Nevada insurers targeting individual customers

Several big insurers are stepping up efforts to sell coverage to Nevada's uninsured with plans offering individual policies that let consumers elect higher deductibles and savings accounts, among other components, to lower premiums to as little as $54 a month. Observers say the expanding individual-insurance market is due to the rise in the number of companies that have pared coverage as a result of double-digit cost increases. When employees aren't losing coverage altogether, they're facing restricted plans that don't insure dependents and are seeking other options, said Ellen Laden, a spokeswoman for Golden Rule Insurance Co., a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary.