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Eight decades ago the concept of health insurance was an alien one in the United States. And then the year 1929 came and changed everything. Justin Ford Kimball made a brave attempt to offer a prepaid health service to teachers and became successful. Thus what was initially a 50 cent service for 21 hospital days caught up with rest of America. When the Blue Cross Plan (as the prepaid service came to be known later) was revolutionized in Dallas, could the states of Washington and Alaska be far behind? In 1945, the Washington Hospital Service came alive and three years down the line it got the license to offer prepaid health coverage. In 1969, the organization adopted the name of Blue Cross of Washington and Alaska. 1994 was a major turning point for Blue Cross of Washington and Alaska when it became an affiliate of the Medical Service Corporation. And then 1998 became a milestone year when the two merged to form Premera.
The Washington flank of Premera or Premera Blue Cross of Washington has plan offerings for individuals and families on one hand and groups and companies on the other. Individual and family plans by Premera Blue Cross of Washington include Heritage Protector Plus 20, Heritage Value Plus 30, Heritage Preferred Plus 20 and Heritage Preferred Plus 30. The Heritage Protector Plus 20 plan lets members call the shots with low deductible choices of $500 and $1000. This plan is suitable for any individual or family that is looking for coverage on event of high medical costs either for a serious illness or an accident.
Heritage Value Plus 30, too, is a plan to be made use of on any event of serious illness. Deductible choices are three in number on this plan- $2500, $5000 and $10,000. You won’t get coverage for preventive care under this plan. Heritage Preferred Plus 20 does cover preventive care and demands a 20% co- insurance from members when they avail services through the given network. There’s only one deductible choice marked at $1000. Heritage Preferred Plus 30 offers similar benefits the only difference being the coinsurance (in this case it is 30%).
People of 65 years of age and above have a Medicare line of products available for access. There are four plans suited to meet all major requirements and budget restrictions. Premera Blue Cross of Washington offers plans A, C, F and I in the Medicare category of plans.
Group plans are available if and only if the criterion of employee strength is met. The organization has plans for small groups (2 to 50) and large groups (51 to 199) as well. Groups of 2 to 50 can choose from plans like Your Choice, Your Value, Your Balance, Your Future and Your World. Groups of 51 to 199 can opt for all the plans available for smaller groups. Also available are additional plans to suit their requirements and health needs. Your Choice with Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) is one such plan. Larger groups of above 200 employees can get custom- made plans made by Premera Blue Cross of Washington.
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