There are hundreds of Ohio health insurance plans. Coverages range from high-deductible catastrophic plans to comprehensive plans with small out-of-pocket expenses. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are also available and growing in popularity.

Ohioquotes.com, the premier website for Ohio health insurance plans, reviews popular Ohio policies each month. This month, all four reviewed plans are readily available, easily underwritten, and quite affordable.

Anthem Value Plan Two office visits per person (per year) are included, subject to a $30 copay. Brand-name formulary and and Generic non-formulary prescription are included. Like many Ohio health insurance plans, some preventative care and diagnostic services are included. And a generous $5 million lifetime limit is also built into the policy.

UnitedHealthCare Copay Saver Plan  One of many Ohio health insurance plans offered by UnitedHealthCare. A $35 copay applies to the two allowed office visits per person per year (including wellness). Generic prescriptions are subject to a $15 copay while non-generic prescriptions are not covered. The lifetime limit is $3 million and maternity coverage can be added as a rider.

Aetna Preventative And Hospital Care 3000  Perhaps Aetna’s most affordable Ohio health insurance plan, this policy is HSA compatible. The principal feature of the policy is the outstanding preventative care coverage. Annual routine GYN exams, routine physicals, and Paps/Mammograms are not subject to a deductible. A $1 million lifetime limit is included.

UnitedHealthCare Saver 80 Plan One of the least expensive Ohio health insurance plans, this plan is designed to cover catastrophic claims. Major medical and emergency room charges are covered, along with most routine hospital expenses. Office visits are not covered, although a drug prescription discount card in included. $3 million of lifetime limit coverage per person is included in each policy.

Affordable Ohio health insurance plans are available, and often can be approved in less than a week. The application process is simple and physicals are rarely required.

If you live in Ohio and have recently lost your job…you’re not alone. The state has lost more than 260,000 jobs since 2000, 4.8 percent of all employment. The hardest hit areas have been Trumbull County, losing 20.5 percent of its jobs, and Montgomery County, losing 14.1% of its jobs.

President Barack Obama’s health care initiatives are now facing delay, when Tom Daschle, who was chosen to head the initiative, suddenly withdrew his nomination for health secretary. Health care reform has taken a back seat to more pressing concerns…such as the ailing economy and bailing out auto manufacturers and some financial institutions.

If you find yourself out of a job, between jobs, or your employer is reducing your hours, your health insurance may be affected.  In many cases, your current coverage extends for a few months (or less), and then the search for an affordable Ohio health insurance plan begins.

Cobra is one option. Under this program, Ohio workers laid off from companies with 20 or more employees can extend their employee-provided health insurance for 18 months. Of course…premiums are often extremely expensive and unaffordable. And with the current recession and no end in sight, Cobra’s premiums are not a viable health insurance option for many Ohioians.

However, if you have no significant medical issues, such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease, you may qualify for an individual Ohio health insurance policy. The application process is simple and physicals are rarely required. The most popular Ohio companies are Anthem Blue Cross, UnitedHealthCare, Medical Mutual and Aetna.

For example, in Franklin County, a nonsmoking family of four (Parents-Age 40 & Children-Ages 8 & 10), with no medical issues, can buy a “catastrophic health” plan for $120 per month. A “comprehensive” plan, which offers many more coverages, including preventative benefits, would cost between $230 and $300 per month, depending on the major medical deductible.

 Naturally, rates will be substantially less if only one person is insured. Also, existing medical conditions can raise the rate. With your own policy, your coverage is portable, so you may keep the policy as long as you want. Also…with individual coverage, unlike group coverage, your rate is not affected by a large amount of unhealthy persons in the group.

Ohioquotes.com is the premier source for Ohio health insurance. For a free quote and analysis of your options, please click on the “Get Instant Quote” button at the top of this page.

There are many Ohio health insurance companies that offer individual and family coverage to Ohio residents. Anthem Blue Cross, UnitedHealthCare and Aetna are the three largest carriers. But there are numerous other companies that offer medical coverage in Ohio.

To help you select the most affordable Ohio health insurance plan, a comprehensive list of the major Ohio health insurance companies is listed below:

Anthem Blue Cross is the largest Ohio health insurance company, providing coverage to almost one out of every four insureds.  A wide variety of plans are available, including “Blue Access Plan 2,” Anthem’s most comprehensive policy. The “Value” plans offer substantial discounts in exchange for limitations of office visit and prescription coverage.

UPDATE: In March of 2009, Anthem introduced three new Ohio health insurance plans. The “Premier” plan is a comprehensive policy featuring lower out-of-pocket costs. The “SmartSense” plan is a comprehensive plan with some limitations in benefits. And the “Lumenos HSA” plan ha some new features.

Medical Mutual of Ohio (MMO) is one of the oldest Ohio health insurance companies. Recently, they expanded their plan portfolio to include some lower-cost plans. Their smoker rates are very competitive, but MMO’s Health Savings Account (HSA) policies have higher out-of-pocket costs than many companies.

UnitedHealthCare  (UHC) offers a broad range of polices at extremely competitive rates. After purchasing Golden Rule Insurance company a few years ago, UHC’s market share substantially increased. Rates are based on zip codes, as opposed to the more common county-rating system. At the very high BMI (Body Mass Index) ratings, UnitedHealthcare is not as forgiving as most other companies. One of UHC’s strong points is their large portfolio of Ohio health insurance plans.

Kaiser Permanente offers medical coverage to residents of Northern Ohio. Ohio residents in the Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati areas will not be able to obtain a policy.

Humana is not always the lowest-cost Ohio insurance company, but offers comprehensive plans with solid coverages. They are one of the few Ohio companies to offer maternity coverage, and have a very popular policy (Autograph Share 80 plan) that allows six office visits and is competitively priced.

Aetna began offering individual Ohio health insurance plans in 2005. Since that time, they have added many new plans, including the low-cost “Preventative and Hospital Care” policy. Overall, Aetna’s Ohio rates are extremely competitive.

Paramount Care is one of the largest Ohio health companies serving northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. It is locally owned with a primary focus on service and wellness.

Time Insurance (formerly Fortis) Company, offers more policy options than almost every other carrier. But, unfortunately, their rates in Ohio are extremely uncompetitive, and they also receive an unusually high number of consumer complaints.

For a personalized recommendation based on your needs or an instant Ohio health insurance quote, please click on the “Get Instant Quote” icon at the top of the page or email service@ohioquotes.com While there are hundreds of Ohio health insurance companies available to the consumer, we’ll personally select and review the handful of plans that will be your best options. And unlike many other websites, we never sell or give your information to any other person or company.

Cinergy Health seems to do as much advertising these days as Billy Mays. No, they don’t pitch OxiClean or Mighty Putty, but Cinergy does heavily market their medical plans.

Are they worth it? In most cases…No! In fact, unless you thoroughly read the fine print of your policy, you may be in for a jolt!

Available Cinergy Plans

Cinergy offers two types of plans. “Cinergy Health Signature” is their discount health plan and “Cinergy Health Preferred” is their insurance plan. Both plans offer far less coverage than a conventional Ohio health insurance policy from a major insurer…such as Blue Cross, Aetna or UnitedHealthCare.

“Cinergy Health Signature” is NOT a health insurance policy. It may help you reduce some of your healthcare costs, but not necessarily a significant amount. Coverage benefits are very vague and the premium for a single person is almost $1000 per year. And, the plans are actually provided by Patriot Health Florida, who requires you to PAY FOR ALL HEALTHCARE SERVICES in advance. Later, you may receive a discount on some of those expenses.

“Cinergy Health Preferred 500” is considered an insurance plan, but coverages are limited and descriptions of these coverages are fairly vague on their website. For example, this plan only covers ONE emergency room visit per year. Only ONE preventative visit per year is allowed. Daily hospital confinement charges are also limited to $500 per day and 30 days per year.

The Cost

If you can qualify for an Ohio Health Insurance Plan from a major carrier, then don’t waste your time with Cinergy. If you are uninsurable, then you may want to consider a plan…but read the policy in its entirety. Cinergy will only consider refund requests in writing and will not refund the application fee.

Affordable Ohio health insurance is available. To instantly viewand compare high quality Ohio health plans, please click on the “Get Instant Quote” button at the top of this page. You can get comprehensive coverage without breaking the bank.

Comprehensive coverage. Catastrophic coverage.  If you’re a consumer shopping for individual or family health insurance, rates are perhaps the most important factor. But policy coverages are a key component, and ultimately, often determine which company is chosen.

To help you identify some of the differences in coverage, I have provided a list of some of the most common Ohio health insurance plans, and what type of coverage they offer. The list is not all-inclusive.

Comprehensive Plans

Anthem Blue Access Plan 2

Aetna PPO

UnitedHealthCare Copay Select

UnitedHealthCare MedOnePlus

UnitedHealthCare Plan 100

Medical Mutual SuperMed One Standard

Celtic Preferred Select

Humana Portrait

Catastrophic Plans

UnitedHealthCare Saver80

UnitedHealthCare HSA Saver

Combination Plans (Catastrophic with some office visit or RX coverage)

Anthem Blue Access Value

Anthem Blue Access Economy

Aetna PPO Value

Aetna P&H Care

UnitedHealthCare Saver

Medical Mutual SuperMedOne Value

Humana Autograph

Celtic Basic

For more specific rates and information and an instant Ohio health insurance quote, please visit http://www.ohioquotes.com or http://www.majormedicalhealth.com