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County Health District Offers Expanded Coverage for Uninsured

Posted on: Sunday, 2 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Phil Galewitz, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.

Apr. 1--Tens of thousands of uninsured Palm Beach County residents will be eligible for a new health insurance program provided by the health care district, officials said late Friday.

The program, called Vita Health, being launched Monday, marks the district's largest effort to cover the uninsured since 1993, when it established Coordinated Care. That program covers about 25,000 people a year.

For a monthly premium that will cost most participants $51.86 a month per person -- or 70 percent less than comparable plans sold on the private market -- Vita Health will provide coverage for physician care, lab tests, hospitalization and generic drugs, officials said. To qualify, individuals must be uninsured for at least six months.

Despite its offerings, district officials don't expect the program to be an easy sell.

Chief Executive Dwight Chenette said the big test of the new program will be convincing the uninsured that it is "worth spending some of their disposable income to pay for coverage so they can get preventive medicine to remain healthy."

Still, by establishing the new program, which will cost about $4 million to $6 million a year, county health care officials are trying to make a dent in a persistent and growing problem for Palm Beach County. According to a 2004 study, the most recent, about 225,000 county residents are uninsured. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 of them would qualify for the new program based on income.

People without health coverage are more likely to delay seeking medical care when they are sick and more likely to die earlier from chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, studies show. And because they typically don't have a regular doctor, these uninsured also are a drain on public health departments and hospital emergency rooms.

The number of uninsured Americans -- now at 45.8 million -- has grown steadily in the past decade, and inaction by both the federal and most state governments has left cities and counties to devise solutions to the problem, with varying levels of success.

With Vita Health, the taxpayer-funded Health Care District of Palm Beach County hopes to reach people who make too much money to qualify for Coordinated Care but cannot afford to buy insurance on their own.

Coordinated Care covers residents that earn less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level, $14,700 for an individual or $30,000 for a family of four.

District officials said Vita Health will cover residents with incomes under 175 percent of the poverty level, $17,250 for an individual or $35,000 for a family of four. Another benefit: Vita Health does not have an asset test to qualify, which Coordinated Care does.

District officials realize that just offering an inexpensive health insurance program won't make certain the uninsured will sign up. As a result, the district expects only 1,000 people to sign up for Vita Health in its first year and about 3,500 after three years.

While most of the uninsured don't have coverage because they can't afford it, many simply don't see the need to pay for insurance while they are young and healthy. Nearly half of the uninsured are between the ages of 21 and 45.

Part of the selling effort will mean explaining to potential applicants that $50 is a bargain because one physician visit can often exceed $75 and one night in a hospital can cost $2,000, the district's Chenette said.

Another big challenge will be getting assistance from the major national retail chains and service industry companies, such as hotels and restaurants, that typically don't provide health coverage. The major chains traditionally have not participated in community-based efforts to expand coverage to their employees.

The district initially will try to sell the program to individuals and is launching a radio and print ad campaign to get the word out. This summer, the district plans to start marketing the program to small businesses, the first time the district will try to target employers that don't provide health coverage.

Vita Health was approved as part of a state initiative to give insurers, community programs and entities like the health care district more flexibility in designing low-cost benefit plans.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.

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Source: The Palm Beach Post

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