Options
(UPDATED) Trying to stay out of the Obamacare debate...
Shawshank
Posts: 1,018
So I was casually going through the mail late this evening, and I noticed two pieces from our health insurance company, one for myself and one for my wife. I open them and it is a cancellation notice. It says something to the effect that since my current plan doesn't fall under the new healthcare guidelines, that the policy is being terminated, however they are "gracious" enough to continue my coverage until the end of the year. This is a company wide cancellation of the insurance certificate, not just for us, but for everyone on the plan. I now will be one of those that has to go to healthcare.gov in the morning to see if I can find a plan.
2 things that are extremely frightening about this...first, my wife nearly died last year because of an issue with her thyroid that ended up causing what they call a thyroid storm. If you've never experienced that, consider yourself lucky. It basically puts your heart in a cocaine like overdrive and cannot be stopped. She was cardioverted (you know...CLEAR and then shocked) 4 times...while she was conscious and without anesthetic. It was horrible. I never knew they did that to people who were alive.
Anyway, she was in the hospital for a month, and they got everything sorted out, even though it nearly destroyed her heart. Our insurance was great. I carry a high deductible, around $7,500, but it kept the monthly premiums reasonable at around $400 for both of us, and it was really only intended for emergencies. After all the madness of last year, we expected to get reamed on our premiums, but were surprised to only see them go up $25 per month.
So now with our policy being cancelled, I'm worried about what options we are going to have. I was perfectly fine with the coverage I had, and I'm still not 100% sure how it didn't meet the upcoming mandates within the new laws. I'm hoping that if nothing else we can have the same type of coverage for roughly the same cost. I just don't know if I'll be that lucky, but who knows. If I end up having to pay more for insurance now, especially with my wife's issues from last year, I'm going to be wicked pissed. :evil: :evil: :evil:
2 things that are extremely frightening about this...first, my wife nearly died last year because of an issue with her thyroid that ended up causing what they call a thyroid storm. If you've never experienced that, consider yourself lucky. It basically puts your heart in a cocaine like overdrive and cannot be stopped. She was cardioverted (you know...CLEAR and then shocked) 4 times...while she was conscious and without anesthetic. It was horrible. I never knew they did that to people who were alive.
Anyway, she was in the hospital for a month, and they got everything sorted out, even though it nearly destroyed her heart. Our insurance was great. I carry a high deductible, around $7,500, but it kept the monthly premiums reasonable at around $400 for both of us, and it was really only intended for emergencies. After all the madness of last year, we expected to get reamed on our premiums, but were surprised to only see them go up $25 per month.
So now with our policy being cancelled, I'm worried about what options we are going to have. I was perfectly fine with the coverage I had, and I'm still not 100% sure how it didn't meet the upcoming mandates within the new laws. I'm hoping that if nothing else we can have the same type of coverage for roughly the same cost. I just don't know if I'll be that lucky, but who knows. If I end up having to pay more for insurance now, especially with my wife's issues from last year, I'm going to be wicked pissed. :evil: :evil: :evil:
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
obamacare is doing away with high deductible plans. especially ones that are over $5000. this what it means to be "underinsured". many people do not have 5 grand sitting around and then they can't pay their medical bill. if they pay out of pocket $4995 they would nearly have met the deductible yet the insurance company would have taken your money and paid $0 out to cover you. that is no kind of coverage if you ask me.
so what is gonna happen is your premiums may rise a bit, but you will not be burdened with such a high deductible.
those high deductible plans were cash grabs by the insurance companies. you are paying monthly premiums, and if you do not meet your deductible, why should you pay those premiums if you get ZERO return on that investment?
i am extremely sorry to hear about your wife. i wish her good health and i wish you both several more decades together.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Just reading gimme's post as I type this and wondering is my wife's deductible will change- it's $6,000 per year and with her retina repair surgury we had to pay that out in full this year. If it isn't lowered, maybe instead of trading in my book business for feathers I need to find something more lucrative. 6K is a big hit!
Shawshank- so sorry to hear of your wife's traumatic experience. I wish her and you the best and hope she is doing ok now. Man, that's scary stuff.
Edit: I've just been corrected. Her deductible is 1500 with a 6,000 cap (which she exceeded).
Alpine Valley Resort is etched in my brain!!!
Not to sound shitty but didn't Obama tell us that we don't have to worry, we will be able to keep your current plan??? I guess Nancy Pelosi was correct, they needed to pass it to find out what is in it. Maybe Ted Cruz is looking a little better right now for wanting to defund this piece of shit law.
I hope we don't read more of these stories his week. You are all in my thoughts.
Many people chose a high deductible because they wanted to actually *gasp* pay cash for office visits and not deal with an insurance company. Paying cash generally gets you a large discount. Many people were paying $3000 for their company plans but dropped out because they didn't use the doctor at all, and many of those kept high-deductible policies to keep the monthly payment low and for those 'just in case' scenarios.
Here is another example of government thinking they know what is best for the individual.
Everyone should have health insurance.
We saw the outcome, of the home ownership idea.
Very sorry you caught in middle Shawshank and wish the best for you and your wife.
Gimme I hear what you're saying about how these plans are cash grabs, but I don't necessarily agree with it. Ok, let me rephrase that, ALL insurance plans suck, but I don't think a high deductible plan like ours sucks as much as it sounds like it does.
When I was shopping insurance, I could have bought plans that had $500 to $3,000 deductibles, but the premiums were anywhere from $700 to $1,100 per month for both of us. Now, we are both relatively healthy and hardly ever go to the Dr. We wanted something that was more for like, holy crap I have cancer, or I had a heart attack, or my wife had this weird Thyroid storm. She racked up a $125,000 hospital bill in the first 3 weeks alone. So it was always considered emergency coverage, not..."oh I have a cold, thank God I have insurance so my Dr can tell me to get some rest and take TheraFlu."
So let's just say I went middle of the road and had a $2,000 deductible plan. I would have been spending close to $900 per month. Almost $6,000 more per year than I do with my current plan. That would be $6,000 more per year whether I used it or not. So what would you say makes more sense? Pay $7,500 IF something happens, or $6,000 regardless of whether you use it or not? Talk about a cash grab. That doesn't make any financial sense at all. To me, insurance is about peace-of-mind. If something catastrophic happens I like the idea of knowing we are covered. In most cases, even if you can't pay all of your deductible at once, I don't think there's a hospital out there that won't let you make small payments on it. I know people that are paying a $5,000 bill at $100 per month. A small price to pay when their original visit was like my wife's at nearly 100 grand.
I guess the biggest thing with me is, we were in a place where we had insurance and that company knew my wife's situation. So we had coverage, and it was a plan I was extremely happy with because they covered EVERYTHING. Yes, I realize she cannot be turned away now under these new laws, however I do not believe there are any provisions for how much they can charge. Now I may be worried about all of this for nothing, but I couldn't sleep last night thinking about this. I'll find out this morning what our future holds.
I agree, Obamacare is fucked. It didn't go far enough, should be a single payer system.
Greed does not belong in a healthcare system. We shake our heads up here, trying to understand what is going on down there.
Yes, I agree with you. We were all doomed when they didn't make it single payer. I wasn't necessarily for it, but I knew we were major screwed if they didn't go all the way. It was (and is) and major windfall for the insurance companies, make no mistake about that. :evil:
I could only imagine the frustration. Good luck to you and everyone else caught in the middle of this mess.
I'm not sure why people have already deemed the ACA a failure. It's not a single payer system, but it's a step in that direction.
I guess if he's okay with it, then fine. To me, that kind of coverage is crappy. I don't want to see people be anxious when they are getting something better, though.
I think I'll wait until November for this to cool off.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
I don't drink a lot of beer anymore but when I do I prefer Sam Adams Octoberfest. Feels so good when it hits the lips...
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
move to europe instead
As far as Canada is concerned, I'm from Texas...lived here all my life...but my wife and I REALLY loved Vancouver when we were there last May. We arrived a day early for our cruise to Alaska, and we made the most of it. We went everywhere we could, and I loved it. I thought the people were nice, everyone was friendly and helpful getting us around town on the bus. Being that we live in smaller towns, it gave me an appreciation for being able to just hop on a bus and go where ever, as opposed to having a car and driving. We even went out to some big suspension bridge (Lynn Canyon I believe) and hiked for most of the afternoon in the forest even though it was pouring down rain. We loved that place.
I did think of one other possible scenario...what happens if this system gets eliminated after it goes into affect? At the end of 2014, they say we've made a huge mistake and we just don't have the funding to continue this. At that point, people like myself would have already lost coverage they had, and due to my wife's history from last year we'd be lucky to get insurance coverage that wasn't 2 or 3 times what we were paying before. Trying my best to stay positive but in between account creation attempts at healthcare.gov, I do tend to think about these things. :?
I think a lot of younger people are going to pay the tax fine of a few hundred instead of paying several thousand if they feel they are healthy.