what kind of private health premiums are people paying?

[spacemtn1971]

just curious if anyone could offer feedback/

we have private pay health for our family through assurant health which is not costing over $1100 a month for a family of 4.

one twin has cp and epilepsy and some other issues and uses about 80% of the insurance.

the other twin goes to the doc about three times a year.

what is anyone's experience with private insurance?

thank you,

jeffery

 

[ducklite]

My son was carrying his insurance via COBRA for almost a year at the rate of $487 per month for BCBS PPO with a prescription plan.

Anne

 

[Lillypug]

My DH's company pays for a part of our premium but our share is $700/ month for a family of 4. We currently have $15 doctors office copays, $250 hospital deductible. Next year, our premiums will be $0 BUT our Doctors office visits will be $20 or $25 (can't remember), and our hospital deuctible will be $3000! That is going to be hard to swallow since that also involves Noah's therapy and dme's. I hate insurance.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If you have to go private and have pre-exisiting conditions your premiums are based on how you (and your family) are rated. Most insurance companies are not charitiable organizations.

If you are employed and work for a small company often the premiums are again based on a small population. I used to have a client who worked for a company of fewer than 50 employees, and in one year one person had major cancer treatments and one had heart surgery; the next year the group's premiums skyrocketed.

If you work for a large company or a governmental agency they will not only pick up a large percentage of the premium but since the group is so large what happens to only a few people does not have a major effect on the premiums.

My late wife and I are both retired Federal employees. The year JudySue died she had 45 days in hospitals, including 9 in ICUs. Our monthly premiums were only $94 (each) and the co-pay/deductible limit was $6,000 which was reached about halfway through the year and they picked up 100% over that.

 

[homedad]

There are so many varibles that there really no relative answer to your question. Health plans can be fully insured or self-funded. Then you have HMO,PPO,HSA and fee-for-service(trad plans).Then you look at the age-sex factors of the groups. It much cheaper for groups with high single populations vs older family groups. Then look at MSA(metro area), for example health insurance costs more in the northeast vs the south. Then you need to considered what PBA(pharmacy benefitmanager) your using and what your RX coverage is. I have seen a family rate as high as $1400 month for a PPO plan and as low as $700 for the same plan design but different group characteristics. Its hard to say what do you pay unless you spell out all the varibles. Not trying to be preachy, just informative.

 

[clkelley]

Since my son is 20 and is only going to college part time, I had a choice of either COBRA (at $300 a month) or looking for private insurance.

Fortunately, the kid is healthy, (maybe one Drs visit a year), so we opted for just catastrophic care coverage at $45 a month. Paying that and paying out of pocket for his semi-annual dental cleaning was way less than the Cobra charges.

For us, the important thing is to have that certificate of continuous coverage so that when he gets his grades back up and can go to college full time again, there won't be a waiting period when he's added back to our insurance.

 

[shovan]

Wow that cost is just downright scary!!!!

My DH who has MD is still currently working & we have our health insurance through his company. We have checked into to private health insurance costs for later on & have been totally shocked, scared at the premiums we will be facing.

My DH will be able to go on disability & get Medicaid/Medicare, I'm not sure which one applies. But we will still need supplemental insurance for him. I will need full health insurance. Even though I don't have a disability, I'm the one who visits the doctors & has the most prescriptions! I am self employed, so there isn't any help there. I really wonder how we are going to manage the cost!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Have you checked with any organizations you may belong to, especially professional associations. Many will have a major medical policy available for member; it might be a very high deductible (in the thousands of dollars) but is designed to provide catastrophic coverage. It might even be worth joining an organization (if you otherwise qualify for membershp) just for the availability of the insurance.

 

[barkley]

we kept my insurance by virtue of my retiring out on disability. for a family of 4 we pay about $200 per month. co-pays are $10, perscriptions are $20. i know it would be more expensive if i did'nt have medicare (it was for the 2 year waiting period after social security was approved). when we move out of state the identical policy through the same former employer will cost us closer to $480 per month.