Need thoughts on Health Insurance

[jonyyuma]

Western, we were just told last week,"the health care will double in payments over the next three years. This directly due to the Healthcare bill just passed in congress, It will not take effect until 2014, so now they will collect the monies early. There will be no cheaper insurance shortly.. Btw, I have Cigna and they are refusing more charges and test than before> We need to be heard on this to the yokells that pushed it on us. Give congress the same healthcare, then it will improve.Jy

 

[Western]

Johnny, your right about that. We have to pay for woman's Health care too, right!!!! Cigna was doing that when the wife's Co. changed providers, but actually it hasn't been any different.

 

[jonyyuma]

You would not believe how bad we have been hammered on healthcare lately.Not from overuse, but expenses of the plans. We were told 18 cents of every dollar for the company.If I retired now it would be $900 a month selfpay....

 

[Western]

I think the cost of obamacare will be so far more extreme for the country than we think, no facts to back that up, but why do it behind closed doors and the leadership, (Dems Pelosi) said it would take time to find out what was in the package!!

We give to many "perks" for "free" already, but who is it really "free" for??

Sorry, gets me PO'd, I am not rich and don't have much, but what I have my wife and I have worked for. Maybe I have to much pride, but I don't want to be in a handout line and I'm afraid this bill (HC) along with guvment spending will force that on most of us. Never thought I'd be living in Europe and I don't even have the tourist photos!!

 

[jonyyuma]

Likewise here, what they did was Criminal,,congress has not read the 20k pages yet..

 

[Gator6x4]

I know a 63 year old male who was thinking of retiring. He checked on health insurance and the lowest price was through his current place of employment. A family policy was a very affordable $1,350 per month. More than his anticipated SS check. He advised he will have to work until age 65 or beyond. The biggest cost increase was caused when employers had to start covering family members until age 26 on family policies. Most used to be 19 and out. Companies spread cost across all employees so an individual without children is really taking a hit since most companies require "Married" individuals carry a "Family Plan". I don't look for employers to be providing employee insurance in five or ten years with or without employee co-pay for insurance coverage cost.

 

[jonyyuma]

Exactly, Our company does not want any Retired expenses.. Mine was 1/3 rd of pension, until 67, then you get the boot...Courtesy of Congress.

 

[Bird]

Thanks for the comments, I have a ways to go to get Medicare!.

I gues what they are offering is not as bad as I thought, but I will check with BC/BS. We have through United Health Care HMO now.

All are other insurance (auto ect tra)I switched to Amica last year, $1800 a year cheaper than what I had through the Farm Bureau! I will have to check if they have health, I know they have life ins.

There was a time when I was foolish enough to think our health care insurance would be less when we got on Medicare. Well, we're there so now we pay:
]
$96.40 for wife's Part B (deducted from her social security)
$115.40 for my Part B (it's more expensive if not deducted from social security
$321.82 for Medicare Supplement for both
$327.32 for Medicare Part D (prescription medicines)
$48.75 for both for Dental
$10.29 for both for Vision

All of it except Part B is through the city and with United HealthCare. If Medicare covers something, then the Supplement pays the deductible and co-pay, but if Medicare turns it down, then the insurance also pays nothing and we pay it all. There's always a co-pay for prescriptions; up to $100 for a 90 day supply. On most dental claims, United HealthCare can find a way to reject each claim, or at least pay much less than the Dentists expected them to pay.

 

[Western]

Bird, that is the same company we're with.

I remember as a kid, when my uncles where going to Viet Nam, they where talking about getting back "home" and getting good jobs with good insurance.

Seems those day's are over for the most part. I guess it's all been "re-distributed" but have no clue where? I guess the deal we are offered isn't bad, by comparison. Wife is going to make a couple of calls to BC/BS and get some rates.

 

[PossumHound]

Insurance companies are the biggest cause of high healthcare costs in our country. Note that I don't specify for profit or not for profit (BCBS) because either way the money paid in by you or your employer funds individuals' profits (could be investors in the for-profit case or company executives in the non-profit case). To call this insurance is ludicrous. The payments made to insurance companies are enough to cover healthcare costs- sort of like installment payments. The insurance company takes on no risk, which is the definition of insurance- risk sharing.

I've worked in healthcare 33 years so I've seen the dirty insides of the way the system works. You'd get mighty PO'd if you saw the way insurance companies make collecting on claims so dang difficult for healthcare providers. I'm against ObamaCare, but for a national healthcare plan- one that specifies a single-payer system. Obamacare went out of its way to make sure insurance companies didn't get penalized. Why should we (individuals and companies making insurance payments) have to guarantee the profits of these companies? All they're doing is collecting the payments, trying to pay as little as possible for any claims and pocketing the leftover.

PH