My health insurance company is leaving the state. So I called to

[1monster]

find out what the conversion insurance was going to cover and cost.

What a shocker! To cover my husband, myself, and my fourteen year old son, the cost is going up from $470.00 per month (and that covered my stepdaughter who just turned 21 last month too) to $1,369.69. The deductible is going from $2,500 per person per year to $3,000 per year and the yearly out of pocket is going from $5,000 to $10,000. There will be some prescription drug coverage, but not until we meet the $3,000 yearly deductible.

The only good news I got today was that I don't need to have new coverage until July 1, 2008.

I guess I'm going to have to go seeking out new insurance companies to get the best deal I can. Otherwise, our family is going to become another statistic: those who are uninsured.

We are a two income family, but we are not making as much as we used to make, and $1,370 is more than I make in a month on a regular basis.

How are people who are making less than $50,000 a year supposed to afford insurance at those prices?

The insurance offered by my husband's work place is looking a lot better than it did at $900.00 per month.

Sigh. I guess it's time for me to look for a second job.

[MADem]

1. Jesus...what state? Maybe YOU need to leave, too--and follow them!

That's in-fucking-SANE, those prices...

[Uben]

4. Not that out of line

I pay $12,000 a year for me and the wife, with $5000 deductible and 50% of the next $10,000, making it $10,000 max OOP. I'm in Texas.

[MADem]

12. Amazing--TX, FL...two of those "Your MONEY" states

No personal income taxes.

Interesting.

It seems they get it from ya one way or another....

[1monster]

13. Since you are in Texas, you might want to check out American National

Life Insurance of Texas. That's where I have my current policy from. $470 is a heck of a lot better than $1,200 per month, with a deductible of $2,500 and out of pocket of $5000. The difference is that it is 80/20 after $2,500 and 100% after $5,000.

If I could keep our current insurance, I would.

[1monster]

6. Florida

When I asked why the insurance company was leaving the state, I was told, "It was a business decision."

Florida makes insurance companies pay for childhood inoculations (I always got my kid's inoculations free at the Health Department, so it didn't cost the insurance anything) and for breast cancer treatments among other things.

[LiberalHeart]

16. Wait. Breast cancer treatments?

Not likely to get insurance from anyone new once you've had that. I say that from personal experience.

[1monster]

20. No, I don't have that. It is one of the things that Florida law requires

insurance companies to cover in Florida. Also at least a forty-eight hour stay in the hospital for both mothers and babies when there for giving birth.

I'm not dissing the laws. If they were not in place, hospitals would kick both mother and baby out a few hours after birth.

I the forty-eight hour minimum also applies to breast cancer patients who are in for mastectomies (because for a while hospitals were doing those like they were drive through surgeries).

[tblue]

2. Our insurance goes up every year. This year it's about $1200 a month for a family of 3.

How in the world do people who don't have the money get by? Or are they just supposed to shrivel up in a ball and roll away? And, Iraq is costing us $11,000,000 EVERY MINUTE!!!

[barb162]

3. go on

http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/

[frankenforpres]

5. look into catastrophic coverage n/t

[1monster]

9. My husband had a arterial stent placement four years ago and then

a triple bypass in September, 2006.

And our insurance was what I called catastrophic coverage at $2,500 deductible per person. We went eleven years without meeting the per person deductible (even as a family unit).

If we don't stick with the conversion policy or one of the insurance companies that will have to give us a policy if we request it as a conversion, I doubt very much that we will be able to get insurance.

[Uben]

10. Are you kiddin?

$10,000 out of pocket for most folks IS catastrophic insurance! If a catastrophe empties your savings, a majority of Americans do not have $10,000 to lose! And what does it matter once your broke?

[frankenforpres]

23. if 10,000 breaks you

how can you afford 10,000 bucks a year



catastrophic isnt great, but it is better than nothing. the OP said she would go with nothing if $1300 was only choice

[1monster]

11. Thanks, I'll be checking that out.

[ellenfl]

14. when my insurance went up to $678/mo for just me,

i was looking into catastrophic. i figured the money i saved would cover annual doctor's visits and i would probably come out ahead. what p*sses me off is that group policy premiums are deducted from your paycheck pre-tax but if you buy your own policy it's with after tax dollars. imo, anyone who has to pay health insurance premiums should be able to deduct those premiums and all medical expenses from their gross income, no matter what percentage of gross income those medical expenses are.

ellen

[LiberalHeart]

17. Right. You can deduct long-term care insurance, so why not health?

When in business for myself, I could deduct it. Maybe it's that you don't itemize???

[ellenfl]

25. i'm not self employed. eom

[1monster]

21. I think they are deductible. At any rate the accountant who does our

taxes always asks us for that information. I'm not sure, though, if it makes it on to the 1040.

[Suich]

7. That's ridiculous!

I guess you already know that!

Hope you can find something more reasonable.

:)

[frankenforpres]

8. more about catastrophic...

https://www.insurance.com/quotes/Article.aspx/Pros_and_Cons_of_Catastrophic_Health_Insurance_/artid/43


i have the BC/BS like 20 bucks a month

[Lars39]

18. I had 2 surgeries in 2 years...wound up owing $8,000.

Catastrophic insurance is just a slow boat to bankruptcy.

[frankenforpres]

24. $8000 for two surgeries

is not that much money. payments on that would be less than what full insurance would cost you (unless your employer has you on a good plan)


of course, this isnt a good plan for someone that must go to a doctor often.

[LiberalHeart]

15. Mine for just me is $865 per month, no Rx , dental, vision or med. device coverage.

Copay for primary care doc visits is $20; 30% for specialist visits; 30% of all testing. $2,000 for hospital and $500 for outpatient.

[kineneb]

19. no deals for the poor, either

California offers "CMSP" to its poor, rural medically indigent adults between 18 and 65. Maximum allowed income for two people is $934 (with add-ons for certain expenses). That sum has not been adjusted since 1997. Everything above that is considered "share-of-cost" and must be spent down to get any coverage.

That means I must spend $280 of Hubby's SSDI payment of $1238 every month before I have "insurance" coverage. Needless to say, I avoid going to the doc as much as possible, and he has been giving me samples of my medication (otherwise $135+/mo). I have to go to the dental clinic next week, and will try to get on their sliding-scale plan, because I don't have the funds for the spend down payment.

Good luck with the insurance stuff. I can't afford any.

[1monster]

22. I hear you. I've been hanging on to the insurance we have with my

finger nails because my husband has inexplicably (not overweight, got plenty of exercise, diet was pretty good, cholesterol wasn't high, didn't have high blood pressure, family history on one side had cardio vascular problems develop in their seventies, he was fifty-six) developed cardio vasular disease...that's expensive.

I hopscotch bill paying (which has me deeply in debt) in order to keep the insurance.

That's why today's info about rates and coverage has me gasping for breath.

I haven't added it all up, but judging from the medical bills I've seen and what I know the insurance paid and what we still owe, that triple bypass cost us somewhere in the neighborhood of $120,000 to $150,000.