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July 15, 2003 at 08:00 PM
NU Online News Service, July 15, 2003, 6:24 p.m. EDT – The King Thomason Group Inc., San Ramon, Calif., says 11 large insurance brokers have agreed to market its new, Web-based health coverage program.
The American Health Trend Series program includes limited-benefit health insurance plans, health discount programs, dental insurance and prescription drug coverage as well as traditional medical insurance, King Thomason says.
The American Health menu is limited in Oregon, New York, Virginia and Washington because of regulatory restrictions, but King Thomason is offering some products for consumers in all 50 states, according to Tim King, president of King Thomason.
King Thomason is coping with differences in state regulations and state health insurance markets by using different carriers in each state.
Brokers can sell the American Health products through Web sites that appear to belong to the brokers or the brokers’ clients, King Thomason says.
Because the American Health products are individually underwritten or sold on a guaranteed-issue basis, brokers can market the program to individuals and employer groups as well as to associations. But King Thomason designed the program as an alternative for associations.
Associations once had an easy time offering association medical plans. Today, traditional medical insurance is too expensive and too complicated, and most insurers insist on selling large numbers of individual policies, rather than true group policies.
