anybody have individual health insurance?

[Scanner]

Monkemama,

Thanks for the share on that. . .however. . .the problem with individual insurance is that it often falls under an entirely different set of regulations in the state and Federal laws (ERISA) and often you see individual insurances just "dropping you" when you get sick. SO many stories of "I paid my premiums for years and then when I needed it, they dropped me."

I am not sure if "Obamacare" addressed this problem or not.

That is one reason I would prefer a "Group health plan" over "individual", even if it is a small group (or actually prefer a single payor but that's a pipe dream). The regulations are just tighter in that market.

Maybe the new "cooperative exchanges" will also force some sort of uniformity and regulation upon the ins. companies competing for business.

[Ima saver]

Well, I am still hanging in there! I still have not had one sick day and I am now old enough for medicare, so I have saved a ton of money over the years. My husband's rates have tripled and he has never used his health insurance one time in his life.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Ima, do you and your DH even have a doctor lined up? My Dad had Medicare for years before he ever used it. He did not have a doctor and the first time he decided he needed to see a doctor he had pneumonia and was living in an area where there are not enough doctors to go around. It is not when you are sick or injured that you want to be looking for someone to see you. He lives in the same state as you. sp perhaps there is a similar doctor shortage where you live. I would say having someone lined up to do medical business with is part of being financially prepared. You do not want to be backed into the corner of having to go to an emergency room when an office visit could suffice.

More on point with this thread, DH and I have the same deal that COBRA would offer to dismissed employees. It is what is offered to retirees at this point. So it is group rates, but still we pay $1344/month until June of 2010. We do not know how much it will go up or even whether they will leave retirees out of the plan next year, as they are not bound to offer it to us. We stay with this plan because it IS the best we could get dollar-wise, and because we expect we are less likely to be dropped from coverage than if we had an individual private coverage.

[Ima saver]

Yes, My husband goes to the doctor once in a while. I go once every 3 years just to get an appointment to get a colonoscopy. $1344 a month is a lot of money!!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

$1344 a month is a lot of money!!

Whoooweee, don't I know it!

[Homebody]

Just checked Costco rates yesterday (West Coast Only) for me 52 and DH 51 about $600.00 a month for $3000.00 deductible.

It looks like I may be losing my job this year to outsourcing (medical transcription, I work for a local hospital). I contracted with the same hospital for 10 years before becoming an employee. At that time we had individual plans that ran just under $500.00.

Still checking around, DH had Blue Cross and I had Blue Shield (California) before, separate policies because it was cheaper that way.

[KellyJef]

.........the problem with individual insurance is that it often falls under an entirely different set of regulations in the state and Federal laws (ERISA) and often you see individual insurances just "dropping you" when you get sick. SO many stories of "I paid my premiums for years and then when I needed it, they dropped me."

Geez, I've never heard that before. I thought that as long as I paid my premiums, I was assured coverage.

I wonder if there is a way to find out if Univera could drop me?

And it looks like my $1,138 per month premium is the highest that anybody here pays for one person

[Scanner]

KellyJef,

Well, I am only making a gross generalization.

When you hear these stories of people being "Dropped", like they get breast cancer and all of the sudden now they need chemotherapy and they don't have insurance, it's usually the individual plans.

You usually don't hear of it when it's a person working for an employer.

Why?

1. Regulations are tighter.
2. They risk losing the whole account because Marge in the the Marketing Dept. didn't get her chemo when she needed it so Susan in HR isn't going to renew the contract.

This is why this country so desperately needed a bipartisan healthcare reform effort but so many politiicans just dug their heels in and just wanted status quo.

I'll have to buy individual insurance too eventually but I am not happy about it but then again, I am highly educated to the appeals processes in my states and the mountain of regulations. Still, if a health insurance co. "drops" you, there isn't much to appeal for that. You need to retain an attorney or appeal to the insurance commissioner, who is also usually impotent on many of these matters anyway.

This country is extremely hard on the self-employed and ironically it wasn't the traditional Republicans who went to bat for them in Washington. These kind of stories usually hit Joe Plumber.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Geez,
And it looks like my $1,138 per month premium is the highest that anybody here pays for one person

You do have to compare what kind of insurance you are getting. Probably you have a smaller deductible than some others. Maybe you also are buying some prescription coverage or some lab, screening, vaccine coverage that others with lower monthly payments do not have. You can't just compare what you pay per month and figure that you got the worst deal.

[wincrasher]

This is why it boggles me that there is so much opposition to health care reform (at least in the media anyways).

We are on a tragectory that will bankrupt most companies as well as individuals. Yet there is a clamor to leave things as they are.

My individual plan (I'm self-employed) is pretty cheap. But the deductable is $5,000. But I have no pre-existing, have good weight and colesterol, blood pressure and don't smoke. Have any of these out of whack and you are either paying sky-high premium or won't be accepted at all.