Health Care

[disneywithfive]

Wouldn't even consider going without health insurance. We have three kids and our youngest was very healthy until age 4. She's been diagnosed with a rare seizure disorder and we've spent time in the hospital every year after that plus the amount of medications she takes on a daily basis is overwhelming (almost $35,000 without insurance). First hospital stay was $65,000 plus. If we didn't have insurance, I'm not sure what we would have done. Your premiums seem really good considering all that you have. We do not have dental or vision and we have a $6000 deductible per person - plus copays. Last year, even with insurance, we paid out $16,000 between the three kids - deductibles for us all, dental visits (youngest has to be hospitalized for any procedures outside of routine cleaning), and vision appts. for three of us.

I hate paying premiums but it's better then the alternative. Someone mentioned about reduced fees for those without insurance. That might be true in some states but I would imagine the option for reduced rates might be based on your income. I know from experience that, in our case, we've never been given reduced fees for procedures that aren't covered. I did get a discount once for paying our hospital stay in full instead of payments but that's been the only time.

 

[bumbershoot]

We pay around $300 per month for the 3 of us.

Sidenote on families of 3...with hubby's job, paying for a 3 person family is basically just paying what it costs...if we had another kid, it would be the SAME cost, so it would be a discount. Just another smack to us since we've been trying for another kidlet for years now!

Anyway, we have $300 per person deductibles ($900 for family, but they pay out at the post-deductible rate for whichever person hit their $300, we don't have to wait for the $900), 10% co-pays (co-insurance? something like that) after you hit that level...reasonable costs on prescription drugs. They encourage us to get 90 day prescriptions, which we finally switched over to (if you ever start a prescription that's going to last awhile, just START with the 90 days, don't try to switch b/c it's a huge pain!).

We never used our insurance, and then suddenly we did. Started a high deductible plan, DS got burned the next day. Finished paying that off, hubby started a new job, signed up for a new high ded plan (we weren't learning), DS fell and took an ambulance ride to the ER. Took a year to pay that off, by that time we changed to a PPO.

And then hubby was diagnosed with a prolactinoma (pituitary tumor that secretes prolactin, the hormone that makes milk), and he now takes one pill each week, each pill would cost $48 out of pocket.

Soooo...now we're USING that insurance. To mitigate side effects of the prolactinoma, he's on another drug, and while we do a 10% copay for that (it's through the specialty pharmacy which charges differently) it's still far far cheaper than going OOP.

And now we're using the insurance to cover our chiropractic visits b/c we found someone very floaty who does the work we LOVE, and has a business side that allows him to bill insurance. (perfect combo)


So we went from year after year of nothing nothing nothing, to using it. And that's what it's for. Insurance is for the "just in case" moments of life.

Probably not. Usually there are rates for people with insurance and (typically lower) rates for people without insurance.

They can't do it quite THAT way. They can discount whenever they like (depending on state laws), so often you will be given a discount if they know you're paying cash. But they could also discount for an insurance patient as well, if they wanted to. They generally cannot have two official, set in stone, billing rates for insurance vs cash people.

Hospitals often give discounts to people, either covered or not. What's generally important to hospitals is that you ask, first and foremost, and that you're going to pay them fast. A discount is much more likely to be given if you are paying right then and there. But even if you can't, hospitals often have good payment schedules, but you do have to make those payments, every month, right on time.

Were does this exhist? That is not true where I live.

Probably is, to a certain extent, but probably not published.



OP, don't go without.

 

[Pigeon]

Heath insurance is expensive, but it's not something to go without. A few years ago, out of the blue, I was dx'd with breast cancer. Eight rounds of chemo, a lumpectomy, a couple of months of radiation, a year of Herceptin infusions, and years of Femara later, I'm fine and am still around to raise my children.

But all that treatment cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It is well worth economizing in other areas to keep your insurance, even if you feel you get very little out of it now. You just never know when you will need it.

Oh, and uninsured people often pay much more for procedures. Insurance companies negotiate rates with providers that the individual patient may not be able to do.

 

[scrdofbugs]

My family has 3 different insurance plans due to family coverage on mine or DH being too much for us to afford. Here's our breakdown:

My employer plan is thru BCBS
Deductible $1,000
Out of Pocket $4,000
80% for in network
$20 dr copay
Rx benefits
NO Vision
Free to employees

Dental thru my work for family of 3 is $22.40 per bi-weekly payck

DH employer plan is thru BCBS
Not sure of his exact benefits but ded and op is about the same
He has a $40 dr copay
Rx Benefits
NO Vision or Dental thru his
$86.31 per bi-weekly paycheck

DD (14) private plan we purchase
Ded $300
Off top of my head not sure of her OP
Rx benefits have a $50 copay then 80%
$96.00 a month

So we pay roughly $331 a month for the 3 of us

 

[The 4 "Quay"balleros]

I pay the Union $6.50/hour out of my pay(I'm guaranteed 40 hours/week) The insurance was excellent, until this past spring. We never had copays, now we do. They dropped vision and dental. But to top it off, they dropped my wife because she works and is eligible for health benefits($3,000/year, but much worse coverage) So last year I paid $6.50*40hours*52weeks= $13520.00 in health care premiums for the whole family. Now I pay the same, but no vision/dental, copays and my spouse is not included

 

[Kat&Dom]

I pay $150 per month to cover my son and I. In 2008, I paid an additional $88 per month in provincial health premiums but the government no longer collects that so I just pay for our health plan through work. We have 80% coverage on Dental and Prescriptions, no Eye Vision coverage, life insurance is 3x my annual salary, disability coverage is 60% of my regular pay. I won't complain about what I pay again after seeing the thousands of dollars some of you pay each year. I would never risk not having health coverage especially having children.

 

[enchantingodin]

We all know that if our health costs (insurance, co-pays, prescriptions, dental, vision, etc..) is over 7.5% of our adjusted gross income we can take a deduction on our taxes right?

 

[Acklander]

I've considered going without health insurance and dealing with the financial consequences after the fact in the event that something did happen, but I just can't make myself do it. If you're willing to share, what do you pay for health care, and more importantly, are there any tips for getting these costs down?

Thanks!

The tough part of being without insurance is many times Dr's won't let you make an appointment if you don't have any so you're stuck with using the clinics/ER for your health care.

 

[smokeyblue]

Dropping such inexpensive insurance would be truly irresponsible. When I was 21 I got really sick just out of the blue. I'd always been really healthy and hadn't been to the doctor in years. Come to find out I had a tumor on my pancreas. I was hospitalized over a dozen times and had to have three surgeries within a year. My first surgery alone was $40k. I easily racked up over $100k in bills. Luckily I was still covered by my dad's very generous insurance and only had to pay a few dollars out of pocket. Otherwise I would have been financially devestated.

My point, just because you're healthy today means nothing! A flamed up appendix, gall bladder or even a skin infection can set you back thousands!

 

[mrspaha]

I would say never never never give up your health insurance regardless of how expensive you think it is, and how healthy you think you are. (And actually I think the amounts you pay are pretty reasonable).

Say you get diagnosed with breast cancer (happens to a lot of otherwise healthy, even fairly young women) -- treatment for that with chemotherapy, radiation, surgery can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the future then, it's going to be even harder to get good insurance with a pre-existing condition. (Let's not go into a discussion of the new health care reforms here -- even if you can't be denied insurance, you might be paying outrageous premiums for minimal coverage).

I know it's hard for young healthy people to dish out large amounts of their paychecks for something they don't think they will benefit from, but unexpected personal catastrophes can occur -- hopefully they won't for you or your family -- but having good health insurance can literally save your life.

 

[Jenny3]

We've been at the point where we were without insurance - trust me, it is NOT a fun way to live. I was paranoid every single day that someone would get sick or fall and break an arm and we'd be really screwed. So many people go bankrupt due to medical costs; don't risk that by trying to save a few bucks now.

If bills are tight, cut somewhere else. Insurance is a necessity, IMO

 

[eliza61]

FYI: there is a spate of old "healthcare" threads being revived on the community board.

Some have been reported as "spam". The threads are as old as 2007 and seem to be generated from the same poster.

Hummm
4 threads, all years old, all about a controversial issue sure to get into the banned political forum.

methinks it's starting to smell very fishy around here.