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Health Care Coverage

SIM

Titanium
Joined
Feb 19, 2004
Location
Staten Island NewYork USA
Okay not entirely off topic here because if I can't find better rates with decent coverage I won't be machining much longer,... at least not at my place.

As of this week my family coverage has hit 2200 a month. I also have to come up with half the coverage of my employees. If this keeps up I close the doors and go work for the city or a large firm. Wondering if anybody has any suggestions for Health Care, companies, plans etc. Something that is good, yet somewhat reasonable.

Thanks,
Carl
 
2200 a month, OUCH!!

I was put in charge of shopping around a few years ago, and came up with Blue Cross as the best rates.
Since I am the only one with insurance right now, I pay half, so its about $320 a month, and that is for the Cadilac of plans, single healthy young male, at least I think I'm healthy, I just never go to the doctor. If we added in a few women or older folks I'm sure my rates would go up, but we chose this plan for the $5 copay, and heck I can get a new heart and lungs for only a $100.

Our owner went with one of those savings account health plans for our sister company, and all it does is basically screw your employees, the rates are maybe a little bit less. It just seems like a huge scam that gives the insurance companies a whole lot more money, straight out of your pocket.

I would say to shop around, the more people you can have on an insurance plan, the cheaper it will be. I know sometimes you can get in a group of businesses, and therefore have the buying and bargaining power of a larger business. When I worked for a large company I was mad because what came out of my check went from a dollar to 7.50 to 12.00 a week over 3 years, this was for full medical ($10 copay), vision, and short term disability, I sure miss those days.

On the other hand you could just screw your employees and not offer health care, but thats pretty crappy. If you have a pretty tight knit place like we do, you could get everybody together and see what they think you should do, maybe use your scrap recycling to subsidize the healthcare, nothing like incentive to make more chips. Multiple plans maybe, one for younger males that NEVER go to the doctor, and one for families.

I'm not an expert but the rate increases lately are a little insane(30-50% a year), its not malpractice suits that the insurance companies claim, they haven't gone up much, its just huge greedy corporations trying to screw the little guy out of every red cent they have, and drive this country into a third world aristocracy, backed by a bunch of hacks in washington that are just trying to line their pockets instead of take care of the people that they were elected to take care of.
 
I have my own insurance, through Blue Cross. It costs me $140 a month, for the middle coverage. It is $100 for the lower end, and $190 for the best. I pay it 100% my self, this is the full preminum. But I am only 24 yrs old.
For a whole family, should be no more than $900.00 at the worst case. I would shop around for sure. $2200 is rediculous. But it may vary state to state, I am in PA.
 
In North Carolina, Blue Cross is around $650 for my wife and me.

I'm 58, she's 53.
Not very meaningful without knowing your deductables and whether you're part of a larger BCBS plan or not (i.e. BCBS for NC educators is partially subsidised...that sort of thing)
 
Not very meaningful without knowing your deductables and whether you're part of a larger BCBS plan or not (i.e. BCBS for NC educators is partially subsidised...that sort of thing)
Following numbers are for individuals not associated with a larger group.

The figures are for my wife and me, 58 and 53 years of age, no dependents.
For a thirty year old couple, no dependents, rates are about 52% of the figures shown.
For a thirty year old couple with two kids, rates are about 87% of the figures shown.

You can get a quote in thirty seconds, no personal info needed, at:
http://www.bcbsnc.com/plans/blueadvantage/rate.cfm


There are two plans - standard and budget
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Standard:

Annual Deductible $2500 $1000 $500 $250
Base Rate $295.97 $334.56 $358.80 $375.12
Spouse Rate $264.94 $299.35 $320.96 $335.52
TOTAL MONTHLY RATE $560.91 $633.91 $679.76 $710.64


Budget:

Annual Deductible $5000 $2500 $1000 $500
Base Rate $220.17 $247.43 $279.28 $300.38
Spouse Rate $197.34 $221.65 $250.05 $268.87
TOTAL MONTHLY RATE $417.51 $469.08 $529.33 $569.25
</pre>[/QUOTE]
 
My wife and I spend about $750 a month for full coverage through Kaiser Permanente (HMO). I'm 54 and she's (mumble mumble).

There's a $15 co-payment for each doctor's visit, and a $50 co-payment for emergency services through an ER. Prescription drugs are also covered, with a $10 co-pay on each prescripion. There's even dental coverage, but we don't use it because our dentists don't belong to the plan.

In the last three years, my wife and I both ended up in the hospital for a few days, and it cost us NOTHING. Kaiser paid everything. Even the $50 ER co-pay is waived if they admit you to the hospital.

We priced regular PP0 and HMO plans about five years ago, and found that the ONLY way we could get a decent rate was through a group plan of some kind. Fortunately for us, my wife is a singer and belongs to the local Musician's union. They offer a group plan that includes about 2000 members at a group rate. To join, we had to wait until there was an "open enrollment" into the plan, which they have every November. Her union dues are only about $135 per year.

My wife is the primary name on the policy, and I'm the "spouse". The rate is about half of what we would pay for the same coverage otherwise.

Maybe you should go to a garage sale and buy an old trumpet. You could play a few gigs on your town square gazebo each summer and save a bundle. There's only 3 keys on a trumpet. It's a lot easier than the piano or the violin.
 
Well I did a quick on-line quote with Blue Cross and seems a whole lot more resonable then what I am paying. Our doctors are part of the program, a real plus.

We will make a few calls this week and find out what is up with the new renewal figures given. I know we stayed with Oxford Health Care the last few years because some of people where in the midst of treatments and related health issues, but this new rate hit me like a sledge hammer. When we signed up it was competative with other companies and we shopped around a bit last year but think we need to rethink this issue. We have $20 copay, need referrals and prescriptions can be limited, far from the Cadillac Coverage.

Thanks for the input, thought the figure was over the top, hoped it was anyway.
 
While my wife and I are covered under Medicare I carry my supplemental coverage thru the Home Builders group, as I still have central vac systems and storage shelving for the home owner, and their carrier is blue cross major medical with eye, dental and some small percentage for RX, it still cost me $735.00 per mo.I am constantly looking for better rates and will re-evaluate the senior RX plan that Uncle Sam has in mind when it is presented to see how badly we will get screwed?
 
at the shop i work at, i pay ~$40 a week out of pocket (dental included), and my employer pays another $25 on top of that.

i'm 20 years old, have had this insurance about a year and a half, and have never gone to the doctor.
insurance is utter bull****. they're making a killing, and killing us at the same time.
 
insurance is utter bull****. they're making a killing, and killing us at the same time.
Your sought of correct, it is BS and if you don't have anything to lose, probly not worth it to get insurance. Health care around here is free if your broke and have nothing to take, just go to a hospital and the ER must take care of you.

Now if you own a home, have some savings in the bank, a business, a building left to you by your long lost relative you must pay for own Healthcare or they will take your "Stuff", when you run out of "STUFF" to take then the balance of the care is free, well on Uncle Sam anyway. Thats where Insurance comes in.

Also if you want to choose which Doctor you think is best you need to be able to pay (Either up front or thru insurance)

Going to a doctor for a checkup, or to get some antibiotics is relatively cheap, a couple hundred is not a problem. Now have someone go in for an operation, something as simple as a C-Section, can you believe I got a bill for over $7,000 plus a couple thousand more for the room and care of child.

Now a friend of mine lost his wife a little while back from Cancer. She was diagnosed and died within 6 months. Within those 6 months he went from having a home, several cars, boat and money in the bank, to loosing his wife and all his stuff. He now has a motor home and lives in a trailer park. He only had HealthCare that took care of Hospital Care, Blue Cross I believe. All out of hospital care was out of pocket. Six months and he had bills for over five hunderd thousand dollars, some bills were taken care of my his coverage, other were not.

Yeah its BS, but if you have something worth losing or want to choose your own Doctors, you have to think twice about coverage. Friend and his wife where in their 30's.
 








 
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