Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Individual insurance coverage frustrates Georgians

Individual insurance coverage frustrates Georgians

By Andy Miller, Margaret Newkirk, John Perry
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Saturday, June 20, 2009


As more Georgians are forced to seek health insurance on their own, many are learning painful lessons about the difference between the familiar company-based group coverage and the individual policies that sometimes replace them.

Policies are suddenly canceled. Monthly premiums rival the size of mortgage payments. Huge bills go unpaid because of surprising gaps in coverage.

These lessons and more are embedded in hundreds of complaints filed with the Georgia Insurance Commissioner’s office over the past five years. The complaints contain tales of misery experienced by holders of individual policies, a small but increasingly important segment of Georgia’s health insurance market.

Often the only option for people with no job-based coverage, individual policies account for more than their share of complaints in Georgia, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of insurance records.

The AJC reviewed more than 1,800 health insurance complaints filed between 2004 and 2008. Almost half — 45 percent — involved individual health insurance, even though only 8 percent of the state’s residents, about 460,000 Georgians, were enrolled in such plans. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/06/20/insure_individual.html

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