Health Insurance

[djc 0]

Misty,

There's a big difference between "decent" and "good" health care plans. Decent ones will try to screw you as much as possible. Good ones will usually pay up without much fight.

I used to have health care through an employer before I quit and went self-employed. Imagine my shock as a young twenty-something year old female, being hit with $360/month health care bill. That was "good" insurance - I never saw any hospital bills or anything. Paid my co-pay and that was it.

My "decent" insurance now? I get the sporadic $50-$200 bill here and there for office visits, things I thought were covered, things I didn't know about, etc, etc, etc. Lab fees, prescriptions are all over the place in price, just insanity. I never have a clue how much I'm going to owe after seeing a doctor. I still paid over $50 for my yearly girlie exam, I thought it was going to be $20 only. Whatever......... better than $3000..........

Good luck figuring out American health care!!

Funny you should bring this topic up...I was just browsing health insurance a couple hours ago, and was going to ask the same question.

I did a little survey and was quoted about $117 for a decent plan. Not sure why they would quote any of you $300+, unless you were insuring a whole family. Then again, the price may have changed after I actually spoke to an agent and confirmed the price, but I wouldn't think it would cost that much....

[TinTin and Samby 11]

Still sounds quite high to me. For a Husband and Wife with no kids, $600+ per month is pretty steep! As someone else pointed out, Oliver's company should have several differnent "options" - usually a HMO, PPO and "traditional" plan. The company HR department should be able to provide you with a standardized written summary of the options available, each options's coverage benefits and limits and co-payments and the assoicated monthly premium costs. If his company is of any size, you may even be able to find this info on the company's web site. If details aren't oliver's "thing", just have him (or better you call the hr department) and ask them to send you a copy of the medical/dental/vision insurance plans with coverage and cost info. This is typically 1 or a few page document that provides an overview and comparision of each insurance plan option as well as the cost of monthly premium payments for singles, couples and families. Good luck!

[Caladan 19]

Funny you should bring this topic up...I was just browsing health insurance a couple hours ago, and was going to ask the same question.

I did a little survey and was quoted about $117 for a decent plan. Not sure why they would quote any of you $300+, unless you were insuring a whole family. Then again, the price may have changed after I actually spoke to an agent and confirmed the price, but I wouldn't think it would cost that much....

It depends on the kind of coverage you get. Adding C. to my plan would have cost us about $8000 a year, so we insured him independently for around $115 a month, but it's a catastrophic coverage plan. Basically, no doctor's visits, but if he gets hit by a car we're only out for the first $5000.

This works for us because he's healthy, on no regular prescriptions, and doesn't need regular checkups that we can't afford out of pocket.

[britty 1]

We have Blue Cross Blue Shield through my husband's employer. Its non-contributory on our part (for which we are very grateful), and the co-pay is $10 per visit. When I was diagnosed with skin cancer, I received incredibly good care by one of the best surgeons in the DC metro, and all for $10 ! There doesn't seem to be any exlcusions to the plan either so we are very happy with them.

[Mephys 2]

Well I have no idea about the cost, but since my husband already has the family plan for his kids I am on his plan as well. We are with Blue cross and I heard it's a very good one.

Well I do believe it now because I had to see a chiropractor back in Quebec in 2005. This is not covered by the RAMQ, and my private insurance were only covering 300$. So at 40$ for an adjustment I paid 500$ from my pocket and had to stop even if the treatment wasn't complete. I have a very bad problem on my neck.

So I started treatment here 2 weeks ago. I must say wow. They do a combination of physio and chiro, and Blue crosse covers 5000$ and 1000$. All I have to pay is a deductible of 250$ for all. I went everydya for the last 2 weeks and 3 times a weeks for the next 3 months. I will then go 1/month for the rest of the year. So all in all, do I miss our "free" healthcare? Not so much. And my husband had to go see the doctor and got an appointment for the same day and never had to wait. Compared to 4-5 hours of waiting in Quebec.....

[Cassie 8]

Blue Cross / Blue Shield have a really bad reputation in my neck of the woods, so many people avoid that company at all costs.

Just to give some perspective, my friend's husband went to work for a company that didn't cover health insurance for him, so they did continuance coverage through the COBRA act, they had to pay upwards of $1000 a month for his diabetes supplies and medication, it was brutal until he got a different job six months later.

Health care and the whole insurance thing here frustrates me to no end here, because you are constantly finding out later on how much your insurance doesn't pay. We were still getting bills for various parts of my gall bladder surgery 4-5 months after the fact. Fortunately, my husband gets paid very well and we (with some scrimping and saving, mind you) were able to take of them. But what if we weren't in that position where we couldn't pay? There's a reason why they are saying now that upwards of 50% of bankruptcies these days are caused by medical bill debt! It's atrocious.

[lynamon 0]

Thanks for the warning but there is something called "open enrollment" once a year and they cannot refuse preexisting conditions.

[Caladan 19]

Thanks for the warning but there is something called "open enrollment" once a year and they cannot refuse preexisting conditions.

This is true if health insurance is provided through your employer, but if you're trying to self-insure, they can and do take your condition into account.

You know what's bizarrely wrong? That health INSURANCE, not health CARE is such a large part of our budget. It's a sunk cost even if you're not sick!

[Misty1979 0]

Funny you should bring this topic up...I was just browsing health insurance a couple hours ago, and was going to ask the same question.

I did a little survey and was quoted about $117 for a decent plan. Not sure why they would quote any of you $300+, unless you were insuring a whole family. Then again, the price may have changed after I actually spoke to an agent and confirmed the price, but I wouldn't think it would cost that much....

It depends on the kind of coverage you get. Adding C. to my plan would have cost us about $8000 a year, so we insured him independently for around $115 a month, but it's a catastrophic coverage plan. Basically, no doctor's visits, but if he gets hit by a car we're only out for the first $5000.

This works for us because he's healthy, on no regular prescriptions, and doesn't need regular checkups that we can't afford out of pocket.

That is basically along the lines of what we are looking for with my hubby. Hoping to get something that will cover surgeries or any type of emergency, but he is pretty healthy and doesn't see the doctor hardly ever, so I don't see any point in getting that covered. I'm going to live on the wild side for the first couple months here and go without insurance until I can find something decent. I *think* I found a plan though that would leave us only paying $500 out of pocket if he got hit by a car, but I could be wrong. Still confuzzled about all the different plans, and which plan covers what

[TinTin and Samby 11]

Thanks for the warning but there is something called "open enrollment" once a year and they cannot refuse preexisting conditions.

Just to clarify for anyone reading this:

You may (or may not - there are exceptions) be able to have your application accepted during open enrollment periods for employer sponsored insurance plans, as well as within a short time frame of a qualifying Life Event (such as Marriage, or Birth of a New Child), even if not during the Open Enrollment period.

However, The new insurance plan MOST CERTAINLY CAN AND WILL RESTRICT coverage for preexisting conditions for a cetain time fame after beginning insurance converage. Most normally, the restriction ("exclusion of benefits") time frame is between 6 months and 1 year, it varies on the employer and plan.

Normally, this restriction can be waived if the applicant can provide documentation of previous continuous health insurance coverage before applying for this new plan. In many cases, this previous continous coverage documentation may be difficult to have/produce for new immigrants.

[Flames9_RN 358]

My wife's works for the federal govt, and they can pick what coverage they want! BUt the book is like 1.5 inches thick,lol so many choices!!