Blue Cross Voluntary Extended Health Benefit - Update
November 16, 2011 at 9:23 PM
As in previous years, the Civic Union Presidents recently met with Blue Cross to review the Renewal Report for the Voluntary Extended Health Benefit program. For the 4,391 members enrolled, which is down 1%, the plan's experience continues to be relatively stable. As such, the premium rate will remain the same and will not increase January 1, 2012.
For the 2,875 members enrolled in the voluntary Emergency Travel Benefit, the premium rate will increase from $2.40 to $2.60 for single coverage and from $4.80 to $5.20 for family coverage effective January 1, 2012. Travel claims occur infrequently, but are potentially very large claims. The premium rates are not based on our plans specific experience, but on the entire Blue Cross book of Travel business. This helps to stabilize rate fluctuations. The last increase to the Travel premium was in 2009.
