Best Health Plans Search - Minnesota

U.S. News and World Report recently ranked different insurance plans on terms on customer satisfaction, the level of care they were offered when needed, and what preventative services were offered. 250 health plans were ranked from across the country. Here is how Minnesota's plans were ranked.

#38
HealthPartners (HMO/POS)Minnesota

#66
Blue Plus (HMO/POS)Minnesota

#135
Medica (HMO/POS)Minnesota

#141
Sanford Health Plan of Minnesota (HMO)Minnesota

#233
PreferredOne Community Health Plan (POS)Minnesota

http://www.usnews.com/directories/health-plans/index_html/plan_cat+commercial/state_id+MN/plan_name+/+Search/sort+rank/detail+more/page_number+1/page_size+10/+undefined

One in 5 Students Remains Uninsured, Despite Colleges' Efforts

This story that ran in the Chronicle of Higher Education last month mentioned one of out five college students are uninsured across the country. Despite many colleges, like the University of Minnesota, requiring all students to have insurance, and offering them plans through the school, it's not working. Going off a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office on college students and health insurance, the article states reasons why some students don't have insurance.
"Students were more likely to be uninsured if they were from low-income families, attended college part-time, or were members of minority groups" were a few reasons they stated.
The article also mentions that 1.7 million students were uninsured in 2006. Senator Edward Kennedy, chairman of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions said recently that student health care should be a major concern to people across the country.
""Students must be healthy to learn," he said.
http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/03/2308n.htm

Statistics On The Uninsured

In 2006, there were 47 million Americans without insurance.

In the same year, 22,000 people aged 25-64 died because they did not have adequate health insurance.

Throughout the United State, twice as many people died from lack of health insurance as died from being murdered.

Living without insurance is the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and cancer in elderly people.

Dying For Coverage In Minnesota. Families USA. Washington D.C., 2008. http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/dying-for-coverage/minnesota.pdf

383,000 Minnesotans do not have health insurance.

That is more than 9% of the state's population.

It would cost between $663-852 million dollars to cover all of the uninsured Minnesotans.

61% of uninsured Minnesotans have been uninsured for a year or more.

59% those uninsured in the state are eligible for public insurance programs but are not enrolled.

There are 66,000 uninsured children in Minnesota.

Yearly insurance coverage costs an average Minnesotan adult is almost $4,000.

Source: How Much Would It Cost to Cover the Uninsured in Minnesota. Minnesota Department of Health. 2006. .

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84% of uninsured Minnesotans have at least one person in their family that works full or part time.

Minnesotans aged 19-26 years old make up the largest percent of the State’s uninsured with 18.7%.

About 1/3 of Hispanics in Minnesota do not have insurance.

If 100 people in Minnesota loses their job, 85 of them (including family members) also lose their health insurance.

A healthy 25 year old woman would have to pay about $1,595 a year for health insurance, averaging about 20-50% of her salary.

80% of Minnesotans living below the poverty level do not qualify for state Medicaid insurance programs.

Who's Uninsured in Minnesota and Why? Families USA. Washington D.C., 2003. ­­­­