how much does yours suck???

$1000 deductible blows... i hate going to the Dr. for $20 and then having to pay $200-300 later

9/2/2008 1:20:47 PM

We get these credit cards that have $500 on them I think it is that we can spend on anything medical wise so at least that helps cancel out some of that for little things

I agree though, our deductibles are ridiculous

9/2/2008 1:30:32 PM

yeah, $1000 deductibles suck...

but that's pretty easy to hit when you get MRIs of both knees, at $1028 per knee.

9/2/2008 1:34:38 PM

My company's plan has a $2,500 deductible, but they pay $2,000 of that, so a net $500 deductible isn't too bad. That + flex account is enough to make me happy.

9/2/2008 1:35:56 PM

$1000 deductible, but its worth every penny especially since my company pays for the premiums. I'd be in the poor house if I didn't have my insurance.

I also keep a supplemental BCBS plan that I've had since I was in high school.

9/2/2008 1:47:29 PM

do you bitch at your car insurance company when you have to buy new tires?

9/2/2008 1:58:15 PM

mine is now double what it used to cost.

WTF

9/2/2008 2:06:42 PM

^^ that makes no sense.

yeah the thing is my office covers $150 more than a single person pays per month.

[Edited on September 2, 2008 at 2:08 PM. Reason : .]

9/2/2008 2:06:43 PM

$750 deductible but the insurance is free so I guess I can't complain.

9/2/2008 2:36:09 PM

Listen to that little voice in the back of your head:

Quote :

"Health insurance. Damned if you do, damned if you don't."

Quote :

"Health insurance. Now more than your mortgage."

Quote :

"Pay 6 Gs a year to have the bill for your 1 hour trip to the emergency room reduced to just $12,500."

Quote :

"Health insurance. You gonna get raped."

9/2/2008 7:15:44 PM

my insurance is quite nice...but i work in healthcare.

9/2/2008 7:31:36 PM

fucking high deductible plans are ruining america.

9/2/2008 7:52:22 PM

are you all talking about high deductibles just for basic office visits and what not, or if you have to be admitted to the hospital?

9/2/2008 8:31:06 PM

mine is only $250 deductible a year, $10 copays on doctors visits and urgent care, 90/10 for er and hospital

[Edited on September 2, 2008 at 8:46 PM. Reason : and costs me $64 a month]

9/2/2008 8:46:24 PM

i have bcbs It really blows. Dental and vision that come with that policy blow too. Oh well, at least my boss is paying my premium.

9/2/2008 8:47:16 PM

you can't judge a whole company and say it sucks just because your policy sucks (well you can but you'd be an idiot) - these companies have tons of different policies and some are good and obviously some suck....

why aren't people posting their policies and how much they put towards it (and how much your company does if you happen to know)?

companies such as bcbs are broken up by state - a plan you have in bcbsnc isn't necessarily available in bcbsga and the such (for all intents and purposes they are separate companies) - are there really such things as "top tier" plans - have you see all the other plans and know yours is classified as a "top tier" one or you just assume?

9/2/2008 8:49:52 PM

i have the top tier bc/bs plan, single, i pay $64 a month, the company pays $186

9/2/2008 8:52:00 PM

$300 Deductable, $25 co-pay @ $16/month

9/2/2008 9:15:14 PM

Quote :

"are there really such things as "top tier" plans"

i have a top tier plan, it is $127 a month with 1 dependent. i negotiated that the company should pay 50%. works for me. they also contribute to my flexible savings account.

i partially chose my job based on health benefits. another job had bcbs and their middle plan with 1 dependent was $267 a month. what a crock of shit.

[Edited on September 2, 2008 at 9:34 PM. Reason : b]

9/2/2008 9:33:36 PM

at ups the deductible was only $500, but it was with aetna--one step forward and two steps back

[Edited on September 2, 2008 at 9:41 PM. Reason : aetna blows]

[Edited on September 2, 2008 at 9:44 PM. Reason : i seriously think i would reconsider working for any other company that had them]

9/2/2008 9:41:24 PM

i dunno man, i had aetna and it was pretty damned good. of course i never had to go to the emergency room, just preventative stuff and cheap prescriptions.

9/2/2008 9:51:56 PM

i spent a year fighting with them and finally had go to the insurance commissioner b/c they tried to tell me my doctor was in-network when she wasn't and were only reimbursing me at the in-network rate. even after they finally admitted that they fucked up, they still reimbursed me at the in-network rate for each new visit and i had to appeal them to get the rest of my money

9/2/2008 9:59:32 PM

My husband is with Best Buy, so we are with United Health Care. I have to say that is it pretty awesome. You can choose your tier and we chose the highest tier knowing that we were having a baby. (Smart thinking!) Our deductable is $500, then it is an 20 us and 80 them, and once we reach $5,000 out of pocket they cover it 100%. Most people never think that they will reach that $5,000 max, but we did after I had a C-section and our son had numerous medical problems.

UHC also covered our son's *experimental* thymus transplant expenses, which is AMAZING. Our doctors said that it is so rare that an insurance company agrees as quickly as ours did.

The only problem with UHC and that they require us to use a specialty mail order pharmacy for some of our son's medications. The mail order pharmacy is HORRIBLE. The levels of some of these medications are life or death for our son and they are constantly screwing things up.

But otherwise, UHC has been pretty awesome to our family and not very costly.

[Edited on September 2, 2008 at 10:03 PM. Reason : ,\]

9/2/2008 10:01:48 PM

let me guess, medco...

9/2/2008 10:03:58 PM

i guess when i meant post your plan i meant something like - wife has her own policy - it's almost identical but through aetna but she has to pay about $40/mo or something like that - it's more expensive for us to both be on the same plan currently

9/2/2008 10:11:21 PM

$7/mo premium

$800 deductible

80% covered after that

100% once i hit $4k i think...

and i fully holler at my FSA like crazy

free generic prescriptions at walmart, $5 everywhere else, $20 for most brand name shit
$100 for ER trips

and car accidents or motorcycle accidents are costly as all fucking hell. 3 of my friends got into serious wrecks and are having a nightmare of a time getting everything sorted. kind of hard to go to a hospital "in network" when you're head is cracked the fuck open

i had surgery back in 2006 and everything was in network and good to go but i get screwed on some normal things they consider "preventative" and have to pay out of pocket. thats when i negotiate with the doctor so i dont end up paying $500 for some shit i can get for $50

[Edited on September 3, 2008 at 12:30 AM. Reason : sdfkldsjf]

9/3/2008 12:25:12 AM

i don't get health insurance from work, so i got an HSA from BCBSNC. i'd prefer a traditional plan but my premiums were going up significantly even though i had never made a claim. so, my deductible is $2000. it cut the premium almost in half of what it was going to be. basically i have health insurance for major incidents. if i went as often as some people that plan wouldn't make much sense.

however, i do kind of need to go see a doctor now and wish i had that $250 deductible again.

9/3/2008 12:52:55 AM

I am deducted $20.85 bi-weekly pre-tax from my paychecks. This includes Health/Dental/Vision for myself only.

BC/BS of Mass EPO: $17.00 bi-weekly
Delta Dental: $2.55 bi-weekly
VSP: $1.30 bi-weekly

No deductibles

9/3/2008 1:16:39 AM

I pay $32.18 per paycheck (two a month) for my wife and I. It's wierd but there is only a single or family plan, so this would be the same price even if we had 10 kids.

$1000 calendar year deductible (100% after $5k, 80/20 before)
Preventative care 100%
$20 copay
I think $15/$30 prescription
Dental (Preventative 100%)
$142,000 combined life insurance ($102k paid for by the company)

Not sure how much the company pays.

[Edited on September 3, 2008 at 8:26 AM. Reason : PPO [no HMO]]

9/3/2008 8:23:03 AM

my dental is 2 cleanings and whatever xrays paid for 100% and 80% paid for for any work that needs to be done

vision is $150 every two years which sucks but i dont need it because my vision is good

life insurance is 2x my annual salary for $1 a year and if i am traveling on business and die my beneficiary gets 4x my annual salary

overall its pretty good except for that whole not covering preventative health care thing. they only pay for tests if you end up having a disease but nothing to prevent it or test for it beforehand. so that sucks

9/3/2008 1:53:59 PM

^^My husband's insurance does the same thing w/ the kids. You can have a single, single+1, or family. Doesn't matter if you have a million kids, it costs the same thing. Which is awesome, if you have kids.

9/3/2008 1:59:46 PM

i was looking at an HSA and while it reduces your tax liability, it's not worth it if you're healthy.

it's an investment vehicle, but it sucks. as far as i know.

9/3/2008 2:00:44 PM

The Health Care Spending Account (HCSA) is worth it.

9/3/2008 2:18:02 PM

last year i put $800 into my FSA and this year i put $1k into it

i blew through the $1k by april...

thanks to all the preventative shit and things not covered by my insurance

thankfully most of it was for the cervical cancer vaccine which ate up most of it but was only a one time thing

FSAs are fucking awesome-- all it takes is a little planning and if at the end of the year you have $ leftover, get the list of items that apply to the program (things like advile and qtips and shit are on there) go to the store and stock up tax free

9/3/2008 3:54:14 PM

Yeah, I don't really get why Seotaji thinks flex accounts aren't worth it. Unless by "if you're healthy" you mean you have zero prescriptions and never go to the doctor or dentist or anything. Just don't put the max in there if you're only going to need a little bit.

9/3/2008 4:15:29 PM

The HSA is only available to me if I sign up for the high deductible plan.

9/3/2008 4:22:11 PM

Oh. Well that would make sense. Mine was available regardless of if we went with the company's insurance plan.

9/3/2008 4:25:55 PM

I own a company that comparison shops insurance for people. We comparison shop health, life, disability, and more. Most people are spending way to much on their health insurance and they don't even realize it.

The company that I have found to be the most fair and competitive is Assurant Health. Try the link below to see what you could be saving.

https://consumer.eassuranthealth.com/IM/Consumer/EASE/Welcome.aspx?mode=

11/13/2008 1:27:12 PM

my new one should rock the house...

11/13/2008 1:28:02 PM

what company are you people with

I have a $250 deductible, $15 copay

(only had to recently pay the deductible for specialty services, ie chiropractor)

I have Aetna

11/13/2008 2:53:35 PM

there are so many different plans for each company. they are not there for charity, they are there to make $$$. That being said I have had $30,000 worth of surgury and doctors stuff since Jan. and have had only had to pay ~$5,000. Luckily most of the surgury was through UNC Med School and rare shit, so they charged me less, so they could write papers.

11/13/2008 3:09:04 PM

this thread is relevant to my interests

we pay $670/mo (cobra, not employer sponsored) for me, punchmonk and baby. $500 individual, $1000 family deductible. $25 copays, $30 prescriptions

11/13/2008 3:18:10 PM

My new one is $37 (thank you employer) NO DEDUCTIBLE!! $20 copay on RX & Visits

11/13/2008 3:52:02 PM

Starting in January it'll be $338/mo, $1,000 deductable, 100% coverage after that, and I think prescriptions run like $15/25/50/60% or something.

Blue Cross Blue Shield.

I was just glad somebody would let me pay for insurance.

Diabetes is a bitch.

[Edited on November 13, 2008 at 5:53 PM. Reason : That includes dental, btw. $38/mo for that.]

11/13/2008 5:53:24 PM

Quote :

"Yeah, I don't really get why Seotaji thinks flex accounts aren't worth it. Unless by "if you're healthy" you mean you have zero prescriptions and never go to the doctor or dentist or anything. Just don't put the max in there if you're only going to need a little bit."

i have zero prescriptions and get yearly physicals, dental visits and eye exams - all of which aren't worth the hassle of opening a HSA/FSA, esp. if you have to use it up at the end of the year.

$20 for doc, $0 for dentist and $0 for optometrist. nope, no need for an HSA/FSA.

i would take advantage if i knew i needed major surgery, but that's about all it's good for. it's a pain in the ass to deal with and useless to healthy people AFAIK.

i considered using an FSA as a tax vehicle to pay for daycare, BUT the overall savings are so small, as to be worthless. why would i want to be reimbursed my OWN money?

[Edited on November 13, 2008 at 10:25 PM. Reason : f]

11/13/2008 10:25:10 PM

i'm like 2 weeks from getting medical/dental...forget how much medical is every paycheck but dental is like 13 per paycheck

11/13/2008 10:26:59 PM

medical/dental is free for us.. $11 for eye which is optional

11/13/2008 10:32:13 PM

Quote :

"i considered using an FSA as a tax vehicle to pay for daycare, BUT the overall savings are so small, as to be worthless. why would i want to be reimbursed my OWN money?"

Uhhhhh, do you even understand how FSAs work?

11/13/2008 11:46:58 PM

I just went to the eye doctor for a checkup and new glasses. Insurance covered $424 for the frame/lenses/check-up/coatings. I only had a $10 copay. No deductible. I love working for a big pharma...they always have great insurance.

No deductibles either.

[Edited on November 13, 2008 at 11:51 PM. Reason : adsfsadfa]

11/13/2008 11:50:05 PM

Quote :

"Pay 6 Gs a year to have the bill for your 1 hour trip to the emergency room reduced to just $12,500"

Dress up like a homeless person, remove all ID, and they have to treat you for free per EMTALA

Oh wait, visits to the ER for colds and pain medicine are what's driving up your health care costs.

11/14/2008 12:02:51 AM