<Individual health insurance.
Market size
According to eHealthinsurance, the self employed group comprise 10% of
the population and represent a $40 billion market. Small businesses
make up 25% and the uninsured 20%. An estimated 40 million do not have
health insurance including approximately 10 million children.
According to Sandra Mathy, president of Butlerandco.com says that
between 10 to 20 % of those not covered are able to afford some
premium that would give some degree of insurance. Affordability is an
issue. Some plans can be too costly for individuals diagnosed with a
condition. According to Brad Holmes of Forrester Research Inc., the
individual initiative to purchase health insurance will decrease as
there has been a consistent rise in premiums at the rate of 10-20% a
year.
http://images.ehealthinsurance.com/ehealthinsurance/press/BridgeNews.html
Growth trends
In 1997 the individual health insurance market was worth $8.2 billion.
http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/impact/sect02.html
In 1998 about 15.5 million people were covered by individual health
insurance policies. Half covered were workers, 16 percent non-workers
and 34 percent were dependents of policy owners.
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=462
In 1999, about 16 million people bought individual health coverage.
This report also gives demographics, market share, average number of
insurers, average earned premiums per insurer. In every state 1-3
large insurers hold 50 percent of the market.
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:vog5jmfUXEkJ:www.ahcpr.gov/news/ulp/indinsurancetele/insurslidetext.htm+%22million+people%22+individual+health&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
2001.
About 23 million people rely on private health insurance for
themselves and their families. (2001 census). 41 million are
uninsured. In 2000, 39 million were uninsured. In 2001, over 2.2
million people lost health coverage due to unemployment ( Bureau of
Labour Statistics 2002). This report studies health care policies
offered over the internet and how easy/difficult it is to find
information about individual health coverage.
http://hmi.missouri.edu/seminars/slides/su_kui_chun.pdf
Major players
The major players vary from state to state.
This site gives information about the major players.
http://www.healthinsure.com/html/trustmark_medstar.html
Bluecross/Blueshield is the major provider of individual health care.
They have 84.7 million customers. Revenue in 2000 was $126 billion
http://www.bcbs.com/whoweare/history.html
Examples of their market share for various states.
Bluecross Blueshield of Tennesse has 43% market share.
http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:s6hNQDKODQAJ:www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5057/5057.pdf+%22blue+cross%22+%22market+share%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Jersey
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2003/06/30/story3.html
In North Carolina, Blue Shield has a 32.7% market share.
http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:xSlVXKZ9hd4J:triad.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2003/06/02/story2.html%3Ft%3Dprintable+%22blue+cross%22+competition+individual&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Market share in Colorado is 15%.
http://www.aishealth.com/ManagedCare/BluesNews/BLUMCOGrowth.html
Anthem has a 35-40% share in Virginia which is a fragmented markets
with over 300 companies competing.
http://www.aishealth.com/ManagedCare/BluesNews/BLUMCOGrowth.html
Pacificare
Revenues $11 billion.
http://www.pacificare.com/commonPortal/application;JSESSIONID_CP=1NlMMx7jBRD5V1STPbw6QjT5C2v6bff1rTGoxYtgI37rkcG029yt!2119068866!-467179126?origin=choose.jsp&event=bea.portal.framework.internal.refresh&pageid=CorporateHome&navnode=CorporateAboutPacifiCare.1
Ehealthinsurance is the leading online provider of health insurance
and has 75% of the online market.
http://images.ehealthinsurance.com/ehealthinsurance/press/BridgeNews.html
Coverage trends.
More people are becoming uninsurable.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/Insureyourhealth/P41966.asp
There are significant barriers to access including a limited choice of
plans, lack of comprehensive benefits and higher premiums than group
coverage.
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:SXRYeuZmoawJ:www.accessproject.org/downloads/Advocates_Guide.pdf+%22individual+health+insurance%22+%22major+players%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Industry challenges/issues
White paper looking at the individual health insurance in Maine and
how it is on a downward spiral.
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:5bLYrlX0ZqYJ:www.state.me.us/pfr/120_Legis/reports/ins_Indiv_health_2001.pdf++biggest+%22individual+health+%22+-uk&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
According to a report by Bruce Abbe more and more insurance carriers
are leaving the individual insurance market as it is considered more
risky and more challenging compared to larger groups. It is also
susceptible to new regulations which will make it more difficult to
make money or avoid losing money.
The guarantee issue caused an exodus of carriers.
http://www.selfemployedcountry.org/news/20011117healthiermarket.html
There has been a growing trend in the number of uninsured people,
reaching 2.4 million in 2002.
http://www.hrpolicy.org/memoranda/2003/03-122_TAA_Health_Care_PB.pdf
The uninsured http://www.premierinc.com/frames/index.jsp?pagelocation=/all/advocacy/issues/108/03/uninsured/policy-position-statemtent-uninsured.htm
The number of uninsured will continue to grow.
http://www.nap.edu/issues/19.4/blendon.html
According to health care news congress needs to reform tax codes and
eliminate mandates to to encourage more coverage with individual
policies. There also needs to be a mechanism for individual policies
to be grouped to provide employers with individual market benefits and
cost savings. There is also demand for more choice.
http://www.heartland.org/archives/health/nov01/individual2.htm
The AMA Health Care Reform Proposal.
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:DuVSVX1OifcJ:www.pnhp.org/pnhp-ny/on_the_issues1.pdf+%22individual+health+insurance%22+market+billion&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Health credits
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/medicare/health-care/health-credits.html>
<Additional links.>
<Mutual of Omaha is dropping its individual health insurance policies
due to high costs. The company was formerly one of the leading
individual health insurers. They had 50,000 customers.>
<http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:7azXWcMAU38J:www.sptimes.com/2003/02/19/Business/Business_Today.shtml+%22individual+health+insurance%22+%22major+players%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8>
<Competition in health insurance>
<http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/article/5910-5574.html>
<Study of Individual Health Insurance market.>
>http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:dlgyMh2IfAkJ:www.kff.org/content/archive/1376/barrierspr.pdf+%22million+people%22+individual+health&hl=en&ie=UTF-8>
<Individual health insurance: fact, opinion and policy.>
<http://www.hschange.org/index.cgi?conf=show&what=12>
<Report from Mathematica Policy Research Inc.>
<http://www.statecoverage.net/0703/chollet.pdf>
<Euromonitor has a report on Health care insurance in the United
States for $198.00. The data encompasses the years 1997 to 2002 and
includes predictions to 2007.>
<http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productID=931616&xs=r>
<Search strategy:>
<"individual health care market" billion>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22individual+health+care+market%22+billion>
<"blue cross" "market share">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22blue+cross%22+%22market+share%22>
<"individual health insurance" billion 2002 market>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22individual+health+insurance%22+billion+2002+market>
<"million people" individual health insurance">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22million+people%22+individual++health+insurance%22>
<Hope this helps.> |
