A little health insurance help until we get a decent plan....

[BlackVelvet04]

I was paying $585 last year for my husband and myself with a $5,000 deductible per person. Last month I was advised it was going to $747 a month. No way could we afford that.

I called an insurance broker and he told me that it was the "pool" we had been thrown into that was making it so expensive.

He reworked our insurance, put my husband and I into different pools. My husband has a $1,000 deductible. I have a $3,500 deductible with well visits and prescriptions not subject to deductibles. The cost for both plans is
$360 a month.

BTW, the new plans are with the same company we had.

IF YOU ARE PAYING TOO MUCH, YOU HAVE OPTIONS. IF YOU ARE WITHOUT, YOU HAVE OPTIONS. PLEASE CALL AN INSURANCE BROKER.

[BlackVelvet04]

1. kicking for those

who need insurance options

[dflprincess]

2. Good advice it does pay to shop around

And your post gives me a chance to go off on one of my favorite rants.

One of the costs of heath insurance that no one ever mentions is the commission brokers make on every policy they sell. Of the $360 premium you pay each month the broker is probably getting between 5% and 10%. If it's 10%, then the broker is making $432 a year off of you - more than what you pay in a month for "healthcare".

It all makes me so crabby.

[Oregone]

3. I can't believe how expensive this all is!

Its more than half my mortgage.


I haven't paid ANYTHING for health care in 6 years (uninsured). Ive been to the hospital once but they wrote off 85% of the cost for a tax deduction. So basically, Ive saved big. Its sad to see how hard it is for others to make this work.

Im sick of paying Russian Roulette. Im moving to Canada in next 6 months (I have a PR visa), so Ill be set from here on out.

[Warpy]

4. The problem is the insurance death spiral

That means you stay in the original pool because no one will write you a new policy. As all the healthy people have their policies rewritten and join new pools, only the old and sick are left in your pool. Your premiums continue to skyrocket well beyond your ability to pay.

If you are sick enough and live in a state where all companies are for profit, you can't get insurance for any price, anywhere. That's the position I am in. I haven't had insurance for 20 years.

It's very hard to love a country that allows corporations to declare you a nonperson with no value who should just go off and die quietly.

[BlackVelvet04]

7. I had 4 surgeries in a couple of years and have

2 metal rods and six screws in my back and I got my coverage for $233 a month. PLEASE TALK TO A BROKER.

[Warpy]

8. PLEASE DON'T ASSUME I HAVEN'T

You know what they say about people who ASSume.

[BlackVelvet04]

9. Sorry....

I didn't mean to assume that. I apologize for giving a shit.

[Guaranteed]

5. Really? That "government plan" Clintonistas are all touting is only a pooling plan.

Yes, pooling together the needy and buying private insurance. That's Clinton's "alternative" plan.

[BlackVelvet04]

6. Actually, lots of choices.

The Same Choice of Health Plan Options that Members of Congress Receive: Americans can keep their existing coverage or access the same menu of quality private insurance options that their Members of Congress receive through a new Health Choices Menu, established without any new bureaucracy as part of the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP). In addition to the broad array of private options that Americans can choose from, they will be offered the choice of a public plan option similar to Medicare.

[Guaranteed]

10. That's what I'm referring to- it's the same.

The "similar to Medicare" plan is just referring to the pooling plan above, despite the fact that it's nothing like Medicare.