BLUE CROSS BENEFITS

A: Yes, Independence Blue Cross and Blue Shield operating in eastern Pennsylvania as well as some of the other Blue Cross associations in other parts of the country do offer reduced cost health plans where eligibility is based on income. In some cases single adults earning a full salary can qualify for this reduced cost coverage. It is a great deal for those who quality. The basic point of the original writing is that it appears that e-mail marketers are incorrectly using the Blue Cross name for some other purpose. A person who is shopping for health insurance - who are not usually in the low income category - would generally not consider Blue Cross to be one of the limited benefit / reduced cost insurance providers. So in this case the promise of "low cost health insurance from Blue Cross" is really a false advertisement where the marketer has no intention of offering a Blue Cross product. The original question stemmed from FreedomBenefits's involvement in two distinct services; 1) the low cost health insurance offered online and 2) personal enrollment assistance for other types of health plans that is useful in special situations but has nothing to do with the low cost insurance. Someone had apparently read an e-mail advertisement (from some spammer not associated with Blue Cross or FreedomBenefits.com) and then decided to check out the possibility of finding low cost health insurance from a reputable source but FreedomBenefits.com does not promote or imply that Blue Cross is one of the nation's lower cost health insurance providers. We recognize that the basic strategies used to reduce health insurance costs including using selective medical underwriting with exclusion riders, eliminating benefits that are not likely to be used, customizing benefits for each enrolled person, avoiding managed care plan designs and using high deductibles, are all in conflict with the underlying business model and belief of the Blue Cross associations. But Blue Cross is still an invaluable resource for millions of Americans who better suited to managed care plans.