The free market is starting to do what the politicians keep rambling about… actually respond to consumers.
That’s good for small business and work at home business because work at home businesses tend to stay part time because owners fear they cannot obtain reasonably priced health care coverage.
But with so many individual consumers seeking health insurance, as the article says, “Health insurance enters era of consumerism”.
While marketing to unsophisticated consumers and underwriting individual policies can be an administrative headache, carriers have few options. The reason: while the individual market remains minuscule today, it promises a rich source of growth tomorrow.
Individual plan membership at Humana Inc.’s Georgia operations has tripled in the past year, said Bill Britain, Southeast regional sales director for Humana One. Yet that business accounts for more than 8,000 members, or nearly 5 percent of Humana’s statewide membership.
“We’re really just in the infant stages of introducing our product [in Georgia],” Britain said. “It’s our fastest-growing market right now.”
Humana expects individual plan membership to grow 25 percent to 30 percent over the next three years.
Nationwide, individual plans have grown about 3 percent in the past year, while growth in the group market has flat-lined, said Clive Riddle, president of Managed Care On-Line, a Modesto, Calif.-based managed-care publishing and research firm.
“All [carriers] continue to pursue the group market,” Riddle said. “But, every one of them is certainly investing more resources into expanding their individual market as well” because that’s where growth is coming from.
Also, Health Savings Accounts are growing in popularity as a way to save money on health care and, critics say, as a tax shelter.
These are good trends for encouraging work at home business - or serving the work at home businesses created by downsizing.
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