One of the reasons I left my job as a PR executive for the health insurance industry was because I could not in good conscience be a pitchman for the sort of fabulously profitable benefit plan that often provides little more than the illusion of coverage. Known as "mini-meds," these plans have become popular among businesses like fast-food chains that have many low-wage employees. The common features of these plans: high deductibles, modest benefits and low annual caps on medical coverage. Some of these plans provide as little as $2,000 worth of care each year.
Consumer advocates call these plans "junk insurance." That's because what workers get in these plans for their hard-earned money may actually put them at risk of going bankrupt or losing their homes if they get seriously sick or injured.
My view is that these mini-med plans should be illegal — and they will be in 2014, thanks to the health care reform law. They would disappear even sooner if employers and insurance companies that sell these plans had to comply with a provision of the law already in effect that requires them to provide at least $750,000 in medical coverage annually. Trouble is, many insurance firms and employers are squirming their way out of complying with that provision.
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