Bill AB210 by Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, were both signed by Governor Jerry Brown on Oct 6th. These two bills require that every health insurance plan offered in California must provide maternityRead More →

We just added new information on the California Maternity Health Insurance page that will answer all your questions about how much your costs will be during the prenatal care and baby birthing process! One of the common questions we get from couples planning to have a baby is, “What will our costs be if we use Pregnancy Health Insurance plan ABC?” This new article, Analysis of Best California Maternity Health Insurance Plans covers the detailed cost break down of the five recommended maternity health insurance plans. One of the key parts of the analysis is showing the tradeoffs between paying more for the prenatal andRead More →

An update to this post is now available, with more details and an additional option on the California Maternity Health Insurance page of the website. The short answer is probably not unless you qualify for one of two exceptions. These exceptions are, join a group health insurance plan at your work or your spouse’s company, or if you have a non-maternity plan check to see if your insurance company will allow you to transfer to a plan that covers maternity care (Blue Shield of CA will allow a transfer to a maternity plan). If the above options don’t help you, do you have other choices?Read More →

Blue Shield of California today announced a 6 month rate guarantee on all Individual Health Insurance plans that have a Jan 1, 2011 effective date or later. What this means is that if you apply for a Blue Shield health insurance plan your rate will not change for the first 6 months, unless you have a birthday. After 6 months, Blue Shield has the ability to change your rates when they need to. Last year Blue Shield offered a 1 year rate guarantee, but chose to eliminate that guarantee option in October of 2010 when the first changes for Health Care Reform began to takeRead More →