Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee beat out two other insurance companies to win the Cover Tennessee contracts. That’s the health insurance plan created this year for small businesses with fewer than 25 employees that don’t currently offer insurance.
Governor Phil Bredesen says Blue Cross won because it came back with a 10-dollar administrative cost–the lowest of the other two plans that bid, Cigna and United Health. Bredesen says that’s more money that can be spent on actual health care.
“The next highest bid has about a hundred dollars of the 150 in there, so this is a real win for people who will be purchasing this insurance. A very high proportion of their money is going into benefits that will come back to them.”
There are two plans with different benefits, but premiums for both will cost individuals anywhere from 34 to 99 dollars per month, depending on age, weight and tobacco use. The state and employers will also each kick in a third.
The plans focus on preventative care, paying for physicals and eye exams, but will also pay for hospital stays up to a certain limit and mental health benefits. Prescription drugs will be covered up to 75 or 250-dollars per quarter depending on the plan.
The Bredesen administration says about 12-hundred small businesses have pre-qualified for Cover Tennessee. Gary Selvy is state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses of Tennessee.
“The feedback that we’ve been given so far as we’ve been going around the state, is this is exactly what small businesses in Tennessee have been looking for. It’s a start. We think the price point is very comfortable.”
The state hopes to have at least 30-thousand people sign up in the first year of the program. The program’s budget is 34-million dollars for the first year, but the state estimates it will spend less than that.
CoverTN is expected to begin enrolling people in March of next year.
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