Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/14162
Health reform payoff Among the 19 percent of owner- operators without health coverage, the age distribution generally reflects that of all owner- operators. This suggests factors unrelated to age, including cost and pre-existing condi- tions, as reasons for lacking health insurance. Of the 81 percent of owner-operators who have health coverage, almost four out of 10 are covered by a spouse’s plan. For the rest, the aver- age premium was $570 per month, higher than the $485 nationwide average cost of health insurance in the 35 state-run high-risk pools. However, high-risk pool plans have relatively high deductibles of more than $1,300 on average. Age of owner-operators lacking health insurance <= 40 years 7% >70 years 8% 41-50 years 25% 61-70 years 25% 51-60 years 35% Owner-operators with health insurance 22% Bought directly from insurance provider independent agent 22% Bought from 12% Covered through an association 39% Covered by spouse’s plan 5% Bought into carrier’s plan Have you ever been turned down for health insurance due to a pre-existing condition? Yes 43% I don’t know 4% condition that was cited by an insurance company to deny health insurance. Given the wide array of con- ditions insurers have used to deny coverage in recent times, the national HRP’s reach could be extensive. Prior to the health care reform bill, 35 states of- fered their own HRPs. The plans’ average indi- vidual premiums were $485 monthly, according to a Government Accountability Office report issued in June 2009. Compared to the state HRPs, the new temporary national pool will have greater state access to federal 40 OVERDRIVE AUGUST 2010 No 53% funds, as well as regulations that limit premium rates. The latter is done by pegging premiums to “standard rates,” which an individual without any pre-existing condition would pay for a comparable plan in the private market. In the state HRPs analyzed in the GAO report, premium levels were determined to be an average $110 higher than standard rates. Based on that, national HRP enrollees would save 22 per- cent in premium costs. HHS gave all states the option of administering the national HRP themselves, in some cases along- side their own HRPs. The applications HHS began receiving July 1 are coming from enrollees in states that had not arranged to administer the national pool. A total 31 states, plus the District of Columbia, will administer the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan. They include 22 states with their own existing state HRPs and nine without. The national HRP stands to be a big benefit to high-risk residents of states like California, where new enrollments in the state HRP have been essen- tially cut off since a waiting list, in California’s case now at more than 1,000 people, was introduced in 2006. A comparable pool in Illinois also has a fairly long waiting list. Florida’s HRP has been cut off to new applicants for years. As California began discussing its decision to ad- minister the national HRP alongside its own HRP in June, the Sacramento Bee newspaper noted estimates that the national HRP would have a 37 percent lower enrollee cost. That spread “makes the reform real,” Health Access California head Anthony Wright told the paper. Such health care savings would be great news for thousands of truckers who could benefit. “I’m up to $450 a month,” says east Tennessee resident Michele White, an owner-operator leased to Crete Carrier, of her health insurance premium for the company’s group plan. White’s pre-existing conditions include five different cancers, which began with Hodgkin’s Disease in the late 1970s, and a replacement aortic valve in her heart. “Early detec- tion can save your life,” she says, “and I’m walking proof.” White says she empathizes with haulers who have similar histories. “One major illness and you’re bank- rupt if you don’t have insurance,” she says. She’s also quick to point out the first thing she looks at in an insurance plan isn’t premium cost but the coverage amount. “I’ve got a $2 million cap,” she says of her plan through Crete. “A lot of policies have fairly high eTrucker.com poll, 133 responses 2009 Overdrive Owner-Operator Market Behavior Report 2009 Overdrive Owner-Operator Market Behavior Report