Health Insurance - looking for group discounts
- Thread starter DarthSidious
- Start date
Google it. Fortunately, I haven't had any first hand experience with this situation.
so it's okay if you don't consider my answer to be very authentic. But I have researched this in quite a bit of detail. Bottom line, if you have any assets, and no insurance, and get really sick, it's game over.Darth, here's my insurance statement for some recent bloodwork done by a lab in a major metro area (column one is billed amount, column two is actually paid):
http://i51.tinypic.com/350uhc8.jpg
I omitted some lines, but the total billed was $1000, insurance paid about 15%. Now some will say the labs or doctors purposely inflate the billed amount when dealing with insurance, but you can bet your ass you would be billed the full amount if you walked in there uninsured. Even a 10% "cash discount" would be highway robbery.
If individuals had access to those contracted rates and only insured against catastrophic losses ($10k deductible), the system would be far more efficient. Yet the politicians are trying to stifle HSA's and HDHP's in favor of $1000/mo up front plans with $5 copays and zero deductibles. Easier to steal your money up front and redistribute that way.
We need to go back to individual indemnity plans (you pay costs out of pocket) that only insure against catastrophe. Managed care and employment-linked insurance is a giant fuckup which ironically exploded under the last 3 Republican administrations. It's already socialism.
The whole system needs to be gutted.
http://i51.tinypic.com/350uhc8.jpg
I omitted some lines, but the total billed was $1000, insurance paid about 15%. Now some will say the labs or doctors purposely inflate the billed amount when dealing with insurance, but you can bet your ass you would be billed the full amount if you walked in there uninsured. Even a 10% "cash discount" would be highway robbery.
If individuals had access to those contracted rates and only insured against catastrophic losses ($10k deductible), the system would be far more efficient. Yet the politicians are trying to stifle HSA's and HDHP's in favor of $1000/mo up front plans with $5 copays and zero deductibles. Easier to steal your money up front and redistribute that way.
We need to go back to individual indemnity plans (you pay costs out of pocket) that only insure against catastrophe. Managed care and employment-linked insurance is a giant fuckup which ironically exploded under the last 3 Republican administrations. It's already socialism.
The whole system needs to be gutted.
Most people didn't understand you desires.
You need two things, respectively:
1 A high deductible which has a large network of providers. Measure the thickness of the provider booklet. The thicker the better because then the premuim will be less. Make sure the booklet contains the price of services in the description of the provider. Select your providers.
2. Set up a Medical Savings Account and make your contributions. Each year it rolls over into another location of your choosing and the savings are NOT tax deductable. You pay out of this savings account until you get to the high deductible value.
You have another problem as well. You do not know what the role of a broker is. See your dentist screw up. Dentistry is one thing surgery is another thing. Your broker is your trainer so you know how to go about maintaining health which is cheaper than what you do now. You are illness oriented and you are not doing health maintenance at all.
Take a course your broker will connect you to. Plan on paying about 600 bucks for 12 3 hour sessions so you can get to a beginner level in understanding health. Do refreshers after that. you will be expected to build a resourse reference as you do your homework between each session (500 pages). If you have a partner, then pay the 1200 bucks for both of you so someone is dealing with health from now on. You will be dealing with five major considerations: diet; exercise; social support; meditation; and stress reduction.
If something comes up for you, you are either headed to emergency or trauma.
There is no paper work in trauma until you are shipped out of trauma to some kind of care after stablization. In trauma, you are only asked about relatives by the chaplain assigned to the trauma unit.
No one can deal with you in either emergency or trauma unless we have malpractice up the yingyang. Everyone (your type) is considered a legal liability risk while being treated. Trauma usually involves the convergence of several small unattended problems where one of them started the dominos falling.
It is very typical of people just entering CMS coverage to begin to deal with their illness issues. Before CMS arrives they postpone and do the cheapskate routine like you are doing.
Heart plaque buildup starts in the teenage years. Cancer gets its foothold at about the same time. COPD doesn't happen over night either.
Jack, Your reputation precedes you . Yes, I plan to talk to some insurance agents and see what they say. One of my friends, who like me is in IL, sent me an email - "We have a $1000 deductible but office visits and labs are not subject to deductible. Procedures done in a doctor's office are almost always applied to deductible but are first discounted to the doctor's contractual rate, so we still end up paying less than if we didn't have insurance". So perhaps availing of the contracted rate would not be problem. However, I must ensure that is the case and read all fine prints before signing up.
atrocious, my feelings exactly. We need insurance reform, and how to stop getting over charged by the medical industry. There is no other goods / services industry that allows medical industry to do what they do - purchase a potentially $100K worth of services (as valued by the seller) without any idea of the price before purchase. I am not at all hopeful this is going to change - Dems or Repubs - they are all bought & paid for.
. Yes, I plan to talk to some insurance agents and see what they say. One of my friends, who like me is in IL, sent me an email - "We have a $1000 deductible but office visits and labs are not subject to deductible. Procedures done in a doctor's office are almost always applied to deductible but are first discounted to the doctor's contractual rate, so we still end up paying less than if we didn't have insurance". So perhaps availing of the contracted rate would not be problem. However, I must ensure that is the case and read all fine prints before signing up.atrocious, my feelings exactly. We need insurance reform, and how to stop getting over charged by the medical industry. There is no other goods / services industry that allows medical industry to do what they do - purchase a potentially $100K worth of services (as valued by the seller) without any idea of the price before purchase. I am not at all hopeful this is going to change - Dems or Repubs - they are all bought & paid for.
Then what am I going to eat?