California Health Insurance 
How Much can Tonik Save your A to Z?
By some estimates, primarily California Health Care Foundation research that was based on 2003’s U.S. Census data, around thirty-seven percent of Californians between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-four are going without health insurance. To many twenty-somethings, the pressure to begin forging their burgeoning careers will more often than not take precedence over the idea of taking a far less-exciting job that includes a benefits package. For example, there are a growing number of recent college grads and even younger adults starting their own businesses. In 2004, the National Association for the Self Employed conducted surveys that revealed that fifteen percent of its members were in their 20s or 30s.
But, for other young Americans, being uninsured is not a choice. College graduates are entering a jobs market wherein fewer and fewer firms are financially capable of them comprehensive offering health insurance benefits. From 2000 to 2003, the numbers of nineteen to thirty-four year olds covered by an employer-sponsored health care plan fell by six million, the sharpest decline among the non-elderly adult population in since the end of WWII. The reasons for such a dramatic shift can be partly explained by the fact that there are more adults who are either self-employed or working at a smaller firm that can't offer benefits. And, given the tough job market, many younger adults are also opting for part-time or temporary work.
Of course, little of the above would even rise to the level of a mild concern, for most 19 to 29 year olds if it weren’t for the ever-increasing costs of health care in general and health insurance in particular. Back In 1998, health care spending here in the United States topped out at over 1.1 trillion dollars. That figure represented a staggering 13.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product for that calendar year. More importantly, said percentage meant that our collective healthcare costs had handily outpaced that of any other country—$4, 094 for every man, woman, and child living in the United States. Take a look at the case example below:
Outpatient Cancer Treatment—and, as anyone who watches the Discovery Channel already knows, though rare, it’s no where near as out of the question for nineteen to twenty-nine year olds as we’d all like to think . . . One outpatient cancer treatment could end up costing you as much as $9,982.53. If you’d like to see how that itemizes out here goes . . . $2,160 for the erythropoietin (the medicine) used to promote the formation of “replacement” red blood cells. A necessity because of the anemia that makes cancer patients so tired. Then there’ll be $2,737.50 charge for an infusion of the pamidronate used to prevent cancer-ravaged bones from breaking too easily. Next up you have a $3,737.35 price tag attached to the leuprolide depot that helps prevent the cancer from spreading. Then there are the charges for starting the IV injections themselves. And, that’s before counting the costs for the actual visit to the cancer specialist responsible for ordering those treatments, the monthly blood tests, other daily prescription medications and or studies used to effectively visualize the patient’s treatment response.
What You Could Wind Up Spending On Medical Care:
· If you need to spend one night in a hospital $7,175.00
· If you need longer term care, the national average cost for a full hospital stay is $30,000.00
· If your appendix bursts the care and surgery required to deal with a appendicitis (five days in a hospital on average) could total out at as much as $48,151.00
· If your knee pops on the slopes, the knee surgery and rehabilitative care plus an average two day long hospital stay could easily cost you $48,302.00
· If you crack your skull against a reef, care for a skull fracture plus intra-cerebral hemorrhage will be at least $291,305.00
· You need to be flown to the hospital in an air ambulance – $8,928.00
· You need to be driven the hospital in a traditional ambulance $607.00
· Remember, anti-dumping laws only require that hospitals stabilize you-not fix you
In order to lend twenty-somethings, confronted by the daunting threat to their emerging financial status that incurring such expenses could represent, a much needed “assit,” Blue Cross of California has only just launched a fresh group of health care plans that are collectively known as TONIK. The trio of TONIK Plans, dubbed The Thrill Seeker, The Part Time Daredevil and lastly The Calculated Risk Taker were specifically designed to serve the healthcare needs of young people and built around their healthy and active lifestyles. TONIK’s plans range in premium expense from around $64 to $80 per month, and its yearly deductibles bottom-out at $1,500 for the most expensive TONIK plan (The Calculated Risk Taker) to $5,000 for the least expensive plan (The Thrill Seeker).
Both of the less expensive TONIK plans, The Thrill Seeker and The Part-Time Daredevil, offer coverage for up to four routine physician visits every year—to which neither plan’s yearly deductible applies, while the most expensive TONIK, The Calculated Risk-Taker, reimburses plan participants for unlimited yearly doctor’s office visits. The overall features of the three products parallel many of those in BCBS traditional PPO plans, but TONIK additionally includes not only a dental plan but a limited benefits vision plan as well as traditional health coverage. Because, young adults surveyed by Blue Cross in preparation for launching the plan overwhelmingly cared juts as much about taking care of their teeth as their bodies.
By applying online, applicants for TONIK policies can get a virtually instant response after answering several questions concerning age, area of residence, any past hospital stays, prescription drugs they regularly take, etc. Blue Cross of California’s standard underwriting policies do apply, however. The TONIK plans are intended to appeal to and service a generally healthy population aged 19 to 29, who may, on occasion, experience either a sudden illness or an unexpected injury, such as appendicitis or a even a broken limb, but not to cover individuals with existing, serious medical problems. Also, for the same reasons that they do cover both vision and dental care, TONIK plans do not offer coverage for standard maternity care expenses.
