Just business: Five Colorado insurers won’t offer individual child coverage

Parents who don’t have health insurance buy individual policies for their kids but five health insurance companies in Colorado will no longer offer that kind of coverage. The insurers say offering child policies made business sense when they could just…

No relief yet for consumers suffering double-digit WellPoint rate hike

Consumers were shocked when insurance giant WellPoint hiked rates in Colorado this year on its Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield individual-market policies by more than 20 percent. More shocking, perhaps, is that those rates may be perfectly in line, given the way medical prices are rising, according to consumer advocates. State regulators say Coloradans won’t learn whether the rates were fair or not, much less win relief, for months or longer.

WellPoint’s 20 percent Colorado rate hike drew minimal review

As Washington again debated health reform last week, Coloradans enrolled in insurance giant WellPoint‘s Anthem individual group plan reeled from a 19.9 percent rate hike. Indianapolis-based WellPoint levied the double-digit increase here quietly in January, without a sound from Colorado lawmakers. A state insurance commissioner told the Independent he was unsurprised by the increase and “signed off” on it back in September.

Colorado insurers admit to providing uneven birth control coverage

Colorado women offered small-group health insurance plans or looking to buy plans on the individual market and expecting them to cover birth control should be sure to read the fine print. Plans vary widely on the birth control coverage they provide, and the reasoning guiding the products on offer is often unclear. What’s more, denials of service are often buried in contract sections newcomers to the market are likely to skim or not read at all.

In Colorado, pregnancy makes men, children uninsurable, too

When commercial pilot Matt Temme of Castle Rock was furloughed by his employer last June, he lost his health insurance. Temme’s wife had coverage through her employer, but adding Temme and his son would have cost $800 a month— an expensive proposition for a family who had just lost a portion of their income. So Temme went looking on the individual market for insurance. He’s a healthy 41-year-old. His son is a healthy 6-year-old.

“I never imagined I would have a problem,” he said.