Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

New Business for Insurers, Pt.3 – Medicaid & SCHIP: Enough to get by.

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On the larger front, things are not so rosy for the big health insurance projects.  The good news of health insurance industry is being beset by the tight government fiscal constraints. The goal of covering the millions of Americans without health insurance seems to be more aloof with time. Mutual consensus between the different concerned government entities on who’s going to pay seems to be fading.

Still, the health insurance industry has been forging ahead with the more predictable aspect of reform. The industry is betting that expansions of the Medicaid and SCHIP programs are still promising. The industry is heavily investing into the business world that administrates the state-level health insurance/care plans. In June, UnitedHealth Group Inc., increased its commitment to this future by acquiring Unison Health Plans. UnitedHealth Group already had a big presence in this arena and are scaling up. Aetna Inc. is scaling up in this sector also. last year they acquired a Medicaid plan operator called Schaller Anderson for $535 million. Schaller Anderson is operating in nine of the states right now.

Meanwhile, leaders in Congress are hoping to jump-start these state-level initiatives (Medicaid and SCHIP) with some first aid. They want to proceed even before the Obama inauguration, as a stimulus to get things moving. A large part of it will involve shoring up funding for what we already have. Congress must keep moving on because, by April, SCHIP funding must be reauthorized. At that time, lawmakers are considering almost doubling those programs. Anticipating growing fiscal complications toward the larger, near-universal health insurance, scope, they feel the need to do more in this smaller way and hope it’s enough until the economic crisis subsides some.

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