Anthem Blue Cross To Close Popular Plan

On March 6th, Anthem Blue Cross of California announced it was closing the popular plan ClearProtection Plus 5000 to new customers as of May 1, 2012. The plan was popular because of its low monthly premium and benefit of 2 offices at a set copay. Anthem did not announce if they would offer a plan similar to it in the future. It is unfortunate the Californians will be losing an affordable health insurance option. 

Current members can stay in the plan and there will be an open enrollment period for people who want to switch plans without medical underwriting in May and June of 2012.

The full press release is below. – Kevin Knauss

Notice of selected policy closures for CA Individual business 

At Anthem Blue Cross Life & Health Insurance Company (Anthem), we see it as our responsibility to offer policies that meet the needs of our customers and the need for premiums to cover claims and administrative cost which includes agent commissions. To make sure that our health policies address those needs, there are times when we assess and adjust our policy offerings. We have evaluated several factors impacting our individual health policies and have made the decision to close the following policies to new members:

• ClearProtection Plus 5000
• CoreGuard Plus 7500 and 10000
• Lumenos HSA 5000 (Please see section 2 for more details)

 1.  ClearProtection Plus and CoreGuard Plus policies only

Effective May 1, 2012, ClearProtection Plus 5000 and CoreGuard Plus 7500 and 10000 will be closed for new sales. These policies are not being discontinued.

Your clients can choose to:

• Remain on their closed policies. Members currently on these policies are free to remain on their policy and add family members subject to normal underwriting guidelines.  It’s important to note that if your clients choose to remain on their current policies,  Anthem will be  “pooling” these policies with select open policies.  A pooling arrangement may help reduce the effect of the policies no longer being open to new sales.  This will allow future rates to be based on a combined risk pool that includes new members and may avoid the impact of an aging block of business.
• Change their coverage.  They will have the opportunity to switch during an open enrollment period from May 1- June 30, 2012, without medical underwriting.
  • ClearProtection Plus 5000 can move to ClearProtection Plus 3300
  • CoreGuard Plus 7500 and 10000 can move to CoreGuard Plus 5000

Additional options outside of the open enrollment would require medical underwriting.