Arizona health insurance    Arizona AlieraCare Catastrophic plan

 

 

Arizona Alieracare Careplus catastrophic health sharing plan

 

Many people in Arizona are frustrated by the high cost of insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA , also known Obamacare). They are in good health needing few visits to the doctor. Catastrophic insurance—where you are protected from major, completely unexpected, and highly expensive medical events seems like it would work best for them.

What is catastrophic insurance?

“Catastrophe” is defined as an unexpected, unplanned for event that can have terrible consequences. It protects you from having to go into the hospital due to an unforeseen event and come out with a $100,000 bill.

The Affordable Care Act has catastrophic plans as well, but they are limited to people under 30 years of age.

ALIERACARE’S GOAL WITH CATASTROPHIC COVERAGE

Aliera Healthshare offers coverage that it hastens to claim is not insurance (we’ll explain why in a moment) but fits the bill as far as catastrophic coverage goes. Its goal is to help you deal not with the occasional visit to the doctor’s office for a sore throat but for a major medical events such as hospitalizations, sudden major illnesses and accidents—in other words something that could have a catastrophic impact on your life.

So Aliera’s catastrophic health care plan will cover both in-patient and out-patient surgeries that are performed either in hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers (ASCS) also known as walk-in clinics. These can always assumed to be major financial hits.
This type of coverage also goes by other names such as hospital coverage, emergency medical coverage, hospital only insurance and high deductible medical insurance.

DOCTOR VISITS AREN’T COVERED

Since the Aliera catastrophic coverage doesn’t cover doctor visits and prescription coverage, those Arizonians who need to see a doctor frequently or who have serious pre-existing conditions should consider carrying a different type of plan. Pre-existing conditions are not eligible of r cost-sharing with the Care Plus Advantage catastrophic coverage.

 

You can add PrimaCare to the catastrophic option for office and urgent care consults.

So, what are the differences between Affordable Care Act insurance (Obamacare) and something like Aliera’s catastrophic insurance?
ACA plans have to offer a mandated number of benefits for Arizonians to meet government health insurance requirements.

This includes such things as primary care physician and specialist visits; maternity coverage; hospitalization coverage both inpatient and outpatient; and prescription drug coverage, among other things.

The Aliera catastrophic plans are a lot more bare-boned—and cheaper. If you’re an Arizona resident wanting basic coverage, an Aliera catastrophic plan might be the way to go.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES oF ALIERACARE CATASTROPHIC PLAN

While ACA is the most comprehensive insurance available, and has some guarantees afforded by the government, it does have some disadvantages as well, depending on your point of view. It is relatively more expensive than the old pre-Obamacare type of insurance, especially if there is no subsidy involved. Unless an Arizonian qualifies for what’s called a special enrollment period, you can only sign up or change plans during a specified open enrollment period late in the fall.

With Aliera, someone in Arizona can sign up at any time.

Because the plan does not offer the full range of coverage that’s offered by an ACA plan, outlay for insurance costs can be kept lower; thus, lower premiums.

There are some similarities. The member pays everything out of pocket until the Member Shared Responsibility (MSRA) is reached. (The MSRA corresponds to the deductible in traditional types of insurance). Once the MSRA is met, the member submits all eligible hospitalization, surgical or emergency room expenses for cost sharing at 100 percent. (If a visit to an emergency room occurs, the member is responsible for a $300 co-payment. Once the party is admitted to the hospital, the $300 is then applied to the MSRA. This is another difference with traditional coverage, where the fee is usually waved if the patient is admitted to the hospital).

NOT INSURANCE

Aliera constantly promotes the fact that it is not insurance.

That has to do largely with the way that claims are paid. Money from the premiums are put into a pool, and claims are paid out of this pool. There is always the possibility that claims could exceed the amount of money in the pool, but Aliera has been around since 1996, and that has never happened. It is A rated by the Better Business Bureau as well.

Because it is not traditional insurance, it is not regulated by the individual states’ departments of insurance, so the consumer does not have that recourse to go to if there are problems. It is also faith-based (to enroll in the insurance the consumer must profess the belief in a supreme being, although not affirm belief in any specific religion. That requirement might give some people pause.

COST DEPENDS ON AGE, MSRA (SIMILAR TO DEDUCTIBLE)

What’s the cost of the Alieracare catastrophic insurance?

It depends on the insured’s age and the amount that he or she chooses for the MSRA (deductible). The cost for a single individual with an MSRA of $5000 can range anywhere from $125 to $189 monthly. If the MSRA is increased to $10,000, the monthly premium for a single individual can vary from $104 to $157. (Rates are the same whether you live in Arizona or in another state). The is considerably less than what one would pay for an ACA plan without a subsidy/tax credit. It certainly doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles of an ACA plan, but it is available to anyone, not just a specific age group; it is available all year round, not just during open enrollment.

If your main interest in health coverage is insuring against the big hits, the Aliera catastrophic plans are worth a look.



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