Health Insurance

[M. Henley Class President Find all posts View Profile Close M. Henley]

Whoa!

If JLB is not Medicare elgible he sure is a high-mileage model!!

[JudyS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JudyS]

.....
I'm close enough to Mexico to just save my monthly premiums and go pay cash there. Depending on what happens in 2014, that may be a better option for us.

it may that we are all close enough to mexico ....

Not me!
...
...
...
... I live much closer to Canada than Mexico!


Seriously, though, I would be very wary of any insurance company that was eager to contact *me*. I'll bet it's just like with timeshares -- if they seek you out, it's a scam, or at least a poor deal.

I think Consumer Reports has done articles comparing health insurance companies. That may be one place to start.

Also, www.usa.gov has a health insurance finder. Go to http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/He...nsurance.shtml and select your state on the drop-down box on the left hand side. If you oppose Obamacare, try not to look at big video for it, posted in the middle of the page.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

If JLB is not Medicare elgible he sure is a high-mileage model!!

All highway miles, and with regular routine maintenance.

&, what some of the people calling are saying is that come January, 2014, rates are going to more than triple. One guy actually said a family of four will be $24,000/year.

The phone has stopped ringing. Not sure if I got any real information. When they quote the bennies, is it all just gobbly-gook to anyone else?

One guy said he was sending a low-cost, high deductible plan, with a rider that will pay the deductible if you need it.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

Hate to rain on anyone's parade ............. Be afraid, Be very afraid............. Remember back before Obama got the bright idea to push "his idea" Obamacare - our wonderful governor up here in Mass. decided that it should be a law that all citizens of the Commonwealth should have health insurance. How magically all of a sudden everyone can afford this ............ (He himself would not be subject to any such laws, as a matter of fact, now that he's eligible for Medicare - he says Oh No - I want the Best!) Anyway, when this went into effect - our rates TRIPLED!!

You certainly aren't raining on my parade. Obama did that when Obamacare was passed.

[Icc5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Icc5]

Our Health Insurance experience new this year. I just retired at 62 and I am covered by my wife's plan maybe? We work for a grocery chain with a union plan for benefits but they have made it so hard to stay in the system you almost feel like giving up. I have been a member for almost 43 years and my wife for 39 and we have filled out the forms many times. Now, everyone has to go on-line (last 5 years or so) and sign up. There are 4 steps we must do and each time each of us has to change passwords because it won't except our last password. One of the steps wasn't even on the site until about a week after they said it would be. If you don't follow the steps you get dropped and yes, the rates have gone way up and the coverage is way less. When you call in they say they will call you back and they don't. The rep. I talked to couldn't find the step either. The head of the union and head of the medical plan don't answer emails either.
Bart

[dcwojo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dcwojo]

My health insurance premiums have increased by 65% in the last 2 years. The company I work for absorbed some of the increase as well. The supposed Affordable Care Act costs are the excuse given by the insurance company.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Seriously, though, I would be very wary of any insurance company that was eager to contact *me*. I'll bet it's just like with timeshares -- if they seek you out, it's a scam, or at least a poor deal.

Aetna, UnitedHealth, Blue Cross/Blue Shield . . .

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

The way this has shaken out is that only three agents/companies were willing to deal by email, and I just answered all of theirs today, asking them to give me their best shot, that we are ready to start right now.

I have to assume that all of the others, more than 20 who called, do not want what they say in writing. I've noticed that with a lot of people in business any more.

[easyrider Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close easyrider]

We just got screwed by group health because we had a family plan. Our son was on our plan 2 years ago and we just kept paying on the same plan with out our son. This brought the rate down about $70. Recently my wife fell and now needs rotator cuff surgery. Our plan has a family deductible that has to met that is twice the amount of the individual deductible. So because of the family plan deductible I called yesterday and switched us into 2 separate individual policies with 1 deductible. This costs exactly the same as the family plan as we are both rated by age but has only 1 deductible to meet.

Im being told that the doctors appointments and mri will not count to meet my wife's deductible, which is a load of bs, imo.

Oh well, you got to love modern medicine and health insurance.

Bill

[BoardGirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BoardGirl]

My health insurance premiums have increased by 65% in the last 2 years. The company I work for absorbed some of the increase as well. The supposed Affordable Care Act costs are the excuse given by the insurance company.

Not sure how they can explain the skyrocketing before the ACA was even thought of?

It's been many years of soaring costs for me, not just the past 2 years. Yet I rarely need to see a doctor.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Not related, but related, there is a young guy on my staff at work, and the rest are old(er). He really needs insurance, but he is one that I have been ordered to keep under 30 hours a week, the new IRS definition of "fulltime", where, I guess, doo-doo sets in for employers. I have been under the gun for three months to cut his hours and to not let him know he will be way cut back in the Summer.

I came in yesterday and the GM said, "BTW, I want you to keep ---- on 30 hours, but just 30 hours, because we need him in our "group plan" (to lower the premium).

It's a strange, strange world that we live in, Master Jack.


- - - - - -
As for "seeing a doctor", I do quite often. On the golf course.


- - - - - -
I just told the agents who have emailed me just to pick a plan, that I don't want to waste time on something I am not a professional at, that I have plenty of other stuff to waste my time on . . . like here, for instance.

[M. Henley Class President Find all posts View Profile Close M. Henley]

Yeah

Well, "here" is a lot more enjoyable!

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

My youngest brother thought he was in a position to retire early. He works as an insurance adjuster in property insurance, so he inquired of some of his company's people on the health insurance side about likely health insurance rates if he were to retire and buy an individual policy. He was shocked at the answers he received about what the rates would likely be for an older white male after Obamacare kicked in, and due to those rates he now plans to work until 65 so his company can pay for his insurance. Obamacare has spiked his plans to retire early.

My employer had a representative of our insurance consultant speak to us at one of our international conferences, and she told us that with Obamacare, employer group policies like ours would either cost more, with part of that passed on by many employers to employees, or their benefits would decrease, and she cited the specific aspects of Obamacare that would cause both results.

Since much of our staff works abroad, some of us have wondered if we could find health policies abroad that would be more affordable and offer good coverage. The private health insurance in the UK, for example, seems to be reasonably priced and their private health care facilities, unlike their NHS, are excellent.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I would NOT depend on reporting given the large political bias of the major media, and how things they don't want to report they just sweep under the rug.

I would question this too.

I don't remember any such thing happening. i don't remember any reporting of such a thing.

In fact i think you are mistaken.

Perhaps your rates did tripple, everyone else's did not.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

My Dad was an exec with Blue Cross, and retired in 1984. He died in 2002. His last 2 weeks, in ICU, probably cost $1/4 M. Maybe more.

Before the end of that month, a friend of his at BC/BS, who was also retiring at the time, called me to say they had not received his last month's "retiree policy" premium, and could I call the bank so she could go over and pick it up?

Sure.

$10.