jim wrote:Turns out I do have vision. I'll be damned, thought they got rid of that.
I have a $300/year individual deductible, $900/year max for family. My out of pocket max is $1800/individual, $5400 for family. That's in network, if I go out of network it's 550/1650 deductible max, and 3550/10650 out of pocket. I have to pay 10% in network, 20% out of network. My head is ready to explode.
I think I'm getting screwed. I didn't know any of this stuff until you guys got me curious.
All the deductible BS and percentage's confuse the hell out of me as well.
Although, your monthly premiums are pretty high in comparison to what I currently pay ($195/mth for my wife and I for health, dental, and vision), but from what I gather AT&T's benefits are still pretty decent.
Don't try to argue that fact w/ some of the employees that have been here for 20+ years though, because they still think they/we should get free benefits!
I've been at my employer 20 years come July, and I'll be honest until a month ago I thought I was basically getting my insurance for free - I would have guessed under $100. Until this new fangled HR system we got made us actually check some boxes during open enrollment recently, I never noticed. I told me wife who does the finances in our house and of course she knew.
I'm pretty sure I paid < $100 a month when I started, I just didn't notice they increased it. But now I remember something a few years ago - they gave everyone a $1000 raise across the board, and they said was to help cover the cost of our insurance which was going up about $100/month on average. I wonder how many times they did that without giving us a raise?
I've never been happier to be insured since I was diagnosed with cancer. I pay $114 a mo/ for individual, $2k deductible, and 100% insurance paid after that. So basically this whole thing is probably going to cost $150k and I pay $2,000. For those having to pay 10%, that's still $17,000. I can't imagine when you're going through the toughest health crisis in your life to also have to be so stressed about finances.
planet planet wrote:I've never been happier to be insured since I was diagnosed with cancer. I pay $114 a mo/ for individual, $2k deductible, and 100% insurance paid after that. So basically this whole thing is probably going to cost $150k and I pay $2,000. For those having to pay 10%, that's still $17,000. I can't imagine when you're going through the toughest health crisis in your life to also have to be so stressed about finances.
That's amazing PP!
I had a cardiac cath done (mostly because my doc is ultra paranoid -- nothing was wrong and I tried to tell her that) and it is going to wind up costing me about 2000 out of pocket. Without insurance it would've been about 15,000 I think.
stlouie_lipp wrote:For 2016 my monthly premiums are increasing by $75/month and my network is getting smaller.
It's worse than I thought. No doctors/hospitals anywhere near me will be in my "network". I think I found a plan with some other insurance company (Acme Insurance?) that includes doctors in my zip code. Not sure yet. No more BCBS for me. I haven't needed any medical services in over 5 years, but at least I get to pay a lot more so that other people get coverage. Oh well, looks like 175,000 others in Illinois are similarly situated. Awesome.
stlouie_lipp wrote:For 2016 my monthly premiums are increasing by $75/month and my network is getting smaller.
It's worse than I thought. No doctors/hospitals anywhere near me will be in my "network". I think I found a plan with some other insurance company (Acme Insurance?) that includes doctors in my zip code. Not sure yet. No more BCBS for me. I haven't needed any medical services in over 5 years, but at least I get to pay a lot more so that other people get coverage. Oh well, looks like 175,000 others in Illinois are similarly situated. Awesome.
Its time to get real, cut out all th middle men and go to single payer. Medical costs would come out of the federal budget, the people would be freed from a major source of stress, job mobility would increase, and incentives would be flipped from the current one of keeping people chronically ill to keeping people healthy. Look at Maryland for an example.
stlouie_lipp wrote:For 2016 my monthly premiums are increasing by $75/month and my network is getting smaller.
It's worse than I thought. No doctors/hospitals anywhere near me will be in my "network". I think I found a plan with some other insurance company (Acme Insurance?) that includes doctors in my zip code. Not sure yet. No more BCBS for me. I haven't needed any medical services in over 5 years, but at least I get to pay a lot more so that other people get coverage. Oh well, looks like 175,000 others in Illinois are similarly situated. Awesome.
Basically all the "good" plans didn't include any doctors in my town. So I chose a [expletive] plan with a higher premium so I could go to my doctor. I really debated on just picking a lower plan and not going to the doctor but I'm afraid I'll need the doctor this year because my knee is bugging the hell out of me. Not to mention I made enough money to get a big ole $20 bucks in subsidies.
this might be a dumb/easily googlable question, but who determines who gets access to the best doctors under a single payer system? I am assuming private practices will not just be able to charge whatever they want. Does the govt determine how much they get paid? Would all doctors in a certain field all be paid the same way? Do we think all of the 'good doctors' are going to leave Colorado on the slim chance that Colorado Care gets passed next year?
