Carlos Gonzales
New member
The UAMCC has been working for many months establishing dialogue and spearheading a direction for the establishment of Health Insurance Group Rates for the UAMCC. The three primary health insurance carriers, Kaiser and Blue Cross & Blue Shield, have been the target for us in these discussions. With the help of Joel DeGuzman ~ Broker for all three carriers ~ the UAMCC has established the necessary credentials to take these discussions to the next level with Kaiser and Blue Cross & Blue Shield.
Joel DeGuzman has informed the UAMCC that we do qualify for a UAMCC Group Rate Plan for all three carriers. This is great news to say the least. We at the UAMCC have been very cautious in just jumping at what we think is a great opportunity for the UAMCC Assoc. and it's members. Joel recognized this early on in our meetings with him and he has gone as far as obtaining comitments from both Kaiser and Blue Cross & Blue Shield to be available to answer any and all questions we as members have about the UAMCC Group Rates.
Our dilema, if there is one, is that the UAMCC must act as the "payment center" for all three plans. Meaning that UAMCC Inc. would need to pay the Group Rates for each state that has active paying UAMCC members in their respected plan. In order for a state to receive the UAMCC Health Insurance Rate, the UAMCC MUST have at a minimum of 2 contractors in that particular state to qualify for a Group Plan.
An example would be that if the state of Texas had ohhh lets say 20 UAMCC Members - 2 out of that 20 would need to join the same plan in order to receive the UAMCC Group Rate for that Plan. IF one of the two decides to "drop" their insurance or misses a payment...then the other member would automatically be dropped. Our approach or goal is to have more than 2 members interested in Health Insurance in their particular state. This is why you see on our BBS the forums that ask each contractor which state they are from. We wanted to see the demographic make up of our members and hopefully future members.
Having the UAMCC as the "payment center" is a big step. I am a little uneasy about this at first blush i.a. having UAMCC as the payment center. Today we do not have the manpower to fulfill this tasks. This could very well be a full-time job.
One option that has been discussed is having a 3rd party serve/act as our payment center. They would be responsible for collecting monthly health payments from our members and also paying the monthly bill to Kaiser and Blue Cross & Blue Shield. I want to be careful in doing this because I do not want the third parties fee for managing our health care program to reach a level that does not encourage enrollment because of the cost.
Joel DeGuzman has stated repeatedly that a UAMCC Group Plan could save all of us up to 30% on our health care insurance. I want to make sure that we all are having a savings in this and this is why I am a little concerned about hiring a third party.
Open enrollment is July and January. July is out of the question for a UAMCC enrollment. However, if we do get the membership signup through the summer I think we should at least consider looking at January as a possible enrollment for our members.
We do have the green light on this but we must look at the "infrastructure" of the UAMCC today and decide whether or not it will be worth the investment and time to offer this up to our members. If we pursue a third party on handling the payments for us then the UAMCC will need to establish a Health Benefit Comittee of active UAMCC members to research the cost of a third party involvement.
Thoughts?
Joel DeGuzman has informed the UAMCC that we do qualify for a UAMCC Group Rate Plan for all three carriers. This is great news to say the least. We at the UAMCC have been very cautious in just jumping at what we think is a great opportunity for the UAMCC Assoc. and it's members. Joel recognized this early on in our meetings with him and he has gone as far as obtaining comitments from both Kaiser and Blue Cross & Blue Shield to be available to answer any and all questions we as members have about the UAMCC Group Rates.
Our dilema, if there is one, is that the UAMCC must act as the "payment center" for all three plans. Meaning that UAMCC Inc. would need to pay the Group Rates for each state that has active paying UAMCC members in their respected plan. In order for a state to receive the UAMCC Health Insurance Rate, the UAMCC MUST have at a minimum of 2 contractors in that particular state to qualify for a Group Plan.
An example would be that if the state of Texas had ohhh lets say 20 UAMCC Members - 2 out of that 20 would need to join the same plan in order to receive the UAMCC Group Rate for that Plan. IF one of the two decides to "drop" their insurance or misses a payment...then the other member would automatically be dropped. Our approach or goal is to have more than 2 members interested in Health Insurance in their particular state. This is why you see on our BBS the forums that ask each contractor which state they are from. We wanted to see the demographic make up of our members and hopefully future members.
Having the UAMCC as the "payment center" is a big step. I am a little uneasy about this at first blush i.a. having UAMCC as the payment center. Today we do not have the manpower to fulfill this tasks. This could very well be a full-time job.
One option that has been discussed is having a 3rd party serve/act as our payment center. They would be responsible for collecting monthly health payments from our members and also paying the monthly bill to Kaiser and Blue Cross & Blue Shield. I want to be careful in doing this because I do not want the third parties fee for managing our health care program to reach a level that does not encourage enrollment because of the cost.
Joel DeGuzman has stated repeatedly that a UAMCC Group Plan could save all of us up to 30% on our health care insurance. I want to make sure that we all are having a savings in this and this is why I am a little concerned about hiring a third party.
Open enrollment is July and January. July is out of the question for a UAMCC enrollment. However, if we do get the membership signup through the summer I think we should at least consider looking at January as a possible enrollment for our members.
We do have the green light on this but we must look at the "infrastructure" of the UAMCC today and decide whether or not it will be worth the investment and time to offer this up to our members. If we pursue a third party on handling the payments for us then the UAMCC will need to establish a Health Benefit Comittee of active UAMCC members to research the cost of a third party involvement.
Thoughts?