Texas | Summer | 2009 | Health Plan Analysis
Texas has taken its largest step yet toward addressing the nation's worst uninsured rate by green-lighting the first step toward Healthy Texas, a reinsurance program that could allow small businesses to offer benefits. The program still has some hurdles ahead. Regional insurer FirstCare has tackled the insured in West Texas by offering a trio of association/chamber of commerce plans offering narrower networks but keeping pharmacy benefits robust. UniCare has made a splash in Houston by teaming with Memorial Hermann Health System for a narrow-network PPO, MHealth Insured, that will pass cost savings from clinical integration onto plan members. Centene's Superior HealthPlan will have company next year in the Children's Health Insurance Program's rural operating area now that the state awarded the rural CHIP contract to Centene and Molina Healthcare.
