Health Care Thread

Called today since the website is a piece of shit. I should hear something back in 5 days through mail with rates and plans. We will not qualify for any help whatsoever due to use making well above what is required to qualify.

My coverage is good, decent, not great. To put my wife and 2 kids on it will cost me approx. $740 a month, now this is a quote before they adjust next year. Not sure if it will be higher or lower, but I expect it to increase possibly, will be pleasantly surprised if it remains the same or goes lower.

The reason why I am trying to get my wife and kids covered on mine, is because my wife's plan through CIGNA is getting GUTTED. No co-pays for anything (prescriptions, regular no spec doc visits, or spec doc visits), you pull full price for doc visits until you meet your deductible of $2k. Once you hit $2k you STILL have to pay 20% of the cost of the visit. Guys, that is a HUGE fucking increase in health care cost for my family. Her insurance today does $25 for family doc visits, something similar for prescription meds, and $50 dollar copay for specialized doctor visits. You can see that there is going to be vast change that for us is unacceptable to stay with. And the cherry on the sundae is her premium is jumping for 178 per pay period, to 258 per pay period. So they are cutting back and charging her more.

Before Merlin jumps in and says SEE I TOLD YOU. I dont blame the Affordable Healthcare Act, I blame the company. They are cutting costs DRASTICALLY, everyone has pretty much not seen a raise for quite sometime, they reuse ANCIENT tech equipment, they have been super-cheap on expenses cutting their annual christmas party, changing the old timers dinner criteria where less people qualify to go, along with a few other cutbacks for company celebrations. Why, because they want to sell the company. So this change while disappointing, is not surprising. The company is saving quite a bit doing this, and are quietly blaming Obamacare for this. The owner of the company is SEVERELY anti-Obama and has made that known at what few company functions they have left. He blames Obama for any downturn in business when and where he can (automotive industry). Even though his particular industry is booming because of Obama policies, and the automotive industry is doing EXCELLENT right now. Just plain greed by an old man who cares about money more than his employees, same sad story.

Anyways I will update you guys on the choices I got, the process was semi-painful as the agent I spoke to seemed to have some newbie problems, had to repeat myself several times, wait for awhile for her to figure out what she needed to do next, but overall I was able to get it done and completed.

I will let you guys know.

The shit they are doing to high deductible plans year after year is practically criminal. Not saying this will be anything close to your experience in your state with a family but for me as a single 31y/o male in CT the plans are ludicrous. Bronze level with $240/mo in premiums and $6k deductible. Gold plans with a $360/mo premium, $1k deductible but NOTHING is covered after you hit the deductible. You still have co-pays, you still have to pay for ambulance and emergency visits (out of pocket max is $3k)... it's ridiculous.

It's almost as if they are trying to prey on the ill-informed. I mean... a goddamn six thousand dollar deductible on top of premiums that high each month? What the fuck? If you aren't familiar with how these plans are structured just double the deductible and premiums each month and you'd get what it would cost to have a spouse and/or children on the plan with you. $12k deductible for families...

about 7 years ago I enrolled in the first forms of high deductible plans. My god were the ones my company offered amazing. I payed $8/mo in premiums and my deductible was only $1500.

Hoss_sl said:

If you could get it by itself, it would be awesome. It's all pre-tax money.

But the people who think an HSA is insurance are probably the same people who think health insurance = health care.

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I wasnt trying to imply HSA was insurance, we got our HSA account with our HDHP. The HDHP was a reasonable compromise after our previous insurance plan was scheduled to go over 1000 a month. We are young enough, healthy enough and we DONT go to the doctor for petty things so the premiums were affordable and we felt less like we were wasting huge amounts of money. In 10 years BCBS hasnt paid out in a year for us what we paid in a month for premiums. The HDHP/HSA was perfect, we were covered after 10000, which we saved and had as emergency funds, and the plan covered just what we needed. Not anymore. The comment I made about using the HSA was basically in addition to paying the non enrollment fine and financing our health care from savings. I just have a hard time spending 700 dollars a month (the cheapest plan available in our area for our family) for the same thing or worse. It isnt that we cannot afford the money, we CAN, it just cuts a chunk out of our discretionary funds. I just cant find the value in paying so much more for the same basic thing. *note* I do understand how the insurance system works, and I know it isnt based on OUR usage.

That being said, I KNOW why this has all happened, and how this is all supposed to work. I just resent the fact we were promised we could keep our current plans if we were happy with them, and then finding out that we can (kind of) and our wonderful new plan offers all sorts of wonderful new benefits we don't place any value on at a considerably increased price. Maternity, pediatric benefits, etc.

Khane_sl said:

The shit they are doing to high deductible plans year after year is practically criminal. Not saying this will be anything close to your experience in your state with a family but for me as a single 31y/o male in CT the plans are ludicrous. Bronze level with $240/mo in premiums and $6k deductible. Gold plans with a $360/mo premium, $1k deductible but NOTHING is covered after you hit the deductible. You still have co-pays, you still have to pay for ambulance and emergency visits (out of pocket max is $3k)... it's ridiculous.

It's almost as if they are trying to prey on the ill-informed. I mean... a goddamn six thousand dollar deductible on top of premiums that high each month? What the fuck? If you aren't familiar with how these plans are structured just double the deductible and premiums each month and you'd get what it would cost to have a spouse and/or children on the plan with you. $12k deductible for families...

about 7 years ago I enrolled in the first forms of high deductible plans. My god were the ones my company offered amazing. I payed $8/mo in premiums and my deductible was only $1500.

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You must be new to non-employer provided plans. That's how it's worked pretty much forever. You have your deductible, then once it's met you pay a coinsurance of typically 30%-50% until reaching a max out of pocket. Then they pay 100% of covered expenses. Employer plan or not, almost every single plan other than HSA's /HMO's works like this though.

http://www.changehealthcare.com/down...h%20Survey.pdf

Had to find a new one rather than dredging the old thread - look at page 7 it's pretty explicit. (And not in a NSFW way - unfortunately...)

On a side note, apparently dental plans were kicking ass for barely raising recently though, who knew?

Vaclav_sl said:

http://www.changehealthcare.com/down...h%20Survey.pdf

Had to find a new one rather than dredging the old thread - look at page 7 it's pretty explicit. (And not in a NSFW way - unfortunately...)

On a side note, apparently dental plans were kicking ass for barely raising recently though, who knew?

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Thanks for the link, not done reading it yet, but the costs are... well...

I will admit part of my ramblings is frustration with the system. The biggest reason (aside from the insane jump in costs) I consider not buying coverage is the delusional hope the system breaks down without people who pay in but dont take out and we can finally find some reasonable alternative. As it is, I just dont feel like the system is going to work, but apparently people much smarter than I think it will so..

Heh, I'd missed the following page - was actually responding to Merlin saying I didn't cite earlier - but yea, it's chock full of interesting data, really happy I found that one on how stuff was expanding up til 2009. (And as stated, remember there was a "pre-ACA" lockdown law that went into place that caged rate increases to CPI increase or less - which was ~4% these past couple years)

Only wanted the one stat for him, but it really has a plethora of other analysis - I only scratched the surface since I was posting on my phone at the time, but got it printed up to read later.

Mist_sl said:

I've successfully signed up.

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Navigator or Website out of curiosity?

God damn healthcare is beyond fucked up in this country. I don't see how the ACA is improving much of anything except for a small, small % of people. At this point I hope it goes down in flames and takes the private insurance industry down with it. Single-payer, universal health care that not tied to employment. What is it gonna take for this to happen?

TheBeagle_sl said:

God damn healthcare is beyond fucked up in this country. I don't see how the ACA is improving much of anything except for a small, small % of people. At this point I hope it goes down in flames and takes the private insurance industry down with it. Single-payer, universal health care that not tied to employment. What is it gonna take for this to happen?

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You must be smoking crack if after this debacle any politician will even touch a fully government run health care system. Obama fucked that all up with his total incompetence in doing even this much.

Merlin_sl said:

You must be smoking crack if after this debacle any politician will even touch a fully government run health care system. Obama fucked that all up with his total incompetence in doing even this much.

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With you saying that I am comfortable enough to declare single payer within the next 20 years.

Araysar_sl said:

Social Security and Medicare had rollout problems as well. Much bigger ones than a website.

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Dude don't fucking bring up history, you know that handicaps Merlin, but then again so do facts, common sense and logic.