Low Income Residents May Have Fewer Insurance Options

Except Wisconsin, all states that are a part of Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit plans will be able to choose from a smaller variety of plans than before. Free standing plans of this type are set to decrease from 500 to 308. Part D premiums have to be below a certain standard for insurers to qualify to offer insurance to lower income beneficiaries. In a report featured on USA Today, the insurance premium has been raised by many companies so that they have become ineligible to offer services to lower income people.

The amount of low income beneficiaries who are under part D and who will have to change to new coverage is set to rise by 100,000 from 1.2 mn to 1.3 mn. The actual number of low income beneficiaries was just 250,000 in 2007. In Nevada, low income residents will have only one stand alone plan. People from Arizona will have two.

Humana operates in 43 states but in 2009 it will not offer low income plans to any of these states. Only 14 states will feature Cigna offering low income plans. United Health Group will however increase the number of states it offers low income plans in this year to 42 in 2009. This year that figure was just 30.