Tag: South Carolina health insurance

Health insurance competition low in South Carolina

S.Vagus
South Carolina Health Insurance

South Carolina health insurance market lacks competition A new report from the American Medical Association suggests that South Carolina may have one of the least competitive health insurance marketplaces in the U.S. The state falls behind Alabama, Hawaii, Michigan, Delaware, and Alaska in terms of a lack of competition in its insurance market. Despite the existence of the state’s health insurance exchange, competition among insurers remains low, limiting the options that state residents have regarding the coverage they have access to. Blue Cross Blue Shield boasts of majority of the…

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Health insurance rate hike stopped by South Carolina Supreme Court

H. Cutner
South Carolina Health Insurance

The top court in the state has placed a temporary block on increases to plans for state workers. The Supreme Court of South Carolina has announced that it has placed a block on rate increases for the health insurance plans of the employees of the state. The justices have halted the increase until a lawsuit challenging the increase of 4.6 percent can be considered. The typical health insurance increase had been approved by the General Assembly, but this year, they voted to pay for this increase, in its entirety, using…

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South Carolina rejects federal money that would help build insurance exchange

Nordstrom

Reeling from the impact of Hurricane Irene, South Carolina has not lost sight of opposing federal health care reform. Tony Keck, head of the state’s Health and Human Serviced Department, announced Thursday that the state would be rejecting millions of dollars in federal grants that would have been used to help the state build a health insurance exchange. The exchange would have helped residents of the state find affordable insurance coverage and, theoretically, reduce the overall cost of insurance policies within the state as insurers fought for customers. South Carolina…

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S.C. Budget and Control Board raises rates on public employee health insurance.

The South Carolina Budget and Control Board has voted to increase the premiums of the state-run health insurance program that offers coverage to public employees. The board voted Tuesday to raise the rates of the program by 4.5% total which will be put into effect at the beginning of next year. More than 400,000 state employees are covered by the program as well as 100,000 retirees. The vote has drawn some criticism from state workers who argue that the increase is unjustifiable. Employees of the state say that they had…

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South Carolina health care reform change on the way

S.Vagus

South Carolina is taking the first steps to establishing a working health insurance exchange programs. The state is using money it received from the federal government, an initiative to assist in the formation of exchanges, to build a website that will monitor health insurance rate increases. According to state officials, the website will act as a way for consumers to obtain more information on policies. It will also be used to stem the tide of what state officials consider “unreasonable rate hikes.” The state received more than $1 million in…

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