Insurers: Short-term health plans on rise - Kansas City Business Journal:

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In fact, sales of individuak policies, both short term or are both up over 30 percenft from the same periodlast year, which was a records sales year for the insurance company, said Margareg Jarvis, a spokeswoman for Blue Croszs and Blue Shield of Texas. An increase d interest in individual plans, particularly for short-tern plans for those who need temporary coverage between can be seen in the recent launchezs ofmore short-term individual plans by major insurance companies.
For instance, UnitedHealthcare’s subsidiary recentlhy introduced two new short term health insurancw plans in Texas that offer coverage from one to 12 They are designed specifically for thosde who cannot affordor aren’t eligible for Cobrza in the troubled economy. Cobrza is a federally mandated program in whichh workers who lose theirr jobs have the rightg to maintain their healthy insurance plan at their companyh for a set periodof time. The idea behindc Cobra is to make sure aworkeer doesn't have a lapse in health insurance while in betwee jobs.
The time that someone coulxd be on Cobra was recentlty extended through thefederal government's stimulus bill, and premiums for laid off worker s were also reduced. said it launche d a similar short term insurance producty called HumanaOne in April that is being offeredin Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin. The need for thesed types of temporary plans are have becomwe greater in the current Golden Rule CEO RichardCollins said.