Transient Insurance

According to an article in the Detroit News, 1 in 6 Americans lack insurance for some part of the year. They could be chronically uninsured or simply in transition between jobs. Today, the individual health care market is certainly one of the fastest growing (if not the fastest growing) market for managed care companies.

Forrester estimates that this is a $115B market today.

With an average annual premium of $5,520 per family (or $2,400 per person assuming 2.3 people per family), that means the average premium per day is $6.58. Will we ever get to a point where you can buy short-term (i.e., less than 30-day) health insurance? And, if we did, can you set it up so that people don’t go on and off just as they feel ill?

The Forrester article talks about a Prudential model in Europe that is pay-as-you-go around health insurance.