Many people opt for California group health insurance because it is far less expensive than individual insurance plans. This is why employers group their staff members together when purchasing a company policy rather than purchasing an individual plan for each person. Simply put California group health insurance gives people the opportunity to save money. It also provides an opportunity for individuals, smokers or obese people to get coverage that is within their budget when they might otherwise be charged dramatically higher rates.California group health insurance will save you a lot of money even if you have a health condition that would either make individual health insurance too expensive or too difficult to come by. A group plan is a good way of lowering your costs without reducing the quality of coverage you will receive. Since the risk of the plan is spread out across a large group of people, the insurance carriers are able to provide these lower rates without hurting their own bottom line. It works for everyone. California group health insurance works much differently than California individual health insurance, California kids medical insurance or California family health insurance. Group medical insurance ends up being much cheaper and affordable than individual policies would be for each member. The members of the groups that are insured are reimbursed or covered for many of the charges for doctor visits, surgeries, or any other medical expenses. The insured people have a choice of hospitals or doctors in many cases, such as with the fee-for-service plans. In managed care plans, however, the carrier will be more specific in planning the health coverage of group members. Prior approval from the insurance company has to be made before admitting the insured person to a hospital. There are many different types of California group health insurance to choose from. The great thing about these plans is that everyone in the group will be covered for far less than what they would pay if they were on their own.

About the Author

For more resources regarding California Health Insurance Online Quote or even about California HSA and especially about California Children’s Health Insurance please review these pages.

In California, health insurance quotes are not difficult to find and avail. However, Californians would easily assert hat looking for health insurance quotes remains one of the most cumbersome tasks that they have to perform. It consumes time, which is for an average American is pretty important.

But there is no need to panic. With the online technology coming to its true form and developing with every single day, getting health insurance quotes has become as easy as buying sugar-candy. A lot of websites, portals and official company pages offer help in getting health insurance quotes in California.

A very little amount of personal information is needed to generate suitable health insurance quotes through health search engines. Moreover, these online platforms offer quote comparison facilities to the users who could assess which type of plan would give them maximum coverage within minimum budget.

Health insurance quotes help the consumers to get a preview of what could be in offer within a particular health insurance plan. This preview is pretty effective in making sure that the consumers understand the produce well enough to make a learned decision. If consumers are filled with doubt while purchasing a health insurance plan in California, then it does not reflect as a very genuine type of business practices in any particular industry.

What type of information is required for health insurance quotes in California?

* The gender of the consumers

* Date of birth of the consumers

* Height and weight of the consumers

* Weight of the consumers

* Drinking and smoking habits of consumers (if any)

* Pre-existing medical condition (if any)

* Existing health insurance policy (if any)

It is pretty important on consumer’s part to offer proper and correct information because the online technology customizes the health insurance quotes purely based on the information provided. Because there is no real-time interaction with a salesman or a representative, consumers need to make sure that they provide correct information to the system.

The main motive of online technology in providing health insurance quotes to Californians is to provide broker-like experience and advice that could be useful for the consumers. This reduces time spent and costs for the consumers and also for the insurers at some level. As a learned consumer, Californians should make use of this facility and avail free online health insurance quotes as per their needs.

About the Author

Shaun Mike writes extensively about medical insurance California and how to make a learned decision while buying health insurance California.

Can anyone recommend a plan? My job is only part-time so I need something cheap or affordable that will help cover my medication. Please help. I have no idea how to do this. D:

health insurance scheme without getting quotes from different companies and the different plans that can be opted for.

When you apply for medical insurance, the California health insurance quote will give you an idea about how much money you will have to pay to get the amount of medical coverage that

you want.

* Best Way To Get Insurance

* Be Careful While Choosing Insurance Company

* Choose a Precise Insurance Plan to get More Benefits

Best Way To Get Insurance

The best place to get health insurance quotes would be to search the internet. You will get to know all the companies (companies whose names you are familiar with and companies you have not heard about), that provide health insurance and will also get their quotes. You will find that many companies will offer free quotes on their web pages. This service is accessible any time of the day. The details are quite self explanatory, quickly available and easy to use. There are certain websites that give you quotes of different health insurance companies in one site.

You can also inquire among your friends and relatives and find out which health insurance they have opted for and how to get a quote. You can also use the local phone book to obtain the phone numbers and addresses of the medical insurance companies to get a quote. If you want to speak to someone instead of using the internet, you can call the insurance company

and request a quote. They will be able to give you all the details and explain any point that you do not understand.

Be Careful While Choosing Insurance Company

The websites can also give you personalized quotes. For this you will have to give some personal information. This information will be related to your health and the health of all the family members for whom you want to get insurance. With this information, they will be able to give a personalized quote. You should then contact a professional health insurance agent who will be able to help you compare all the quotes that you have got and choose the best health insurance plan best suited for your needs.

The professional health insurance agent will be able to tell you which companies you should be careful about. Some companies might be prone to raising their rates while others might hassle you when you really go to them with a claim. You should get the quotes of many companies, compare them, and weigh their pros and cons. After making a thorough study of all the available options of affordable California health insurance, you should come to a decision about the one you want to choose for your own requirements.

Choose a Precise Insurance Plan to get More Benefits

You should choose a plan which suits your needs. Some families might need more dental coverage for their children; others might need more coverage for prescription drugs, while still others might want just the minimum coverage. Depending on the requirements, the premium to be paid and the coverage offered, you must be get the quotes from different companies, compare and then get the insurance.

Affordable health insurance in California is possible. Some effort has to be made in researching the various companies and their plans. This will give the person wanting to take insurance a fair idea of how much premium has to be paid and how much he can be insured for. With these details he can get quotes and choose the plan that will fit his requirements.

In California, when you own a small business and want to get health insurance coverage for both yourself and your employees, there are state laws on the books that say insurance companies must provide this coverage to you.  California state law AB1672 says that as long as you meet all of these requirements, then you cannot be denied when trying to get a California small group health insurance plan.  These requirements state that your business must be up and running for longer than two months, you must pay all of your premiums, you must offer coverage to all of your employees who are eligible, you must meet the requirements of the insurer that deals with your contribution and the participation of your employees, and you cannot have ever committed some type of insurance fraud.  As long as you meet these few guidelines, you will be given access to a small group plan.

Regarding an individual health insurance plan, there is no such law in California that states you must be granted insurance coverage.  This is just one of the many benefits of obtaining a California small group health insurance plan rather than getting an individual insurance plan.

Another major difference between obtaining a California small group health insurance plan and an individual plan is the way in which your monthly premiums will be decided.  With an individual insurance plan, you will have to undergo extensive medical tests and examinations.  Your premiums will mostly be based on how healthy or unhealthy you are.  With a small group plan, your premiums are not based upon your own medical history.  Since there are more people in your group pool to spread out the risk a little bit, your premiums will be based more on things like age and gender.

Employees expect to work well, take minimum sick leave, give maximum output, and earn good money from their place of work. The workplace or the employer wants healthy, well-cared employees. The Human Resource divisions of various firms in California have realized that by offering California Group Health Insurance to the teams in their organization they are providing added benefits to the employees that may in turn keep them motivated.

The HR in the company can negotiate with the California Health Insurance companies regarding premium, extent of coverage, and whether they want to take the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) or the Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) scheme. The payment to be made for the HMO scheme will be lower as the insured is provided with a contact doctor who is responsible for all health care facilities and advice for the insured.

In the PPO scheme the list of doctors and hospitals the insured person can use is much larger, and hence the monthly cost or premium is higher. Normally, under California Group Health Insurance scheme the company only pays the premium and therefore, the HR has to decide which one to choose among HMO or PPO. California Health Insurance has a reputation of being honest, dedicated, offering schemes full of benefits, and their excellent service.

No matter which kind of group insurance the employees in a company have, the employees expect their HR to be well informed about the group health policy details. Probably the company HR will not buy eye care and dental care coverage in the group insurance policy. Individuals can buy these for covering expanses like spectacles, lenses, or eye check up separately. Even dentist expenses may be quite high and the employees can individually buy dental insurance for regular teeth cleaning, teeth extraction, fillings in the teeth, and x-ray of the teeth.

A good HR department in a big company might provide dental care and eye care cover to senior management or to all employees as such. Hence even in a big company there can be two group policies, one for junior level employees and one for very senior managerial staff.

The government encourages employers to have California Group Health Insurance for its employees and receive credit for this good deed. If the firm is not paying to California Health Insurance then the government will expect the company to pay a fee to the government. Normally, employees benefit from group insurance schemes because they might face health problems all of a sudden and they may not have sufficient money as they have just bought a new house or a new big car. Moreover, they may not get insurance cover for their families from the workplace and hence have to pay a premium for their families cover for medical expanses. Any extra benefits from the job are always a welcome.

California Group Health Insurance, like the group health insurances of every other state, is a single policy designed to give medical cover to a group of people working under the same employer. This California Health Insurance plan is generally availed by the employer, by which he brings all his employees under one single umbrella of coverage. However, different types of policies are available within California Group Health Insurance plans.

A PPO or Preferred Provider Organization allows the policyholder to travel out of the insurance provider’s network for medical treatment. This is a comparatively costly California Health Insurance plan because the policyholder will have to pay a separate co-insurance for availing this out of network medical aid. Co-insurance is a provision by which he will have to bear a percentage of the medical costs. A PPO policyholder has also got to pay a deductible. The policy, however, allows the individual to seek medical help from any specialist he chooses. Though expensive, this type of California Group Health Insurance policy gives the insured individual better treatment options.

Another policy option under California Group Health Insurance is HMO or Health Maintenance Organization. Those who hold this policy do not have the freedom to move out of the insurance provider’s network. Even to see a specialist, he has to be referred to the specialist by a primary care physician. By and large HMO works out cheaper than PPO mainly because it has a much lower co-insurance and does not involve a deductible at all. But under it the policyholders do not have the benefit of HSA or Health Savings Account. HSA is a feature, which allows the user to start a tax-free account where he can deposit money and earn an interest and the amount can be used for medical expenses. For a California Health Insurance plan to be eligible for HSA, it must at least have a yearly deductible of more than $1000.

Both the PPO option and HMO option include what is known as co-payment where the insured has to bear a percentage of the cost of the doctor’s fee and other lab expenses. There is a third type of policy under California Health Insurance referred to as POS or Point of Service. This basically works like an HMO only, but here the policyholder can choose to get treated by the specialist he prefers, as in the case of PPO, instead of having to get a primary care physician to recommend him. Because the policyholder himself decides where to seek medical care, he will also have to pay a higher co-insurance to cover this. Simply put, this plan functions on the basis of how the individual decides to use the California Group Health Insurance at the ‘point of service’.

By the provisions of California Health Insurance, insurance companies are bound to offer employers California Group Health Insurance. However, employers can decide whether an employee is eligible for cover under the California Group Health Insurance policy that he buys. One of the rules that decide the eligibility of the employee is FMLA or Family and Medical Leave Act of the state. The rule allows employees to take leave without losing the benefits of their California Group Health Insurance during their leave. It is applicable only to businesses, which employ more than fifty people.

FMLA allows the employees to benefit from the coverage of California Group Health Insurance during periods of intermittent leave or a longer unpaid leave up to three months. His right to be covered by California Group Health Insurance will depend on the nature of the medical emergency. For example, a leave for cosmetic surgery may not always be considered a condition that allows a person to take leave and remain covered by California Group Health Insurance.  The rule also helps an employee to keep his insurance cover if he has to leave for a few hours every day for some medical therapy. However, each case will have to be judged on its own merits, as there are different types of exceptions to the rule.

The premiums of California Health Insurance will vary depending upon the location of the company. Certain areas are considered to be more risky from a medical point of view and location of the insurance provider will also influence the rate of premium. If one company has different branches functioning at different locations, the premium for California Group Health Insurance of each of these branches may be different.

California Group Health Insurance policies can be further customized by adding what are known as benefit riders. Benefit riders are additional coverage that can be added to a policy to better tailor it to specific needs. For example, benefit riders for eye care, maternity benefits, or dental coverage can be added to an existing California Group Health Insurance to ensure better coverage for employees. An employer is expected to provide the same California Group Health Insurance policy to all his employees, irrespective of when they joined the company. This is expected to provide a harmonious working atmosphere and avoid discrimination claims.

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1. Shop around for the best California group health insurance deal. You can save a lot of money if you do a thorough research before settling with a particular health plan. Your insurance company should be able to offer you assistance in choosing from different health care plans and narrowing down on the plan that best fits your needs.

2.

Consult with your employees. Your main objective should be to provide your employee with the perfect health care plan possible, without spending unnecessarily. The best compromise will be to take out the extra coverage which your workers will most likely not need. Try to find out what your employees particularly need from their California health insurance coverage and select a plan that can fulfill most of them and at the same time, fits your company budget.

3. Go for an HSA eligible California group health plan. Health savings accounts or HSA allows business owners and employees to make tax-free contributions. These contributions are non-taxable, and your employees can benefit from them as they will be able to use the HSA money for their insurance premium or medical needs without due taxes.

4. Work with an insurance company that has locked in rates. Many California health insurance providers are forced to raise their premiums every year for one reason or another. There are others that can offer you fixed in rate for your group health care policy. An insurance provider with locked in rates should be ideal.

However, this should not be your sole basis for determining which provider to entrust your California group health insurance with. Make sure you consider other factors such as deductibles, network coverage, premium costs, and so on, which are just as important.

5. Share the premiums. If you can’t afford to shoulder the entire cost of the premiums for your employee’s California group health insurance plan, ask them to share a part of it. It is typical for small businesses to ask their employees to share a part of the monthly premiums. Consult them first and evaluate how much they can afford, with thoughtful consideration. Make sure you don’t let them pay more than they would if they belonged to another company.

6. Go for a flexible health plan. Many California health insurance companies now provide flexible group health plans. This allows your employees to customize their level of insurance coverage that exactly fits their needs. This is not only advantageous for them, but it can also offer you a significant amount of savings on insurance premiums.

From the point of view of an employee, having California health insurance through their company has various benefits that can not be equated to a monetary value.

Aside from the fact they do not have to pay big premiums as they would if they get a private health insurance, they also enjoy the security and peace of mind that should something happen to their health along the way, they can seek medical attention without going bankrupt. Typical private health insurance may range from a few hundreds to a few thousands. With California group health insurance, the company pays for at least 50% of their health care needs, some even paying the entirety. Considering the high costs of medical care, this is the kind of protection that everyone needs, in case the unexpected happens.

Getting health care benefits does not only benefit those who work for a company and get health coverage. Your company will also benefit from a good health plan, which is why you provide them in the first place. With a health policy, a worker who gets sick will be able to receive medical attention immediately. This translates to speedy recovery, and allows very minimal disruption in everyday tasks in the office.

Good health also means good productivity. Your employees can worry less about their health and focus more on their jobs and becoming more productive.

California group health insurance plans usually include an annual physical checkup. These routine checkups are very important for your employees and for the company as well. It is an effective way to make sure employees are in tip top health. In addition, they allow early diagnosis of medical conditions, preventing it from worsening before it’s too late. This is ideal both for you, as the employer, and for the good of your employee as well.

Staff benefits you provide your employees, such as a good California health insurance plan, never fails to give the company a very positive image. It also boosts your staff’s morale knowing that your company attends to their most important needs. California group health insurance can vary from one insurance provider to another, and from one policy to another. Generally speaking, they cover inpatient and day-patient treatment, outpatient treatments, specialist consultations (after referral from a general practitioner) and free help lines.

California Group Health Insurance, as in the case of any group medical coverage, is a single California Health Insurance policy issued to cover a group of employees. Some of these policies may cover the dependents of an employee also. These California Group Health Insurance policies are quite different in nature from the individual insurance policies, which cover just one person or a family. An insurer has the right to refuse policies to an individual, and even when an individual policy is issued, it is done only after a thorough medical examination of the applicant, and scrutinizing of his medical history.

As different from this, under the California Small Group Law AB1672, the insurer has no right to refuse California Group Health Insurance to the employer because of the health condition of the employees.  Even small employers whose number of employees may be anything as low as two, and may go up to only fifty, become eligible for California Group Health Insurance, as far as they satisfy certain criteria. Even in instances where employees do have health problems, this California Health Insurance law ensures that premium would only be slightly higher than the normal.

Because of the provisions of the law, small employers also get the right to purchase a California Health Insurance plan that is offered to other employers within the same geographical location. The law also provides that an insurer should not withdraw the California Group Health Insurance coverage of a small employer just because some of those insured have a health conditions that will prove a bit expensive for the insurer. The coverage can be canceled only if the employers fail to meet the following eligibility criteria.

One of the requirements that make employers eligible for purchasing California Group Health Insurance is that they should have been in business for more than two months. Another is that they should comply fully with the insurance company’s rules about the contribution required from the side of the employer and the participation required from the side of the employees. The employer should not indulge in any fraudulent acts against the insurer and should pay the premiums on time. Finally, the employer should provide California Group Health Insurance to all their eligible employees whether they are part time or full time.

If you are a resident of California and on the lookout for health plans, websites providing California health quotes is the right place to learn more about health ins. in California. There are great deals that can fit your budget, however, it requires a little research in various companies that provide health insurance in California. Getting health insurance quotes from various companies will let you compare the different aspects covered under the policy and pick the right one that fits you purpose.

It is time consuming to obtain quotes form different companies to compare prices and coverage, it is certainly worth the time spent. By doing so, you can get the best coverage at the least of expenses. Different health companies operating in California provide health quotes free of cost to their potential customers. You can obtain health insurance quotes either online or via phone. Getting soft copies through the internet is the best way to preserve them for a future comparison. The following are some of the popular health companies that provide health cover to residents of California at highly competitive rates. Aetna, Blue Cross of California, Blue Shield of California, HealthNet, Nationwide, Pacificare, Health Savings Accounts, Medicare Supplemental Insurance, Maternity Coverage, Low Cost Options, and many more. Blue Shield of California is one of most preferred benevolent health plan provider in California.

While California health plans are the best way to face any unexpected health problems, comparing health insurance quotes will save you much money and be of good help at time of need. With the economy going down by the day, it may become impossible to obtain quality health care without the aid of health insurance companies. The emergence of new pandemics has also made people consider health schemes that cover a wide range of ailments. It is not always easy to find cheap health insurance plans that fulfill your expectations. You certainly can come across one if you thoroughly research the internet on the various health insurance plans offered by different insurance companies. If you are unable to locate cheap health insurance policy that is up to your expectations, do not just go for the available options within your budget.

The first priority should be given to the coverage lest the policy will be useless when you are in need of help. If you have found the best plan that fits your needs, you always have the option of negotiating the price of the plan with the insurance providers. Some of the health insurance agents in California can even provide you with discounts on health insurance that has a wide coverage.

Not having health insurance coverage is a very bad idea.  You can get sick out of the blue and you never know when injuries can occur.  Buying health insurance isn’t exactly cheap and expenses tend to increase pretty fast.

The lack of health insurance can wipe out your financial stability in the event of unexpected injuries or accidents.  It’s critical to get low-cost health coverage as health support and medical care are quite pricey.

There are several agencies that provide medical care insurance.  The organizations will tend to provide multiple packages to connect the right policy to those who need them.

Acquiring the proper health insurance policy can be hard work.  You need to ensure you obtain top coverage for a price that you can easily pay.  Therefore, it’s a good idea to get insurance rates online so you can get the best rates out there.

Go here for a free health insurance quote.

You just need to fill out a basic questionnaire when using a service to get Individual Health Insurance CA.  The policy figures from all the different providers will be made available to you so you can compare them.  You will be able to choose the insurance policies that meet your demands and that are financially sound.

You also save a lot of time by using health insurance quote websites.  If you were to get quotes separately from each provider, it would literally take you hours to do.  It’s a great thing free services are in place to help you obtain rates from all the insurance providers very quickly.

Get more info on Individual Health Insurance CA and get a free insurance rate by going here.

Will we qualify for coverage with so many of our workers out of state?  

It depends. The key issue here is participation requirements imposed by State of CA bill AB 1672 governing Small Business Health Insurance. The regulation allows the California health insurers to demand 51% of the total employee population to maintain permanent residence in California. This is not taken from the full time w2 payroll eligible enrolling pool, but the total employee population.
What type of plan do they enroll?   All plans offered may not be available to foreign state employees. HMO’s, or Health Maintenance Organizations for instance will often not be able to support as the employees, providers, locations, and contracts for services are based on local coverage zones with sufficient population to support the expenses. Quantity, or volume, of members is a necessity to support the insurance model. Standard practice is for the same PPO, or Preferred Provider Organization, plan option(s) available. Or, sometimes a specific ‘Out-of-State’ or ‘Indemnity’ plan is made available if the California health insurance carrier does not have a provider contract to utilize in the foreign state.

What about pricing? 

Pricing can either be based on the rate the employee would assume in the zip code of the company headquarters, or if the health insurance carrier happens to be national and has group insurance plans registered in the state you can see the local registered premiums for your employees. This is not always a good thing as it can lead to confusion having to manage two sets of pricing.

What doctors and hospitals do the out of state employees utilize?

The number of available ‘in-network’ providers will vary greatly depending on the health insurer. Anthem Blue Cross of California and Blue Shield of California use the BlueCard Network which is the national association contract list for all Blue Cross Blue Shield proivders nationally. This situation is unique to Blue Cross, Blue Shield, & a minority of national carriers like Aetna and UnitedHealthCare. The other option you may see is where a health insurance company like Health Net of California, who is incorporated and plan registerd to offer coverage in several states, contracts with a national physicians network to ensure their members have ‘in-network’ doctors and hospitals to visit in every state. Lastly, if you offer your employees an HMO with no PPO plan coverage your out of state employees can be left without health coverage because the HMO will not cover anyone outside the coverage zone.

Can we set up a separate plan for our foreign state locations?  

This is a big maybe. Many health insurers will offer carve-out populations to be insured based on location but often a minimum number of enrolling employees is mandatory and the insurance coverage is not guaranteed to be issued.

Choosing The Right California Health Insurance Carrier

Choosing the wrong company to do business with can be a disaster. Make sure your carrier has a strong AM Best rating, has posted their insurance license number on their website, and has current Provider contracts with your doctors, medical groups, and hospitals of preference. The insurance industry can attract fraudulent businesses because there is so much money at stake. Make sure you go with a leading California health insurance carrier and not some fly by night operation with a deal too good to be true.

Information Overload

You will quickly discover one of the biggest favors you can do for yourself and your employees is to narrow the options to the best available and provide highlighted information for comparison, plan selection, and enrollment . The subject often confuses your employees quickly which makes them anxious and frustrated. We will assist you in providing condensed information which contains only the specifics your employees will need to make choices crucial to their health care and pocketbook.

Plan Choice

State of California regulation AB 1672 requires the regulated California health insurance carrier to offer qualifying Small Businesses coverage, and they also must offer all the plans marketed to all business. In other words they can’t hide any plans from you. Once qualified for coverage the plan choice can be tricky. A single plan is not going to meet the needs of all your employees.  We suggest you offer more than one plan choice but not too many. Less is more. Most commonly an HMO and a PPO plan to make sure low out of pocket on expenses and flexibility of doctor choices are available. Getting the employees to agree on the right plan for everyone is not always easy, but with a little flexibility any group can be satisfied.

Employee Participation

As discussed in our overview on employee participation you may have a problem getting enough employees to participate in the group insurance plan you are offering. This can be a tricky one to solve as it’s almost always a matter of dollars contributed from you, the Employer. The obvious fix is of course to offer to pay a greater amount of employee premiums. More creatively understand part of the problem is that historically your employees may not have had to pay a percentage of their premiums. As costs have risen year after year and Employers split the premium costs with employees there is an adjustment period where your employees realize that health insurance is not free.

In offering your benefits package to your employees there will be some hurdles, but utilizing an experienced Group health agent can clear up the confusion and jump the hurdles as they arise.

Blue Cross Insurance of California also provides a large network of highly qualified doctors with all necessary medical facilities. Apart from basic services such as hospitalization, surgeries, and outpatient treatment for sicknesses, Blue Cross Insurance of California are also covering preventive care, care for chronic conditions, vision and dental care, prescription drug coverage etc. Blue Cross Insurance of California provides you the best possible group insurance plans.

There were originally two separate companies Blue Cross and Blue Shield and they merged many years ago to form the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. There are still states where Blue Cross and Blue Shield are considered separate entities rather than a merged company. Blue Cross and Blue Shield health care providers have one company in almost each state. This way, you can get the best of both worlds by taking advantage of affordable health insurance plan premiums, while getting the best overall health care that you deserve.

Currently, this organization has over 30 independent health insurance companies operating on different parts of the country. Blue Cross of California, owned by Wellpoint, is determined about creating low cost products to help the uninsured. Now they are even taking somewhat controversial steps in allowing immigrants without documentation other than that issued by Mexican consulates to avail their plans.

The Blue Cross believes that people after years of hard work and paying appropriate taxes, deserve nothing but the best medical care that they can get. For a few years now, retirees, government and private employees, unemployed individuals, housewives, as well as US citizens working abroad have been receiving some form of benefit from a Blue Cross or Blue Shield health care provider.

The Blue Cross offers affordable monthly health insurance premiums and provides you with a choice between short and long-term health coverage, depending on your individual needs. Blue Cross offers discounts on medical procedures, consultations and general health care and has plans for medical supplies in case of an injury or a short period of stay in the hospital.

The Blue Cross of California Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Plans cover more of the costs of your health care than any other plan type. HMO Plans provide coverage only for services received from doctors and hospitals within the HMO Network. You can choose a specific health care group and physician within the network to coordinate all of your health care needs. As a Blue Cross member, you will also enjoy special member services, including Health Extension SM program, which provides the members information about discounts offered by independent vendors on health products and services and round the clock confidential access to registered nurses to help members manage chronic diseases including diabetes, asthma and congestive heart problems.