LATEST NEWS AND VIEWS

 - We focus our news on issues relative to the Midwest.

• Unicare changes Illinois PPO to Unicare Classic Plus from CCN eff 12/1/2000
• Reliance health plans acquired by Aon insurance.
• Blue Cross of Illinois adds Rx card to certain plan designs. 7/00
• Unicare rolls out new plan designs starting 7/00.
• Fortis Student insurance is guarantee issue for students to age 25.
• Humana HMO no longer being offered to individuals in Chicago area.

For updated insurance news from the newswires, check out our Insurance News area.

This Section provides information about Individual and Family Health Plans. Here you can find specific information on carriers, plans and the state of the industry. 

Our agency, Castle Group Health located in Northbrook, Illinois represents plans for residents of the Midwest.  Other states are referred to local agents within our referral network.

To view plan designs, click on carriers on the left, to get a quote, click at the top or bottom of the page.

What Makes us Different?

Expertise - Our average agent has over 10 years of experience in the health insurance field.  With only 1/3 of individuals eligible for the lowest priced plans, shopping by price only does not benefit the majority of consumers.

Accountability-  When you do business with our agency you deal with the same agent for the quote, the application, and post sale service. You will know you agent, and the agent will know you.

Privacy - When you deal with a MEGA-Company, your information is sold every time the company changes hands.  Hundreds of employees have potential access to your confidential information.  Our privately held company allows only the agent and their assistant access to your information.

Information-  We publish in print what we think about each carrier. Don’t expect to see a lot of fluff about carriers, they all have pro’s and con’s. We try to match the best plan and plan value to your needs. 

Go to Our Insurance 101 section to read about:

• Non-carrier specific issues such as preexisting conditions, tax deductibility, buying Insurance, MSA’s and health reform.
• Listing to Customer service for the insurance carriers we represent.  Even if your not our client, we want our site to be a resource for you.
• Want to check providers, over 50 PPO networks linked online.
• We also link to each Dept. of Insurance so that you can find out about guarantee issue plans in your state. .

Medical Trend Box
You aren’t the only one with increasing premiums.  Don’t get fooled by people trying to take advantage of your frustration with rates.  Here we will post the average increase individual plan PPO’s and HMO’s in the Midwest. 

Plan Type Nov. ‘00 PPO 13 % HMO 19 %

Note: These percentage increases are representative of individual and family plans.  The increases are based on our actual average current experiences of all our carriers, and in no way constitute or represent a forecast of what your expected annual increase may be now or in the future. Read more about rising health costs by Clicking Here.