Steward Health Care, Tufts Health Plan unveil small business insurance product

[Recursion]

MassCare has reinvented the HMO, it seems:

Steward Health Care System LLC, , a for-profit network of eight community hospitals in Eastern Massachusetts, and Tufts Health Plan today announced the creation of Steward Community Choice, an insurance product that they claim will cut health insurance costs for small businesses.

According to Steward and Tufts, Steward Community Choice will be priced up to 30 percent below current market rates. Lower health insurance costs for small businesses, and small businesses will create more jobs, Steward and Tufts said.

In a statement, Steward chief executive Ralph de la Torre said: “Massachusetts small businesses are the engines of our state’s economy and our best potential source of new jobs. However, small businesses have been crippled by the constantly escalating cost of providing health insurance to their employees. By creating a comprehensive, benefit rich product at a reduced price, we hope to provide relief to businesses that are struggling to find a way to maintain their health insurance and reinvest in their businesses.”

The Steward press release included a statement from Retailers Association of Massachusetts president Jon Hurst, who noted that many of the association’s members have seen their health insurance premiums increase over the past five years by an average of 15 percent per year.

Basically: comparatively small network of providers, but much lower premiums and copays than most other insurance plans.

[Schema Thing]

1. IOW: "we're gonna go ahead and offer what Obamacare will require in 2 years"

..."because if we don't do it now, the Health Insurance exchanges will be up in running at the same time we have to go to market with these offerings anyway".


One great thing about Obamacare is that ALL insurance will be essentially the same, with just a couple of tiers. The Insurance Companies can compete by offering MORE, but they can not compete by offering less.