Editorial

Put insurance shopping on your to-do list

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Republicans elected on the promise of repealing ObamaCare have their job cut out for them, especially finding ways to replace popular parts of the Affordable Care Act such as allowing children to stay on their parents' plans longer or providing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

"Universal" health care is the law of the land for the forseeable future, and you should be prepared to shop around if you hope to avoid a steep hike in your insurance bills.

And it's not just because Nebraska chose not to establish its own health insurance exchange, although we're likely to see some of the nation's steepest price hikes -- only Alaska will see higher increases overall.

Administration figures unveiled Friday showed all but 16 of Nebraska counties will see premiums of 12 percent or more, five counties around Omaha will suffer 21 percent increases and most of Western nebraska will see premiums up 17 percent.

That includes Red Willow County, where the average monthly premium of $218 is predicted to climb to $258, or a 17.1 percent increase.

It's important to explore the options now, because the open enrollment period opened Nov. 15 and lasts until Feb. 15.

But it's complicated for many Nebraskans, who are caught in a dispute between Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Nebraska and CHI Health, which operates Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney and several other major Nebraska hospitals.

CHI Health offered a new contract proposal -- with a 72-hour deadline -- to the insurance company on Monday, and on Tuesday, announced that it was cutting up to 1,500 jobs throughout its 90 hospitals across the nation. CHI said the Nebraska dispute had nothing to do with the layoffs.

It's not fun to think about shopping for health insurance over the holiday period, but that's something you might want to do.

Learn how to compare policies -- a deductible is how much you pay out of pocket before your coverage kicks in. A co-pay is a fixed amount you pay for things like prescriptions or doctors visits. Co-insurance is a percentage of the cost you pay for covered expenses. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't understand something.

The Better Business Bureau offers some other tips:

* Know your priorities, such as how much you can afford to pay out of pocket, do you have a specific condition that needs to be covered, are your medications covered?

* Check networks to see if your providers are participants.

* Don't look just at premiums, but consider all associated costs such as co-pays, co-insurance and out-of-pocket costs.