Critics Argue Mini Med Plans Offer Minimal Health Coverage
November 2010
Group health insurance is usually much less expensive than individual plans, and tends to offer a good amount of health coverage for workers. However, so-called "mini-med" plans are attracting a lot of criticism for offering too little coverage to workers.
Originally the concern regarding mini med plans began with a congressional probe into McDonald's use of them to offer
health coverage to their employees. Mini plans are more affordable than other group health insurance plans - for employers and employees - but upon investigation it appears that the coverage offered does little to protect the health of employees in the long run.
The problem is that the low caps on coverage don't leave much for the care of a seriously sick or injured person. Many mini med plans cap their coverage at between $2,000 dollars and $10,000 dollars, depending on how much the employee pays.
But with the high cost of health care today, too many employees are finding that any serious illness or injury is going to far surpass the caps set by their health coverage plan. Critics of the mini plans are arguing that they are a waste of employees' money, since the coverage offered will do little to protect them.
However, defenders of the plan argue that mini-med plans are often the only type of health coverage available to low-income workers, who can rely on the coverage for basic checkups and very minimal care.
Facts on:
Health Coverage
Did you know...
Mini-med plans often cap their medical coverage at $2,000 to $10,000 dollars.
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With around 1.4 million Americans paying into
mini-med plans, this issue has become a sticking point for the White House. The recent mandates for additional coverage, the end of lifetime limits, and more have threatened the existence of mini plans.
For the now President Obama has allowed these low-coverage group health insurance plans slip through the mandates passed with the healthcare bill, permitting them to continue operating as they have been in recent years.
In the year 2014 mini plans are supposed to become obsolete, when low-income workers can receive federal help and purchase better health coverage from state-run health insurance exchanges. Of course, this depends upon whether or not the healthcare bill will still exist in its current form at that time.
But in the mean-time it isn't clear whether or not mini plans will be regulated. The congressional committee aiming to investigate such plans continues to do so, in an effort to uncover whether or not they offer workers real benefits, or simply absorb more of their hard-earned cash without offering substantial medical coverage.
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