Gawdomity---kaiser

[Dan Morris]

Guess I''m about to find myself in a growing boat....had Kaiser
HMO for 20 years, never used more than a flu shot. Effect Mar 1, it goes up 56%. Gonna cost for family $1600 a month! Company cannot absorb that!
Any one got any suggestions as to other carriers that you have been satisfied with?
Dan
:(

[fabsroman]

Good luck. You might want to try getting some type of catastrophic insurance plan with a high deductible. That way, you pay for the first several thousand out of pocket and then the insurance kicks in. For instance, you can get a high deductible insurance policy with a $5,000 deductible and your monthly premiums shouldn't be too bad unless you currently have health issues. Some employers are offering plans like this called Health Savings Accounts ("HSA's") and the employers are actually offering some money to the employees for them to put into their HSA. My wife and I are switching to a HSA plan this year with her employer, Target.

[Dan Morris]

Thanks, I have NO health probs...haven't missed a day in 40 years..(No Kidding)...this is just getting a little unreal!Health is excellent!
Dano

[Rocky Raab]

What the liberal whiners deliberately overlook is the fact that the bulk of us who are healthy don't NEED health insurance. The exception, as Fabs points out, is catastrophic illness coverage.

My wife and I don't carry or pay for dental coverage in her teacher's plan - simply because we have good teeth. We pay for twice-a-year exams and cleaning out of pocket. Doing it that way is only a fraction of the cost of premiums.

Search for a policy that protects you from heart problems, cancer and major accidents only. Invest what you save and you'll be fine. (You DO have a nest egg anyway, right?)

One other thing you should look into is long-term care insurance. This can be unbelievably complicated to select, but we started a plan last year that will cover us if one or both of us ever needs an institution or live-in care. Chances are you WILL need something like it someday, and the premiums are only about 10% of what it would cost without the coverage.

[M.T. Pockets]

I've had a high deductible HSA since they became available. I'm self employed, so I can deduct the premium. I also fund the HSA portion and write that off, and when I use this fund to pay a medical expense I get the money back tax free. Kind of like laundering money legally.

There's no free lunch, but like Rocky said, ask around. Ask people who are self employed, because they are used to shopping for their own and know a lot more than others about buying health insurance.

If you were in MN I'd give you some direction.

[fabsroman]

I know a lot about health insurance because I am self employed too. However, I knew that it made way more sense to use the coverage provided by Target once I married my wife than to continue to pay what I did.

The problem with health insurance right now is the same problem that we have with social security. Generally, the people that do not need health insurance are paying for those that do need it. Most health insurance claims are for people that are old (e.g., Rocky, LOL) and people with current conditions. The rest of us are just picking up their bill. The young are paying for the health care of the old. Problem is that the young cannot afford it.

Since you aren't self employed, you might want to bring up the HSA to your employer, even if they aren't willing to fund it at all you could fund it yourself. If they have been paying for health insurance up until now, suggest that they take their premium payments from last year and use them tp pay for the premiums on the high deductible insurance plan and use anything leftover to fund the employees HSA account.

[Dan Morris]

Gracias, I'm gonna check a lot of things. Med nest egg.....
I'm healthy as a horse, just ticks me as to this exorbant increase! Dan

[denton]

The new high-deductible plans are a very good way to go.

Our company checked out a couple of different options, and ended up with one.

We compared a conventional $500 per person/$1,000 per family plan with a $3,000 deductible and a company funded $3,000 per year HSA. The second alternative was cheaper.

So the net result is that the company puts money in my HSA every month, and I can spend it on any health related item... vitamins, physical therapy, stuff from the health supplement store. In effect, until I meet my deductible, I have no co-pay, and practically no restriction on how I spend the money in my account, as long as it is health care related. The one thing to be careful about is that only purchases covered by your plan count toward your deductible.

The new HSA's are different from what we used to have. First, the money rolls over from year to year. Second, when you retire, you keep any money in the account, and can continue to use it for health care.

The other neat thing is that Congress very recently changed the law capping your HSA contributions at your deductible. Your HSA max is now $5,6xx per year per family, regardless of deductible.

As it happens, we have a neighbor, who is an excellent doctor, who practices at the insurance company's clinic. So we mostly go there, and we buy our prescriptions there, too. That way, the deductible automatically gets accounted for.

[fabsroman]

Denton,

You are spot on with your analysis and you have one heck of a plan and one heck of a great deal in having a neighbor as a doctor. Also, when you retire, you can pull the money out of the HSA as retirement income. It doesn't have to be used only for medical expenses.