anyone just have hospital insurance?

[kiki02]

seems like health insurance (kids + me) eats most of the budget. i see a few ads for cheaper insurance, doesn't cover dr visits, but catastrophe only.

wdyt? walk in clinics can be used for infections, checkups, etc.....

I'm in Fla, not the cheapest health insurance.

 

[QueenElinor]

seems like health insurance (kids + me) eats most of the budget. i see a few ads for cheaper insurance, doesn't cover dr visits, but catastrophe only.

wdyt? walk in clinics can be used for infections, checkups, etc.....

I'm in Fla, not the cheapest health insurance.

In the last couple of decades there has been a huge push to make as much care as possible happen outside of the hospital in order to control costs.

Many serious, expensive chronic illnesses don't ever require a person to go to the hospital. In fact, almost all of them. Even some cancer therapy and surgery can be done as an outpatient, not to mention a single MRI can run a couple of thousand dollars. That's what I'd be checking- what exactly is their definition of "catastrophic"? If it's hospital inpatient only, that's pretty limited. Because going to a hospital, even overnight, does not technically make it hospital care. The fine print makes all the difference.

However, if it's a dollar amount- say a really big deductible ($5000 or $10,000) that would be more useful, IMHO.

 

[Pigeon]

Being a cancer survivor, all it takes is one unexpected diagnosis to make you very glad to have decent insurance. I had surgery on an outpatient basis, chemo, radiation and a year of an infusible medication. I get that paying for insurance that you seem not to need for years is infuriating. But if you need it, you'll be very glad to have it. Hospitalization was not a significant part of the many hundreds of thousands of dollars that my treatement cost.

 

[DebMcDonald]

As someone who works in a doctor's office (cardiology) in a hospital make sure you are covered for everything you can be. Having just hospitalization is a very big chance you take. Everything might be fine right now, but you have no idea when all of a sudden things could change. You might all of a sudden have chest pain and need a work-up that includes stress testing, office visit and echocargiogram and that at out hospital could run you in excess of $5000 that if you didn't have office coverage for you'd be responsible for the out of pocket expenses. You may show up at an office visit with your kids and the blood work may be off, something that you would not have known outside of a yearly physicial and before you know it they are being worked up for something serious. Of course none of any of the above may happen, but it's a huge chance that could be catastrophic financially.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I work in the hospital with uninsired/underinsured and too many times we have seen people come in with those plans and they covered next to nothing and the patient ended up with a huge bill. Some of them pay the patient directly, so the hospital won't even bill it, if they even participate.

I would do a lot of research before I purchased something like that. Then if you end up having an issue you need to be treated for after discharge, what will it cost you in the long run.

I just worked with a patient last week who was covered under the mom's insurance, but due to the monthly cost, she dropped it, well now he was admitted and diagnosed with something that will need life time treatment and expensive medication, he's out of luck, because he isn't eligible for medicaid. He may get some help from the hospital's uninsured program, but it will only probably be a 30% discount.

 

[QueenElinor]

Kiki02, I disagree a little with Princess Suzanne that you should be "covered for everything you can be"- insurance like that costs a fortune, as you already know. I assume your family is young and healthy and pretty unlikely to run up big bills, and that's why the cost of insurance is bothering you- because you never use it. Money wasted on unused insurance is just as gone as money spent on medical bills. In fact, it's guaranteed to be gone.

What you want is to be covered for what you can't pay for yourself. If you can pay for some medical care on your own, look for a policy with a high deductible. Imagine to yourself, "If something really bad happened, what's the most I could afford to pay?" That would be the deductible you're looking for. It is definitely a gamble, but insurance always is. You're gambling that you will get to keep that money in your own pocket.

Some people will pair a high deductible insurance plan with a health savings account (HSA). That way, they can save up some pre-tax money to pay for routine medical costs, but still have insurance to pay for care if disaster strikes. (These plans will also pay for preventive care).

Just don't confuse "hospital insurance" with "catastrophic insurance". As Deb and Pigeon said, you don't have to be hospitalized to be financially ruined.

 

[jgreco]

I am in Florida and have a plan for my family of 5 with Golden Rule Insurance (a United Healthcare Company). I have a high $10,000 deductible but it covers doctor/well visits. It's cost is $950 a quarter.

I also have a Supplemental policy that is $64 a month through Chesapeake that pays a lump $ amount in the event of an accident or critical illness. It works out to just under $400 a month for everything.

WHATEVER you do, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT, I repeat DO NOT fill out one of those online forms for quick insurance quotes. Your phone number will be sold to HUNDREDS of companies and the calls will NEVER stop. It has tapered off from no less than 10 calls a day to about 3 a week. Going on 9 months of that....

 

[mackeysmom]

I currently have a "hospital only" plan through Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield - the plan is called Empire HealthChoice Assurance. I got it when my COBRA ran out - it was all I could afford and wanted to have some kind of coverage. In addition to the hospital plan, in the past couple of months they have added expanded preventive services for women (including mammograms, well-woman visits, prescription birth control, etc.)

My new job's health insurance kicks in November 1st, but I felt "safer" knowing that I had some sort of coverage during the time that I had no access to (or money for) traditional health insurance.

FWIW - I am in New York and am paying $181.97 per month for their individual plan.

Hope that helps,
Laura

 

[zurgswife]

I currently have a "hospital only" plan through Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield - the plan is called Empire HealthChoice Assurance. I got it when my COBRA ran out - it was all I could afford and wanted to have some kind of coverage. In addition to the hospital plan, in the past couple of months they have added expanded preventive services for women (including mammograms, well-woman visits, prescription birth control, etc.)

My new job's health insurance kicks in November 1st, but I felt "safer" knowing that I had some sort of coverage during the time that I had no access to (or money for) traditional health insurance.

FWIW - I am in New York and am paying $181.97 per month for their individual plan.

Hope that helps,
Laura

My husband and I have this type of plan after out COBRA ran out also. We might be a little older 45+ and our coverage costs $600 per month. Would I prefer full coverage certainly but I wasn't able to obtain it on our own so we got what we could. It was the only thing we could qualify for after being diligent with our health care services while have great insurance for many years.

Anything we had been treated for previously was held against us in the underwriting phase of other cheaper insurance. ie. my dh was giving warning of having pre-type2 diabetes and given a suggestion of diet and exercise to control. In underwriting it came out that he was diagnosed with Type 2. He had a age appropriate colonoscopy and a non cancerous polyp found and that was a negative against him in underwriting. If we hadn't been on top of our health care and these items hadn't been address it could have been harmful but because we addressed them they amounted to a negative in underwriting and were denied insurance.

 

[Colleen27]

As others have pointed out, the worth of the plan will depend on the specifics of the coverage. Hospitalization alone isn't much protection; you can rack up very hefty bills without any inpatient treatment. But high deductible/catastrophic plans can be a good way to save money on premiums. We had one for years because that's all we could afford when DH was self-employed, but even now that he has employer-based coverage we chose a similar plan. Our deductible is high ($5000pp/$12000 OOP max) but not so much so that we couldn't afford it, but once the deductible is met the co-pays are low and the coverage is excellent. Plus certain routine things are covered even before the deductible and we pay a negotiated rate for office visits that is lower than we'd pay without insurance.