health Insurance

[dustysky]

Ok, I know dull subject line but I am in need of some input from you all.

I am in big time need of health insurance for my family, I started working a little over a month ago and for MYSELF the insurance is very reasonable, HOWEVER, to add my kids (hubby is wayyyyy to sick, no insurance will add him) it is nearly my entire pay check.
I just can not imagine that most people are working SIMPLY to pay for health insurance.

SO if you buy your own health insurance, can you tell me what type and what the cost's are??

I need vision as well as dental, that are HUGE needs for us.

HELP, I am so lost in this whole insurance world

 

[GracieA7]

With larger employers, your husband could be insured. Many of them will cover, but you have to watch out for pre-existing condition clauses.

I am able to cover my entire family for a very reasonable amount. You might look for a job with a company that offers better healthcare insurance. Ask people who live in your area what the better companies to work for are benefit-wise and try and try again to get on with them.

 

[disneyfreakk]

Try looking into Medicaid for your kids

 

[dustysky]

Try looking into Medicaid for your kids

We make to much money but not enouph for full blown private, catch 22...
Florida does have a program called healthy kids but it is like a dog chasing its tail trying to get signed up.

 

[dustysky]

With larger employers, your husband could be insured. Many of them will cover, but you have to watch out for pre-existing condition clauses.

I am able to cover my entire family for a very reasonable amount. You might look for a job with a company that offers better healthcare insurance. Ask people who live in your area what the better companies to work for are benefit-wise and try and try again to get on with them.

I love my job and wouldnt leave it right now, it took me forever to get this one and I TRULY work with some great people. The insurance provided is Aetna, maybe I will ask about hubby but from what I have been told already, adding ANY family healthy or not is, like I said, like working simply for the insurance and well, we need the paycheck.
Thats why I am asking about affordable private insurance, if that is such a thing.

 

[pweyl36]

I work in a dr's office,trust me when i say they is no reasonable ins.We some times get people who buy ins. themselves,first of all you pay about $250-500 a month,then you have a huge deductable to meet before they start to pay for anything.By the way does your husbands job offer ins?

 

[Jewel1310]

You will pay less going through your employer for your husband's coverage if he is ill. They are group underwritten and that will share the risk. But you will have to sign him up when your coverage begins or they will most likely impose pre-ex. Ask for the rates for family coverage and husband and wife. Healthy kids/CHIP program in Florida might be like chasing your tail, but it could pay off big time if you spent 5 or 6 (or even 20) hours trying to get that resolved you would bring back a huge hourly return on the investment because it would save you a lot of money.

 

[ZanneMarie]

Unfortunately private health insurance is not cheap if you want anything more than major medical. We pay about $1000 a month for my family of 5. This does not include dental or vision. We are paying a bit extra to get a lower deductable (did the high deductable before--costs the same for us in the long run its just the same amount each month now--we'll try it this way for a year) and we also pay for a ryder to get perscription coverage. Most plans do not cover perscriptions at all or so minimally it might as well not be at all. This ryder costs us about $200 a month but our cash price for the RX's that get used each month was well over $600 so getting the ryder and getting a decent copay is actually cheaper.

Places that I have looked at for insurance--local chamber of commerce, alumni or professional organizations. We ended up buying through Farm Bureau insurance and get Blue Cross Blue Shield. There are chaper no name companies (look in the yellow pages) but for me I felt better about paying a bit more to have something widely accepted and with out some strange clauses that made me uncomfortable.

Good luck to you--you may find it better to buy from your employer even though it seems like a lot of money. We have almost always had to buy our own (once we were able to COBRA--loved that insurance!!) and it is never easy to find a good policy at a reasonable cost. Not to mention that there is usually a 180 day waiting period for all conditions that have been treated in the 6 months previous to applying for the insurance. Fun!

 

[dustysky]

Thanks everyone.

 

[ducklite]

Even COBRA is outrageous. My son is being covered under COBRA right now, it's $487 a month for medical and dental with a prescription plan, but no vision. IMHO unless you can get it very inexpensively as an add-on to your regular health policy, or you've got special circumstances, vision isn't usually a good financial move considering that a lot of places will do an eye exam and give you two pair of glasses for $100. They might not be your first choice of frames, but if money is tight sometimes you do what you've got to do.

I agree with everyone who is saying to get your kids covered under the state plan. Just deal with the paperwork and get it overwith. Trust me, it will be a lot less paperwork and headache than what you'll deal with if one of them breaks an arm and you've got no insurance.

Anne

 

[tink2dw]

I know Georgia, has Kaiser Permanente, Does Florida?? Kaiser Permanente is a HMO that many employers here use. They have Medical, Peds, Dental, and Eye Appointments, plus the whole kittin cabootal!!

Try looking in your yellow pages.

 

[dvcgirl]

I don't believe that we have Kaiser here in Florida. I think the problem for the OP will be insuring her husband if he has a lot of health problems. It will be very, very expensive I'm afraid. We just switched over and now carry our own insurance. My DH's employer covered us, but to add me it was an additional $500 a month. So we went with a high deductible plan and opened up a health savings account as well. Our premium is low, but our deductible is quite high. We both had to have very thorough exams prior to getting coverage.

 

[kldmom2000]

My DH is self-employed and our rates just went up again to $1150 per MONTH for family health coverage (2 adults/2 kids). It's an HMO and our copays are $15 per office visit, $150 for an ER visit, and $15/$30/$45 copay for meds. When I was the health insurance carrier through my job before I became a SAHM, my employer paid 1/2 of the health insurance (big companies usually get a group rate on health insurance) It still cost me about $150 each week....

It all depends on where you live also-we live in Massachusetts, so premiums are sky high here.... I've seen in other posts where some people in the south (ie. Alabama, etc) pay less than 1/2 of what we do for the same coverage

Good luck to you.... hope you're able to come up with a solution!!!!

 

[mickeyfan2]

We do not have vision or dental. Our health insurance is $8K/year. This is with a $500/incident deductible, 80/20 for the next $10K and 100% after. So an incident will cost us upto $2500.

 

[jennifer293]

Our insurance is Cigna Healthcare with the Fire Dept. that DH works at. Our co-pay is 20.00 for a regular dr. and 30.00 for a specialist. Our ER copay is 100.00 and our deductible is 1500.00 per incident. We had to pay this 1500.00 in January when DD had tubes put in her ears because he wanted to do the procedure at a surgery clinic instead of his office (which the procedure could be done there but he was already going to be at the surgery clinic that week) if he would have done it in his office it would have only cost us $30.00 instead of $1500..that really BURNS ME!!!

My parents have Blue Cross Blue Shield of TN and they pay about 520.00 a month for mom, dad, and my little sis. Everytime they go to the dr. mom has to pay for it all in full and then BCBST reimburses her a little money. My little sis had to go to the dr. and the bill was like 350.00 and BCBST sent her back a 20.00 check...Dad is self-employed so that is why it is so high.

 

[luvdzne]

DH works for a rather large company. Our insurance has gone so high we can't afford to go to the doctor. I just got 5 RX filled this month and it cost me over $300. This is medicine that is taken on a monthly basis. We also pay 20% of any doctors visits, which add in the testing or what not it really adds up. Also before they will pay anything we have to pay $350 deductible. This is all after the high monthly premium. The insurance here in IL is just ridiculous. I'm sure it is getting like that everywhere. I can't imagine how much private insurance would cost if ours is this high.

If you can insure your kids through the state I would. It may take filling out a lot of paper work, but it may be worth it. I also agree that optical insurance is a waist of money. Dh company does not offer it. Dental is a must for us, I am a every 6 month cleaning freak. But others do without it.

 

[Kramer]

WOW... I'm shocked by some of the numbers I see here. I really feel for all of you that are facing outrageous health insurance costs.

I work for the local government here in NJ and I can see how lucky I am to have the benefits that they offer. My employer pays 100% of the cost of our health insurance plan. We just have to pay $5 for doctor office visits and $25 for ER visits. We get reimbursed for 80% of prescription costs.

I really hope that someone can come up with a solution to this health care crisis...

 

[LorieR]

Sorry - a bit off-topic (or highjacked!!) I feel very fortunate also, although when my DH was laid off from his 27-year-job with an airline in 1998 I sure did not think so..... They ended up paying our medical for two years and since then have subsidized it. This year we paid just over $1500 for the two of us. I have had cancer twice and now have hit the age where I have to take medication monthly for hypertension. Prescriptions are about $35 each but they have a mail-order program where I get three months' supply for the price of two months, so that helps. Copay is $10, ER visit is $100, no deductible in network, and no referrals necessary. He and I am both self-employed so we really have to be grateful for this even though we thought he would retired with the company...

 

[nursetink]

DH is a self-employed contractor and I a SAHM. So we chose Blue Cross Blue Shield (this is in Arkansas). Our policy is a PPO, with no deductible for office visits and co-pay of $20, except well-child and all yearly visits covered 100% with no co-pay. There is a $100 prescription co-pay per person, and 80/20 after it has been met. There is a $1000 major medical decductible, also an 80/20 afterwards. We chose this plan over all the others because they are the only company we could find who offer an optional maternity rider, since we still have not decided if should have one more. Our total is $1011 per quarter which is $337 a month. Not all that bad. We have held the same policy for 4 1/2 years, it has gone up a little, but I have friends in the workforce who pay more than I.

 

[macfamily]

Dustysky, I just want to say that I can totally relate. I'm going through the same exact thing with my family. My husband and I both have jobs with small companies; to insure just ourselves with our respective companies costs nothing, but to add my DD10 on it goes RIGHT THROUGH THE ROOF!! $238 taken out of each paycheck is just not doable for us. So we walk on eggshells and pray that nothing happens. Of course my girl is into ballet, tap, jazz, hiphop, and gymnastics, and wants to play basketball for the school this year

I'm taking her to the doctor's for her pre-school year checkup, and it's going to cost me $120, unless she needs any immunizations. Then it'll be even more. sigh.

We also tried looking into (in our state) Dirigo Health Plan, but since I and my husband are able to add her to our insurance, apparently she can't have Dirigo. We're apparently too rich for any other state assistance programs as well

So, anyway, I just wanted to say that I totally sympathize with you, and I hope that you are able to find some resolution!