The November issue of Consumer Reports provides rankings of 830 private, Medicare, and Medicaid health insurance plans, an analysis that reveals wide variations in quality for some of the country’s largest insurers. This is a great time for the information to be released since many companies offer open enrollment in the fall.

The rankings are conducted by the nonprofit National Committee for Quality Assurance. “All the health plans in these rankings are exemplary,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane in a news release. “First, they measure their quality in painstaking ways that help them improve and that make comparing plans possible. Then they take the extra step of revealing their results for the world to see—a true public service.” This is the second year for the rankings, but the first time that Preferred Provider Organizations, also known as PPOs, are being included. PPOs are generally less restrictive than Health Maintenance Organizations. About one-third of the US population is enrolled in a PPO plan.

The rankings include insurance plans in all 50 states and involve an estimated 127 million Americans. “American consumers who assume that ‘bigger is better’ and that doctor choice equates with quality might be surprised when they see how insurance plans stack up in the rankings.  We were struck by the strong performance among HMOs in general, and by some of the smaller, community-based plans,” says Nancy Metcalf, senior program editor, Consumer Reports in a news release. Among the plans receiving the highest scores include 15% of HMOs, 6% of PPOs, 33% of plans not owned by one of the six biggest health insurers and 4% of plans owned by the six biggest health insurers.

If you are thinking about the purchase of an SUV, you are probably already aware that they are quite expensive – that’s pretty common knowledge, especially at the gas pump. However, did you know that your auto insurance is also going to be more expensive? Insurance analysts say that the cost of insuring an SUV will average out to be 10 to 20 percent more than insuring an automobile.