Health Insurance Rates?

[Barry]

I don't have a job, and need really good coverage due to illness. I pay $450 a month and I have the Cadillac of plans through Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Sounds like we have a similar plan with the same provider. I need coverage due to illness as well. A lapse in coverage due to a job change could prove to be disasterous....

Barry

 

[ClassicIsBetter]

Sounds like we have a similar plan with the same provider. I need coverage due to illness as well. A lapse in coverage due to a job change could prove to be disasterous....

Barry

Happened to my roommate. He was in between jobs when something starting going wrong, health wise. Turned out that he had an enlarged heart, high blood pressure, high cholosterol, etc etc. He's still paying for his bill more than a year later. Is Kaiser not cheaper, or BC/BS? $450 seems really high to me.

 

[Lancealot]

I work at Lowe's mine is about $250 a month for family coverage that's with dental and vision.

 

[Air Boss]

Federal BC/BS

I pay $136 every two weeks for Blue Cross/Blue Shield with virtually useless vision and dental. All 5 of us wear glasses and two of the boys have braces. Just don't get me started on the terrible service, contested claims leading to collections (finally settled in our favor but really screws up the old credit report), and battles overpreauthorization.

 

[Braxton36]

Sort of lucky I guess from reading this. Employer pays family BC/BS premiums. $25 co-pays and $250 deductibles. Vision is included and dental costs me $22/month for family with employer picking up the balance. The larger the group, the greater the risk pool so potentially the lower the premium. Alot depends on claims experience for the group as a whole factoring in age and sex of the employees. Small groups get the short end of the stick.

 

[Brad Bowers]

I've been without insurance for years,since I could never afford it. With my new job, my employer offers a BC/BS plan which would have taken $130 a month just for me, but it's $130 I need for student loan payments. Guess I'll gamble on my health a while longer.

Yep, America has the best health care system in the world, for those that can afford it. The rest are tossed by the wayside.

Brad

 

[Tourbillion]

My work gives free Blue Cross 80/20% PPO $20 copay, HMO or Kaiser plus a dental plan for free. You pay for dependants, although I forget the rates. I recall that a family was around $400/month.

I have the PPO because I like the freedom, but I don't exactly relish paying 20% of a surgery. I also like that doctors like my insurance because they can bill the heck out of it and they pay them--and I only pay the copay.

 

[ITG]

I also like that doctors like my insurance because they can bill the heck out of it and they pay them--and I only pay the copay.

Which probably aids in rising insurance rates. Oh those doctors!

Thanks everyone for your input, keep it coming. I may look at Humana of Texas. The lady I use to find me the best insurance rates for my home and car insurance can do the same for health insurance. So I'm now waiting to hear back from them.

 

[Samsa]

For both of you is that for individual coverage or with spouse or with whole family?

Nope, just my lonesome self.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

No insurance, haven't been to a doctor since 1989. Wish me luck.

 

[ClassicIsBetter]

No insurance, haven't been to a doctor since 1989. Wish me luck.

Wow, what multi-vitamin are YOU on??

I have read of a few "groups," although it is not insurance per se, what they do is take the cost of a medical need you do have and divide the cost and distribute that through its member base. For example, let's say you have a something happen that costs you $5,000. And, for the sake of simplicity, there are 5,000 members. Each person will pay $1. Instead of a "premium" your overall cost for the month is based on the costs of medical necessities, as distributed among its members. I hope that made sense. Last I checked (a few months ago) it was about $250 a month. Unlike insurance, the cost is not discounted, you can see any doctor you want. Your medical needs are reviewed by board members to determine medical necessity before distributing the cost through its member base. The only one I know is Christian based, has a 100% track record of having a bill paid. I like this idea a whole lot, because it places a portion of medical responsibility among members. You feel more responsibility for living a healthier lifestyle, because if all members are healthy, the cost is low. If not, you'll feel the crunch. Otherwise, your motivation to live healthier is not as high if you're paying a flat rate every month. BTW, I am not a member, I just read about it, good things I might add.

 

[Rosie]

I also like that doctors like my insurance because they can bill the heck out of it and they pay them--and I only pay the copay.

The same with my mom. My mother had had Blue Cross Blue Shield FOREVER I guess it's good for her and was for us as kids because she's stuck with it all of these years.

Anyway, she's been retired since '94 but I mentioned this thread to her and told her how surprised I was that you guys were paying so much for insurance. She says she had like a $200 deductible and that was pretty much it, she didn't recall having to pay a copay until after she retired. Now, it's like $20.00 per office visit but if I'm not mistaken, that gets picked up by my dad's insurance (he's passed on) or medicare. She's been in the hospital twice purely for sickness since she's retired and had three operations also. She says that with every hospital visit, she feels the hospital charged her inflated fees because of her insurance. Her sister,who went to the smae hospital, has been to the hospital only once and she has different insurance and she says her bills were not itemized the way my mom's were and her "extras" asprin, sleeping pills, etc. during the stay were not as high either. [huh]

Here in NY, the city has offered a group insurance plan, I'm not sure exactly how it works, Healthy NY, Metro Plus, and I believe Healthy NY Kids (a friend of mine works in this agency) for working NYers who don't have insurance or who have minimum insurance. From the commercials, it seems to be a pretty good program. Do any of your states offer such a thing?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

This highlights one of the major problems with the health system. My wife was in for an operation. The hospital asked $5000 a night for the bed (everything else on top of this price). The insurance refused to pay the crazy money, and ... surprise, surprise ... the hospital ended up charging the insurance company $450 a night for the bed. This kind of ridiculous scalping by the hospitals - the doctors, anaesthetists etc. were, to my mind, very cheap - is allowed to continue because so few people complain about it. Imagine you don't have insurance. You have no recourse but to pay the $5000 a night. Then you're in horrid debt for the rest of your life. Then you die, because the next time you're ill you can't afford to go to the hospital. the bloodsuckers are not the doctors. The truly evil people are the administrators demanding certain (very, very high) profits.

Herein the problem of making healthcare a for-profit enterprise.

bk

 

[ITG]

There is a problem with that Baron...which is why I want insurance. My fiance has talked about wanting to move to Montreal one day. Anyone know if Canada's government health plan is any good? I'm imagining you have to be a Canadian citizen to use it?

 

[DancingSweetie]

No insurance, haven't been to a doctor since 1989. Wish me luck.

You and johnnydnh - I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[carebear]

The truly evil people are the administrators demanding certain (very, very high) profits.

Herein the problem of making healthcare a for-profit enterprise.

bk

The problem isn't that healthcare is "for profit", the problem is that almost every facet of healthcare is regulated by a government controlled by self-serving monopolies.

The AMA, ADA (and ABA) act in the best interests of their members, proposing legislation allowing artificial controls on the number of health care providers and determining what they can effectively charge. Throw in an insurance industry regulated only by a government they control with lobbyists and donations and the ability of the market to work to the betterment of the individual is restrained.

This gives us high quality, availability and diversity of medical services but at artificially high prices.

Overt state control is no better than the existing hidden state control we have now, it just inverts the problem. Health care is affordable but in practice unavailable in a timely fashion and of general lower quality and diversity.

We need to bust up the new trusts and get government back out of the way.

 

[carebear]

No insurance, haven't been to a doctor since 1989. Wish me luck.

Have you looked into critical care insurance? I used to carry that when I was self-employed. Basically I bet on my being generally healthy and was only covered for massive injury or illness, act of God stuff.

Gave me a bit of safety net.

 

[Rick Blaine]

We can do better, folks!

The U.S. does not have the best health care system in the world - it has the best emergency care system in the world. Advanced U.S. medical technology has not translated into better health statistics for its citizens; indeed, the U.S. ranks near the bottom in list after list of international comparisons.
Part of the problem is that there is more profit in a pound of cure than an ounce of prevention. Another part of the problem is that America has the highest level of poverty and income inequality among all rich nations, and poverty affects one's health much more than the limited ministrations of a formal health care system.
Perhaps the greatest reason why Europeans are healthier than Americans is because they have reduced poverty, especially child poverty. The link between poverty and poorer health has long been proven. "When I look back on my years in office," says C. Everett Koop, Reagan's former Surgeon General, "the things I banged my head against were all poverty."

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Have you looked into critical care insurance? I used to carry that when I was self-employed. Basically I bet on my being generally healthy and was only covered for massive injury or illness, act of God stuff.

Gave me a bit of safety net.

What I'm really looking into are those new Health Savings Accounts (HSA) that work like an IRA with the addition of a high deductible (and therefore inexpensive) health insurance plan. I could take care of my lack of a retirement plan and my lack of health insurance in one stroke. I guess I ought to ask Hemingway Jones what he thinks of 'em.

I don't think vintage hats are the wisest investment plan. lol

 

[carebear]

Perhaps the greatest reason why Europeans are healthier than Americans is because they have reduced poverty, especially child poverty. The link between poverty and poorer health has long been proven. "When I look back on my years in office," says C. Everett Koop, Reagan's former Surgeon General, "the things I banged my head against were all poverty."

That sounds right. Imagine how much we would have in the way of resources to fight poverty today if we weren't burdened with so many outdated failed programs to "fight poverty".