By Cosby Woddruff, Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – Laid-off workers are finding that not only are they no longer part of a company, they are no longer part of their company's health insurance plans.
Part-time workers are finding their employers often don't offer health insurance. The result is a recession-driven rise in individual health insurance policies.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama and State Farm didn't supply numbers to show the sales of these policies are rising State Farm because it said the information was proprietary, and Blue Cross because it said it hadn't compiled the data.
But both said the number of people wanting to purchase individual policies is rising, and both urged potential buyers to find out as much about them as possible before purchasing them.
Jim Brown, a Blue Cross spokesman, said the demand came mostly from people who have either lost jobs and still need insurance or from people who don't have insurance available at the workplace.
Diane Stokes, who sells State Farm insurance in east Montgomery and is one of the top sellers of health plans in the market, said those are her primary customers, along with some others who just think they can get a better deal on the open market.
One advantage of buying individual health insurance on the open market is that rather than selecting from one or two plans, you can select from many different levels of coverage.
And rather than paying the same as everyone else as in most group plans, what an individual pays is dependent on their age, gender and location.
That means individual plans can be more affordable for young, healthy customers. Premiums for a 20-something customer can be less than premiums for the same customer under a group plan.
On the other hand, older people may find themselves paying much more, and those with existing health problems may sometimes have trouble finding coverage.