Choosing Healthcare

[Jose Liz]

Plan 1
Primary Care: $15
Specialist: $25
Drugs: $10-40
Hospital Stay: $300 then 20%
Max Out of Pocket*: $1500

*Excludes co-payments

Plan 2

Primary Care: $0
Specialist, Drugs, Hospital Stay: 100% until $1500 then 20%
Max Out of Pocket*: $4000

Plan 1 is $912 more a year. I'm thinking of going with that to get the $1500 max out of pocket. What do you guys think?

[Enidigm]

See what the restrictions are on in-network vs. out-of-network (if this is part of the plan). Many plans sound good, then you read the pages after the cover and find out the out-of-net costs are much higher.

[Jon Rowe]

My healthcare plan is amazing. 30 bucks a month 0 dollar primary care, 5 dollar copay for meds, 50 dollar ER visits (fee waived if I get admitted)

One great thing about working for a healthcare company.

[jpinard]

Hands down Plan 1. You can plan for $2,500 a year and put most of that into a pre-tax flex-fund. Otherwise you're playing roulette with your out-of-pocket expenses and this could affect your health decsions if you know you've got a whopping $4,000 to cough up.

Go safe.

[Jason McCullough]

Use the same approach you always should for insurance: pay to insure against catastrophe, do the rest out of pocket.

I have a hard time believing the description you've given is the only difference though; I'd review the docs again carefully and read every small-print note.

[JoshV]

You're young, single, don't seem to have any pre-existing health conditions. I'd say go for the cheapest plan available.

Unless maybe you fight deathmatches in your spare time, jump cliffs, or something.

[Anders Hallin]

He does eat a lot of Sbarro's.

[Rywill]

To get the very best value, you should opt for plan 1 and then go lay down in front of a moving train.

Please.

[Jose Liz]

You're young, single, don't seem to have any pre-existing health conditions. I'd say go for the cheapest plan available.

Unless maybe you fight deathmatches in your spare time, jump cliffs, or something.

I went with Plan 1. It's actually only around ~$450 more expensive, since I thought it was billed weekly but it's billed bi-weekly. $10/week is worth the piece of mind.

Hands down Plan 1. You can plan for $2,500 a year and put most of that into a pre-tax flex-fund. Otherwise you're playing roulette with your out-of-pocket expenses and this could affect your health decsions if you know you've got a whopping $4,000 to cough up.

Go safe.

Good advice, thanks!

[kerzain]

Dude, aren't you going to acknowledge the person suggesting you commit suicide for their convenience?

[robsam]

Dude, aren't you going to acknowledge the person suggesting you commit suicide for their convenience?


Something like this happens in every thread he starts, I'm amazed it got to post #7 before the butter knife came out. Once the butter knife is used, the machete is on the way. As seen in post #8.

I must admit I was expecting someone to jump on the obvious "you make so much money you don't need insurance, you can just buy a hospital" tangent, but he actually got some good advice before the inevitable trainwreck started.

[kerzain]

Jose Liz is a better man than I.

[TheTrunkDr]

My plan, $0 a month, $5 for prescriptions... That's it, no other costs with a ton more benefits that I don't remember off hand (massage therapy, physio, travelers, etc.).

[robsam]

Jose Liz is a better man than I.

Sweet mother of God, you are going to rue the day you posted that. heh

[Marcus]

I dunno what kinda health care I have I just know its some kinda PPO something or other where I pay 250 to see who ever I want then they pick up 90% after that. I should really do research into some of these things but damn Health care coverage is a bitch.

[fire]

I just found out that my well-baby care visits have a $750 plan year maximum. The pediatrician's fees came out to use that maximum up within 4 months (1 week, 1-mo, 2-mo well-child visits). The 4- (done), 6- (done), and 9-month (coming soon) visits and immunizations will be out of pocket, nothing covered, at around $650 a visit.

The atrocious thing is that my premium for the dependent is $650 a quarter (3 months).

Hooray for PPO.

[quatoria]

You're young, single, don't seem to have any pre-existing health conditions. I'd say go for the cheapest plan available.

Yeah, that seems like a fantastic plan until someone t-bones you in a car wreck at 22 and you're left with lifelong injuries. People, do not skimp on fucking insurance. If it's something you can find a way to afford, even if it seems a little much, GET IT. If it means you a few less games a year, GET IT. Maybe nothing ever happens and it's wasted money, maybe it's the difference between $1000 out of pocket a month in pills and not, a few years down the road. Don't skimp. You have no fucking idea what may happen to you in the future.

[Hanzii]

I think you should go for plan 1 and then offer to pay Chets healthcare too. I hear the poor guy's destitute.

[alexlitel]

Yeah, that seems like a fantastic plan until someone t-bones you in a car wreck at 22Uh, he lives in New York City.

[Anders Hallin]

You have no fucking idea what may happen to you in the future.
I'd say everyone-1 on this forum has a distinct chance of being beaten up by an angry bearded giant. So better get insurance for that.

[Bahimiron]

My plan, $0 a month, $5 for prescriptions... That's it, no other costs with a ton more benefits that I don't remember off hand (massage therapy, physio, travelers, etc.).

Are we having a contest here?

My plan is -$25 a month. That's right, they pay me to use it. I don't pay any copays or for prescriptions and it includes weekly handies from Christ, Who is Lord. Yes, Jesus Himself cures me of ills once a week with his healing touch.

[Jon Rowe]

Choosing healthcare is very morbid to me..

Well, with plan A, if I lose more than one organ, I am better than in plan b, because plan b does only one transplant a year...

But, plan A doesn't cover re-attaching lost limbs...

I guess it is a wash either way.

[CLWheeljack]

Choosing healthcare is very morbid to me..

Well, with plan A, if I lose more than one organ, I am better than in plan b, because plan b does only one transplant a year...

But, plan A doesn't cover re-attaching lost limbs...

I guess it is a wash either way.

Go with the one that re-attaches limbs. You can get an iron lung for a year, but that detached arm isn't going to keep.

[Anaxagoras]

Yeah, that seems like a fantastic plan until someone t-bones you in a car wreck at 22 and you're left with lifelong injuries. People, do not skimp on fucking insurance. If it's something you can find a way to afford, even if it seems a little much, GET IT. If it means you a few less games a year, GET IT. Maybe nothing ever happens and it's wasted money, maybe it's the difference between $1000 out of pocket a month in pills and not, a few years down the road. Don't skimp. You have no fucking idea what may happen to you in the future.

This is like a post from the Ghost of Christmas Past.

[Post-It]

Yeah, that seems like a fantastic plan until someone t-bones you in a car wreck at 22 and you're left with lifelong injuries. People, do not skimp on fucking insurance. If it's something you can find a way to afford, even if it seems a little much, GET IT. If it means you a few less games a year, GET IT. Maybe nothing ever happens and it's wasted money, maybe it's the difference between $1000 out of pocket a month in pills and not, a few years down the road. Don't skimp. You have no fucking idea what may happen to you in the future.

I agree with this. Why take the risk?

[Jakub]

Canada.

[Pogo]

Uh, he lives in New York City.

Maybe he should invest in a pedestrian helmet...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kSNVKrktKUQ/SnmSvPQeLLI/AAAAAAAADxE/7PchBe9afXI/s400/gohjelm.png

[Kraaze]

Yeah, that seems like a fantastic plan until someone t-bones you in a car wreck at 22 and you're left with lifelong injuries. People, do not skimp on fucking insurance. If it's something you can find a way to afford, even if it seems a little much, GET IT. If it means you a few less games a year, GET IT. Maybe nothing ever happens and it's wasted money, maybe it's the difference between $1000 out of pocket a month in pills and not, a few years down the road. Don't skimp. You have no fucking idea what may happen to you in the future.

I know you speak from painful experience here, but I'm curious about your car accident example. Or is it an anecdote?

Either way, I've always thought that if one got severely injured in a vehicle accident it would in fact be the other guy's insurance that has to pay up and one's own insurance wouldn't be much use. Is that not true?

[Reed]

I thought it was who was at fault had to pay, not who is hurt the most? ;)

Maybe you ran a red light in the t-bone example and someone who had green hit you...

[Kraaze]

Fair enough, I was assuming a scenario where the other driver was at fault.

[wisefool]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-fault_insurance

In most states, auto insurance functions under a traditional fault-based system. Insurance companies make payments based on each person's degree of fault in a particular motor vehicle accident. However, long and costly court battles are often required to determine who is at fault in many accidents. In an attempt to reduce this problem, thirteen states have adopted an alternative no-fault system of insurance. These "no-fault" states include Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Utah.

[Kraaze]

Interesting, I didn't know that either.

[quatoria]

In my personal case, it was a pitch-black rainy evening, and I was merging with traffic in front of my University, coming out from a blind intersection with a ten foot tall hedge blocking all visibility, when I got hit by a speeding Australian exchange student. By the time a cop got there, I was being put in a c-spine collar and driven to the hospital, and never got a chance to talk to the guy for more than thirty seconds as they were discharging me. I was told that the officer declined to declare either party at fault for the accident, and it took two years of being shuffled from one doctor's office to another, getting repeated x-rays and diagnoses of 'torn muscles' before I literally lost the ability to walk for about five minutes in the middle of a mall from accumulated damage and inflammation, and demanded an MRI, which finally revealed the multiple destroyed discs in my lumbar spine. In other words, by the time I knew what was actually wrong with me, enough time had passed that I could no longer prove it was caused by the auto accident, and my auto insurer refused to pay.

I had health insurance at the time, via COBRA, and managed to get them to pay for a microlaminotomy and discectomy, which failed. They spent the next year illegally declining every insurance claim I made, forcing me to spend hundreds of hours on the phone with them literally reading the goddamned insurance contract to their representatives to get my rehabilitation and pharmaceutical costs approved, and dropped me the second they could. Since I was still in the process of rehabilitation, without an effective pain solution, and way, way too fucked up to work anywhere but from home, for a couple hours at a time, I was unable to get new insurance since I lacked a corporate sponsor. Private insurance won't touch me, and governmental health programs are underfunded and effectively nearly nonexistent in Florida. The last state agency we tried had a monthly award list posted on their office bulletin board for the agents who had managed to deny the most claims, ranked from best to worst, just to give you an idea of the current state of things.

Thankfully, bitter fucking experience meant that I didn't let that happen again when my wife and I were recently hit from behind by a careless driver - every penny of the rehabilitation and medication from that accident has been covered by no fault insurance through Progressive, who have been awesome enough that I would recommend them to anyone, anywhere.

[Anaxagoras]

Thankfully, bitter fucking experience meant that I didn't let that happen again when my wife and I were recently hit from behind by a careless driver - every penny of the rehabilitation and medication from that accident has been covered by no fault insurance through Progressive, who have been awesome enough that I would recommend them to anyone, anywhere.
You've been in 2 major accidents? Jesus. Is this a "Florida drivers suck" thing, or do you just have terrible luck?

[quatoria]

In the first case, it's most likely because Orlando at the time was one of the most dangerous driving environments in the country. A combination of no urban planning, bad drivers, poor police coverage, and no enforcement whatsoever of simple road safety issues, like not having ten foot fucking tall hedges totally blocking all visibility at the intersection of a side road onto the main city artery in front of the fucking university.

In the second case, it was an accident that could have happened anywhere - a distracted and rock stupid medical courier was rushing test samples to a doctor's office, and was apparently so fucking nervous about getting them there on time that he failed to, say, look where he was actually driving. He then gave us his drivers license, after failing to persuade me not to call the cops, and left the scene to deliver his samples, getting back roughly thirty seconds before the cops arrived. He was a real pip.

[Munky]

Also, Florida drivers do, indeed, suck.

In Florida it seems there are no traffic laws, merely traffic suggestions.

[quatoria]

Unfortunately true. We've got a lot of elderly drivers, and a lot of snowbirds, and neither one of them gives a shit about anyone else on the road. And, of course, plenty of home grown terrible drivers, too.

[kerzain]

Not to mention all the immigrants from places like Cuba and Jamaica who never drove a car until they arrived in the U.S., and now do it without a license or any formal training or sense of responsibility.

That was my way of being uninformed and stereotyping drivers every time I was stuck driving to Miami anyway. Just blame it on the outsiders.

[Jason McCullough]

Quatoria enraging story is a perfect example of how our legal system only really works if you're rich enough to sue the shit out of everyone. On paper, he should have easily been able to collect from the other driver's liability insurance; in reality.....

[JoshV]

Yeah, that seems like a fantastic plan until ... Don't skimp. You have no fucking idea what may happen to you in the future.

Just to be clear, i was advocating the cheaper insurance which still wasn't bad, not zero insurance. And it sounds like even if you did have the more expensive insurance there was no guarantee that they wouldn't still give you the bullshit run around.

[JoshV]

Not to mention all the immigrants from places like Cuba and Jamaica who never drove a car until they arrived in the U.S., and now do it without a license or any formal training or sense of responsibility.

That was my way of being uninformed and stereotyping drivers every time I was stuck driving to Miami anyway. Just blame it on the outsiders.

Well, you do have a point in that you can and will run into drivers without insurance. (of any ethnicity) Or more appropriately, they may run into you =)

[quatoria]

Just to clear, i was advocating the cheaper insurance which still wasn't bad, not zero insurance. And it sounds like even if you did have the more expensive insurance there was no guarantee that they wouldn't still give you the bullshit run around.

Oh, it's not - but I'm just trying to say, there's no reason to screw yourself if you don't have to. I never would have expected this shit when I was starting college, and I doubt most other people in that position do either. So it's a message I try to share, when appropriate.