Are Health Insurance Companies looking at retail sales as a new possibility?

As millions of Americans get closer to January 2014, a possible option for consumers to purchase health care coverage is though retail stores.

As insurance companies see it, retail stores are one more way, also online and telephones support, to support customer needs.

Highmark in Pennsylvania and BCBS of Florida have the largest retail stores and most
In New York, UHC operates a number of retail type stores as well.
Costco in the past has also tried to sell high deductible health plans back in 2005.
If you want to get an American enraged, get them talking about health insurance. Whether they have or they don’t, they tend to have a story somewhere in there, often not buried very far, about some kind of health insurance situation gone awry or another.

As health care becomes more and more a political battling point, BCBS of CA is looking to try and help make things a little clearer to consumers and has taken the bold step of opening a store in San Francisco to aid that effort.

The non-profit organization isn’t afraid to go bold when it wants to make a point. In 2008 it hosted had an exhibition of 40 nude statues in “vulnerable positions” to showcase the large number of uninsured Californians. It also made headlines last month when it was stated it was returning money to its customers, making good on apromise “to help policyholders cope with rising healthcare costs by making good on a pledge to return money when its net income exceeds 2% of its revenue.”

Now it’s reaching out directly to customers (current and potential) with a 500-square-foot store that will open Nov. 7 within a Lucky supermarket store in San Francisco.