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I've had it with Health Insurance, looked and found online Primary Care in WA State.

laminar-flow

Stainless
Joined
Jan 26, 2003
Location
Pacific Northwest
In our county, we only have one provider, Lifewise, and it is becoming a joke. I don't have time to explain, but lots of money for junk coverage. It was better years ago though the exchange, but has become worse every year.

So we found this on line. On-Demand Text-Based Primary Care App | 98point6
My son started an account but as you would guess it is limited in what they can treat. Anyone have experience with 98point6?

So, does anyone know of a way out of having only one provider? Yes, this is the ACA exchange.
 
In the long run and on average you're better off without insurance; that's how they make money.

I wouldn't agree with that, depending on your overall health. I was unfortunate enough to get hit with the tax penalty from Obamacare last year (:angry::icon_bs:), that said health ins does have it's benefits, at least on scripts. I am an insulin dependent diabetic and insulin ain't cheap! When I was without health ins when changing jobs my price for basically half my script (1 box instead of 2) was over $500. I paid about $350 using Goodrx*, with health ins I pay $25 fo rnow, coupon, but it will be about $65 without coupon. So yes my cost for insulin with or without ins is about the same (75$/wk ins premium, plus script co-pay), BUT my ins also covers other meds, etc...


*If you don't know about Goodrx, look them up! It is free, all you do is print out a coupon, or download the app for your phone.
 
If you are married, have your wife get a job at a hospital. Where my wife works you can get $700 max out of pocket Blue Cross if you work 20 hours a week. She works 36 hours a week and I get Blue Cross, eye care, dental and life insurance for $111 a month.
 
In the long run and on average you're better off without insurance; that's how they make money.

Good news is that terrible stuff, whether cancer, accidents, or tornadoes, only happens to some people. Bad news is that each of us has a chance of being among "some people."

Insurance, run by efficient companies with less than rapacious execs is a good idea for civilization. The problem, IMO, isn't the notion of insurance but how most companies run it.
 
The fact that having a wife working for a hospital is the only good way is just indicative of what a fucking joke the whole deal is.
I agree 100%, but it is reality. Bill Clinton had healthcare reform in 1993. How did Obamacare workout? In reality you or your spouse needs to work for a large company or the government to get affordable health coverage. Or, if you are self employed you need a large steady income to pay for it. Otherwise you would be better off moving to Canada or a European country with NHS. I don't see anything changing in my lifetime.
 
I have heard on the radio that MSAs or HSAs are still available. I had one when the ACA started and my rates doubled. It was going to be canceled within the first year but the government relented and said that existing policies could be kept in force. I went with the original insurance till the year before I was eligible for Medicare, then Humana dropped the program leaving me with no insurance.
An agent told me only temporary insurance could be issued or ACA which is a misnomer at $1400.00 a month. He let me think that HSAs were no longer available.
Anyway sometimes while driving I have heard Dave Ramsey say you can still get HSAs. Health Savings Account qualified insurance is high deductible and allows you to pay from a savings account funded with pretax dollars. Had that type of insurance for probably 25 years and it never paid a dime for any of my expenses, but I was covered in case of catastrophic illness or accidents. I understand the savings can now be drawn on for regular income now.
 
If you are married, have your wife get a job at a hospital. Where my wife works you can get $700 max out of pocket Blue Cross if you work 20 hours a week. She works 36 hours a week and I get Blue Cross, eye care, dental and life insurance for $111 a month.
One of the problems with that is she works where all the sick people go, not a good place to be. My father-in-law was an MD, a Cornell trained neurologist, and some other impressive credentials. His words of wisdom to my wife when she left home was "stay away from doctors, they are dangerous, and stay away from hospitals, they will kill you."

To the op, in the exact same boat. No answers but quite interested if you figure a better option. It wasn't too bad till about 3 years ago.
 
There are a dozen first world countries with significantly lower costs and equal or better outcomes. And all of those manage to serve all their citizens.

Our problem is that we have so many "providers" trying to skim something off the top of our near $4 TRILLION health care spend, often without adding value or even doing harm. These range from late night TV scam artists ("free" electric wheelchairs), through many insurance companies, to hospitals chains using terminally ill patients as ATM's to boost their profits.

FWIW, having both been unlucky (easily cured cancer a doctor missed twice, until it was no longer easy to cure) and now old enough to be on Medicare -- I can say Medicare is far superior in terms of simplicity, less BS, and cost-effectiveness than the Blue Cross and United Healthcare programs I paid for as a sole proprietor.

For the OP, sadly the availability of coverage is now influencing career choices for many - or marriage choices as suggested above. Kind of stupid, because our economy would do best if people did when they did best. Other than find a different job, if you're young you might go for a policy with a high deductible, life a healthy lifestyle, and cross your fingers. If you're older you might have to decide whether you want to be insured and middle class poorer or uninsured and subject to bankruptcy and maybe a premature end if you're unlucky enough to get seriously injured or sick.
 
I have one of those church based health plans and never needed it yet so dont know how well it works. I tried to buy plans for my 2 guys and it was over 18000 a year each thats a 9 dollar an hour raise thats not appreciated as much as a 5 dollar an hour raise is. figured they could quit smoking, chewing, and lose weight and buy their own ensurance
 
Healthcare is free. All you have to do is join the military and get shot, have a parachute failure, get blown up, or all three. I'm about to have my 21st surgery..., I had to quit going to the VA after they cut on the wrong side of my body and took the wrong part out, let an intern do a surgery with no one supervising it and accidentally cut an artery and left it in a panic, and almost killed me with 4 other botched surgeries. I now use private practice, but insurance is a joke. If they decide they don't want to pay for your amputation or spinal fusion, they just forward the bill to you. If I had any less morals, I'd just not have insurance and let the bills go to collections. Doctors suck.
 

Those are yelp reviews :) Check the yelp reviews for some other health insurance cos and you'll get 1 or 2 stars as well.

We get our bills paid. I guess my wife would be the one to give an actual review. She has to call them from time to time, and we're lucky enough to be able to pay in advance no problem and wait to be reimbursed if necessary.

If we ever have a major problem I'll be the first to speak about it, but for now it fits our needs.

As a small business owner it's pretty much my only choice...unless I want to spend thousands per month with an $8000 deductible.
 
Those are yelp reviews :) Check the yelp reviews for some other health insurance cos and you'll get 1 or 2 stars as well.

We get our bills paid. I guess my wife would be the one to give an actual review. She has to call them from time to time, and we're lucky enough to be able to pay in advance no problem and wait to be reimbursed if necessary.

If we ever have a major problem I'll be the first to speak about it, but for now it fits our needs.

As a small business owner it's pretty much my only choice...unless I want to spend thousands per month with an $8000 deductible.

Thanks for the reply. I have a friend that could really use this.
 
What is offered in the US that is better?

Information.

Cheap, if not also "free as in beer" as well as "free as in speech".

Two main ways to apply it?

*Prevention* .. or at least reduction of risk..

- Doesn't take a whole lot of personal initiative to realize on research that we have been digging early graves with our own teeth and lips. Actually correcting that with wiser "lifestyle" and nutrition choices is harder, but do-able.

*Treatment* ... self, or family applied.

- Takes more research to learn how to manage threats and treat them, but WTF? A decent "RN" course can be done in two years, and will stand one to far better use - life-long - than a welding course, political or social sciences, or marketing. Even if you don't quite PASS the courses, you'll be a wiser and safer person..

Our society is sooo highly technical, anyone who works hard at learning soon catches-up to what MD's of our parents and grandparents generation knew after a lifetime of study - such as it was. They had no miracle drugs, CAT scan or exotic surgical procedures, let alone exotic pharma or customized gene solutions.

Our GREAT Grandparents had scant other choices, AT ALL - access to a "real Doctor" was that scarce, said Doctor's knowledge, pharma, and surgical tools that poor.

We have created this monster ourselves, excessively costly and/or "time and priority rationed" Health Scare.

Created "ruination in our times", by expecting instant treatment - everywhere - that should enable ANYONE to live forever off the back of foolish behavioural choices and in defiance of marginal DNA dice-rolls.

Those DNA hiccups won't be affordable to treat for another hundred years. Presuming we are not first bankrupted to starve-to-death by the cost of treating our own self-generated illnesses, that is.
 








 
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