Six large national employers have begun to offer employee-paid, low cost low coverage health insurance plans to part-time workers. The plans are provided by United HealthGroup, Cigna and Humana to employees without other health coverage. Plans range from a discount card providing lower cost prescriptions, medical and dental checkups to high-deductible programs with and without pre-existing condition limitations.

According to the New York Times,
"UnitedHealth Group is offering the discount card and four levels of limited coverage in all 50 states at monthly premiums ranging from $59 to $149. In 15 states, United will also offer high-deductible policies that cover major medical costs, under the same group rules with no add-on charges for people with preconditions.

The major medical premiums vary based on an enrollee's age, sex and location. Humana will offer the high-deductible policies to individuals in 17 states and Cigna will offer them in Arizona only. Under these individual contracts, premiums may also be higher for those with preconditions."

The program is offered to workers at Sears, Federal-Mogul, IBM, GE, and EMC as well as to independent contractors at Avon Products.

Credit goes to the employers and the not-for-profit group that is sponsoring the initiative, the HR Policy Association.

We'll be following this closely to assess the results, market acceptance, and as time goes on, profitability of the program.

What does this mean for you?

An interesting experiment to watch and learn from. Possiblya way to stem the tide of uninsurance that is increasing costs for employers and employees as the uninsured population's care is paid for by those with coverage.