NASW Members looking for health, long-term care, vision, and dental insurance should be made aware that NASWers in NY (up to Ulster, Putnam, and Rockland County) (Oxford), CT, NJ, Greater Chicago, including part of Indiana, California, and Florida (CIGNA), can get health insurance through TEIGIT, The Entertainment Insurance Group Insurance Trust.
TEIGIT Insurance is offered at group rates and both HMO and POS plans are available (Florida is PPO only). CIGNA Dental insurance is available in most parts of the country. Individual insurance (Golden Rule) is available in Arizona, Virginia and Texas.
TEIGIT offers long-term care insurance to association members in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, California, Florida, Texas, Virginia and Arizona. Life insurance is available in all the states through TEIGIT's broker. TEIGIT also offers international health insurance for travelers who will be out of the country for extensive periods of time.
For information on these plans, people should go to TEIGIT's website and for plan specifics (including Health Savings Accounts) call the TEIGIT office, 1-800-886-7504. They will send you all the information to review and are extremely accessible by phone.
Like anybody else searching for health insurance, people will have to weigh what premium, risk level, and out-of-pocket costs work best for them.
People should be made aware of the following overlooked reasons for considering group coverage over individual:
- All individuals in the NASW group plans pay the same premiums regardless of age or health status. The premiums for individual plans go up much more astronomically, particularly for people over age 65 and with an adverse risk profile. TEIGIT will take in people under age 65, who will be grandfathered into the group (at least in the northeast). Other states might be more restrictive.
- An additional benefit of a group is that a plan administrator can help intervene when services have been denied — a battle that can be far more protracted and unproductive when going it alone
- You might be healthy now, but once you get sick, you might have little protection for large premium increases in individual plans
- Pre-existing clauses usually are regulated by state.
We all owe Laura Newman a vote of thanks for bringing this to our attention and pulling together this information for our mutual benefit.
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