Highmark Inc. is discontinuing all of its individual “guaranteed-issue” health insurance plans at the end of this year, affecting about 25,000 policyholders in Western Pennsylvania and 13,000 more in the central part of the state.
Those customers, if they intend to maintain health coverage, can buy an individual plan through the Pittsburgh insurer, through another insurance carrier or through the new online health insurance exchanges set to open Oct. 1.
“Guaranteed-issue” policies are a special class of coverage offered by Highmark and other Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers, available to everybody regardless of health history.
The premiums can be expensive, but they also are subsidized. The plans generally are money-losers for the insurer.
In Pennsylvania, the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers are insurers of last resort. They have been the only insurers to offer individual, non-employer-based coverage to those with prior health conditions, without any “medical underwriting” — that is, without the use of personal health information to evaluate an applicant for overall health risks and insurability.