Healthy San Francisco Costs Less Than Private Health Insurance, Report Shows

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health;  Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 18 Mar 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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The Healthy San Francisco program costs substantially less than private health insurance plans, according to a new report by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/14). Healthy San Francisco was approved in 2006 to provide access to health care services at city clinics and public hospitals for the city's uninsured residents. The program requires private companies with at least 20 employees and not-for-profit groups with at least 50 employees either to provide health care benefits to workers at a cost that meets minimum spending levels or help cover the cost of Healthy San Francisco (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/11). The program is not health insurance because it covers services only in San Francisco.

To determine the per-person cost of Healthy San Francisco, researchers divided the cost of operating the program -- $113 million this fiscal year -- by the number of participants and the number of months they were enrolled in the program. The report based the figures for private coverage on the price of a health plan for an individual who is 45 years old, the average age of a Healthy San Francisco participant. According to the report, coverage through Healthy San Francisco cost about $280 per month per person, compared with an average monthly cost of $388 for a Kaiser Permanente health plan and $618 for Anthem Blue Cross coverage.

Mitch Katz, director of the health department, said, "From the point of view of financial viability, this is the first proof we have that Healthy San Francisco works." However, he said, the results should not steer people away from private insurance plans they already have. Charles Bacchi -- CEO of the California Association of Health Plans, which represents 40 companies that provide insurance to 21 million state residents -- said the comparison is not accurate because private health plans provide coverage in a wider service area, not just one locality (San Francisco Chronicle, 3/14).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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