JUL 2013 – Covered California Announces Plans and Rates for 2014

Covered California, the State insurance exchange, announced 13 diverse health insurance plans that will be available in January 2014, State wide. The tenative selection of health plans is subject to a rate review by the state regulators.

The rates submitted for review for the 2014 individual market ranged from two percent above, to 29% below, the 2013 average premium for small employer plans in California’s most populous regions. The 2014 products include doctor visits, prescriptions, hospital stays including a maximum out of poket cost of $6,350.

Once plans are approved by state regulators, Covered California will sign contracts and begin the work of enrolling hundreds of thousands of Californians in the plans. In the Riverside, San Bernardino areas only five plans will be available for individual policies, including, Kaiser, Health Net, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, and Molina Healthcare.

Every health plan designed a custom network for Covered California. Negotiations included a review of each plan’s rates, their mix of hospitals, physicians and other providers and their contingency plans for expanding networks in the event that more consumers sign up than expected.

The current list of insurers is for individual policies only. Covered California will announce its options for small businesses to buy health insurance