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health insurance question

2K views 29 replies 23 participants last post by  ks-trap-shooter 
#1 ·
This is bull. I called a major health insurance company UPMC for insurance quotes. They said they won;t insure individual's but you must be a part of a group. First of all if a persons employer does not offer an insurance plan and or you only want to get individual insurance how can you do this? My present health insurance are through the roof with no health problems. What are you paying. I am 57 and my wife is 62. thanks
 
#3 ·
my blue cross is 5 grand a year i buy the best blue cross offers.pays 24 chiropractic treatments a year pays for most of my med i take nexium for acid reflux that is 200 a month my cost is about 70 bucks.i take metropol for blood pressure it costs me only about 5 to 10 bucks a month. i figure all they pay my insurance doesn,t cost all that much in my case buying the best is a lot cheaper than buying the cheaper insurance. i will be 57 in june. a friend with no health issues just turned 60. his hospital insurance doubled because of age. i have copay,dr visits are 8 bucks. i had 3 surgeries in june & july 2006 & jan of 07. my part of dr & hospital was only a few hundred bucks . personally i believe in buying the best. don,t know about it though, if & when i reach 60 dwain
 
#6 ·
Mine is subsidized by my former employer...they pay 40% of the premium, but it was frozen at I think year 2000 values. That said blue cross blue shield for the wife and I, both in late 50's is now running me $975 per month. 4 years ago it was $275 a month. (the 2008 premium went DOWN a bit from 2007) With this coverage out of pocket for 2007 was over $20k. bob finger
 
#9 ·
For an individual plan contact a local independent agent.Find a good one and they should be able to solve your problems by offering several quotes thru various carriers.If you do not know of one just ask around with the local business people for a referral on who's who with agents.They will steer you
to a good one.
Good Luck:Randy
 
#10 ·
I agree about not doing business with "Anti Gun" Corporations but, it is getting harder all of the time.

If you have seen the list of them it will just blow your mind.

Sadly I guess it is the Politically correct thing to do.

I am very lucky that my former employer furnishes me and my wifes health insurance at no cost to me. I don't know how long they will be able to afford that.

If I had to pay the premiums it would seriously eat into my shooting budget.

Good Luck in your search

Jerry Walker
 
#11 ·
When you have employer sponsored Health Care, you end up thinking that HC costs $50 - $400 a month. When you go out to buy it yourself, even if you are in a small group, you get shocked to learn that HC for a family of 4 is $1500 ti $1800 a month. The difference between your individual plan and what an employee pays is the additional the employer had been putting in , minus any discounts the employers group was able to negotiate. Of course, if you are the poorest or undocumented, you think HC is free, and you are correct. Show up at an ER, and get your HC. However, this kind of HC plan is the least efficient, least convenient, and least effective kind, but at the most desired price.

I have been where you are in the recent past. I was paying $1800 a month, and was able to reduce that to $1500 by accepting a large deductible, higher out of pocket policy. Now you know why many working people just skip health insurance, even though they have an income.

What is truly hard to understand, is the fee structure of health care. A hospital will charge a completely insured person with wealth and assets the least (due to insurance plan negotiated rates), and then charge the poorest uninsured person the most,often two to four times as much, for a similar service. This seems upside down to me. So what happens is that the uninsured get directed to different facilities, facilities where the "service" is named the same, but is done with lower cost and convenience. That's your two tiered health care system, already in place today.
 
#13 ·
When I was 52 I went with a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. They raised my rates all the time. When I complained they suggested another plan. Well, I changed to that plan and guess what? Got regular increases there also. So I canceled and did without.

I met with several insurance companies but all charged too much for nearly no coverage. Seems most just want your money and not want to give you any reachable coverage.

Later got added to the wifes plan where she works and it cost me $200.00 a month.

Am 64 now and hope I never need it. Medicare kicks in pretty soon. Ray.....
 
#19 ·
Guys it's not going to get any better. The pharmaceutical companys started going up with their rates a few years ago and it was all because of the talk of national health care. They wanted their rates to go thru the roof before they were regulated by the feds. It's awful that they can charge so much for what they have invested so little. I really don't know the answer but lets hope the next administration isn't blinded by the reps of those companys. I think the pharmacy companys own the republican party and their thoughts. I know that after working all the overtime I have the past couple of years it does not change my policy at all. I have paid in over 24 thousand for health care premiums this past year and my deductable is still one thousand and the hospital is onethousand. Now my prescriptions are 450 deductable. Boy oh boy what a bargain!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to see what is on the agenda in the future. We need change and we need it now!!!!!!!!!!!! The supreme court is not going to let anyone take your guns away from you or ban your guns. Do you understand that? Now that that issue is covered get some people in office that is going to take care of the needs all of us need help with. Health care costs.Dan
 
#23 ·
smsnyder, I'll be 53 in a couple of months. March 1st my insurance premium went up 18% to $230 a month. I'm in Indiana, I have Anthem which is the blue cross blue shield provider here. I have a 5K deductible then it turns into an 80/20 deal with max. out of pocket 7K per year. I have generic prescription drug coverage.

I still think the solution is for everybody to purchase their own health insurance. Notice how many ads you see on tv for auto insurance. Why no health insurance? Because 90% of the people get it through their employers, Too small of a market to go after individual clients.

Everybody wants to blame health providers and drug companies but nobody says anything about government. A few years ago I got a letter from my health insurance provider that my policy would start covering drug and alcohol rehab. Sounds great?? Well I don’t plan on becoming an a drunk, so I call and asked why I had to pay for this coverage? The answer was because the state legislators said all health policies sold in Indiana would have to cover drug and alcohol rehab.

I guess the drug and alcohol counselors got together to grease the state legislators to get them some good paying insurance work.

I did some research into it at the time and found out all 50 states have insurance commissioners and all have different policy requirements. One state even had a requirement that aroma therapy had to be covered !!! I guess some state’s insurance commissioner had a cousin in the aroma therapy business.

My solution - get everybody to buy their own insurance and allow them to buy whatever policy they want. You don’t want to buy aroma therapy or drug rehab find a company in some state that will sell it to you.

Bisi
 
#25 ·
Dear Pat

I wish I had the answer to who would pay for natl' health care. Right now, we can't.

I imagine if illegal aliens had to pay taxes and debts like everyone else, welfare became a hand up instead of a handout, and America quit being the policeman of the world, we would have that covered and the recession would go away as well.

But what do I know? I'm just a dumb Shooting Coach.
 
#26 ·
cls, that might not be such a bad idea!! Look at the medical procedures not covered by insurance, they are getting cheaper. Corrective eye surgery like lasik. I can remember when that was expensive. Now they advertise 2 eyes for the price of 1 and they will finance it at 0% with no payments for a year!!

Every day I read the sports section of local paper I see an ad for breast augmentation. They'll finance that too, and it is getting cheaper. I see ads for lipo, tummy tucks, nose jobs, and the fast growing tattoo removal service.

If insurance ended, I could see doctors doing ads on late night tv. Sorta like the car salesman. Bad Credit, No Credit, No Problem - get your heart cath here and pay here!!! Same day service. You gotta job???Just show us your pay stub, then you'll get your tumor removed!!

Bisi
 
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