Health Insurance Options

My employer just rolled out our package for 2008 and we are getting hit with a $100 a month increase for family health coverage. Quite simply, I cannot afford it....I was barely affording what I was already paying, my paycheck looked pretty pitiful by the time all the deductions came out of it.

Has anybody out there dropped their employer health coverage and gone it on their own? I was thinking if I could get a major medical "disaster" policy cheap enough, even if it had a $5000 or $10,000 deductible, I could just keep the premiums they are trying to hijack from me and pay for doctor visits out of my pocket when the need arises.

I have been employed at the same company for 7 years now and haven't had to think much about it, so I'm pretty dumb as to what's available. Any help is greatly appreciated.

:)

I'm screwn, I knew it :cry:

Pretty much the disaster only type with a $3k deductible. I'm still pretty healthy and only go see a doctor when I'm sick. There's a prescription discount and my doctor usually writes a few extra refills or gives double the dosage for which I use a pill splitter for.
Try "Golden Rule" through United. Good luck :hi:

is that premium just for you, or your whole family?

My wife pays about $65 a month through her employer. All our kids are grown up and gone :woohoo:

About three years ago though we had a lot of bad luck with our pets and new ones who just showed up in our yard. That year we spent over $3000 on vet bills.

I have to insure me, my wife and 2 year old daughter :(

I might just have to insure them and risk going unsured for myself :(

through NASE. High deductible catastrophic coverage. I have minimal documented health history. They think I am in good health with no bad habits and not overweight. Premium for a single female mid 40's without maternity coverage runs about $275 monthly. One nice thing about the NASE policy is that you can choose coverages - for example, you can choose coverage for ambulatory services while declining coverage for doctor visits.

Good luck. There are no good options in my experience.

$275 a month? That's what I'm paying now for my family's PPO at work, they are jacking us to $375 a month next year....this stuff is getting ridiculous :(


thanks

through my last Tulsa area employer some five years ago was about $900 a month. Yes, ridiculous.

Come first of the year I am going on a must lose weight and get fit diet to insure that I can qualify for other high deductible health insurance when I relocate to another state. A good idea anyway. However, I know someone (late 20's, no preexisting conditions) who was repeatedly denied individual health coverage because they were overweight - overweight not morbidly obese and young with no other risk factors.





I keep wondering why some consumer group hasn't brought an equal protection suit against the federal government to compel some level of national health care. Tax dollars are used to provide that medical safety net to some US citizens (veterans, Native Americans, some children, disabled and low income folks) but not to others. Once again, some are more equal than others. I think litigation and judicial activism in this area just might help motivate our spineless legislators to begin to address health care issues.

me too :hi:

I agree with what you're saying. I'm making about $16 an hour. It used to be good money, but it's not enough now, just enough to knock me out of qualifying for any kind of assistance :(

moved away and was recruited back. Was laid off about five years ago. Collected well over a thousand rejection letters without finding new employment. Quit looking for work. Started earning a few bucks here and there doing freelance and consulting work. Thankfully I did not have significant debt and I have been able to eeeeeek by doing that. I have adopted a simple, frugal lifestyle that I do not intend to surrender even if I should find myself in another good paying professional position.

I have put considerable thought, time and effort into investigating future options. I have aging family members in another state and believe that I will be called upon to help care for them in the next few years. I haven't been able to find work there and really don't expect to at this point. Lots of reasons for that.

So I started looking at nontraditional and entrepreneurial ways to earn a livelihood. I've finally settled on one and am in the process of re-inventing myself into something very different from what my work experience and educational background might suggest. One of my biggest concerns as to long term success is health care.

If I did not anticipate the need to care for aging family members I would be looking to expatriate myself to another country where health care is more affordable and accessible - and I would do so with the intention of pursuing the same career path I currently have in mind. My first obligation is to care for myself and my family. It does not serve my interests to reside in a place where such a basic need as health care is inaccessible.

Guess I'm not very patriotic. Oh, well.

My home is in Tulsa and my current job assignment is in Oklahoma City. Moving to OKC is not an option for numerous reasons, so I have been living like a rat to support my family the best I can. Now they have hit me with this insurance increase.....it has just taken the wind out of my sails.

I have been looking into becoming an ex-pat myself....it's not an easy thing to do :(

I had some suggestions for you.

Personally, I keep track of every penny I take in and every penny I spend. I use a steno pad and make notes daily. It can be frustrating and depressing but it does make it easier to monitor spending and avoid unnecessary expenditures. I suppose keeping the steno pad is a bit anal - but it really does help me. The thing about budgets that don't meet is that there are only two adjustments that can be made - increase the income and/or reduce the expenditures. Sometimes both seem impossible. It's a challenge I face everyday.

I'm local. PM me if you need to vent or just want to bounce ideas off somebody.

We can both dream of becoming ex-pats.

I have put everything into spreadsheets and run over it again and again. I can track the start of my financial troubles straight back to September of '05. Right after Katrina when I went to the gas station and saw 3.00 a gallon for the first time....it's all been downhill from there :(

I work and have worked too damn hard to be constantly treated like this....I'm sure there are many here that are in the same boat or worse. I am about ready to simply give up :(

I really try to limit my driving. In the last 3 years and 8 months I have put less than 19,000 miles on my car. That mileage includes quarterly trips out of state to visit family.

Commuting from Tulsa to OKC even if you only do it once a week is a major expenditure for you with both gas and toll expense. Even if you only commute once a week you are probably driving about four times as many miles as I do - and probably spending at least $25 a month in toll fees.

I know the job market in the Tulsa area is tough, but is there anything closer you could do? Might be worth investigating. If you earn $10 but spend $3 commuting to and from work you are actually in a better financial position if you accept a job that pays $9 but only osts $1 to ommute to and fro. That is especially true if that $9 job frees you up to accept or seek other work. Easier said than done, I know.

I understand your frustration. Based on your comments I'm sure you will do what you think is best for yourself and your family. That's all you can do. You are not alone. Your circumstances are not unique to you. Don't blame yourself for things you cannot control. Yeah, easier said than done.

that would pay me more than $8.00 an hour or thereabouts. I make twice that in OKC, so it's not easy to just walk away from a job I've spent 7 years climing up from the very bottom of the ladder and into a management position. I only make one commute a week now, I bought an old used junky travel trailer and put it in an RV park near my job to have a place near work. I ride my motorcycle back and forth a lot, especially when the weather is good, at 50mpg., so I save quite a bit on gas when I do that.

I'm just really tired of sacrificing and sacrificing so someone can be rich...it's just getting to the point where it isn't worth it anymore :(

that you keep looking since I myself have long since quit looking for traditional employment in the Tulsa area.

The desire not to continue sacrificing my own best interests to enable someone else to prosper - combined with certainty that I will likely need to relocate to a much less populous area - is what has inspired my own entrepreneurial aspirations. I'm betting the proverbial farm on those aspirations.

It is a long term solution that won't address your immediate situation but you might give it some consideration. I've known sandwich shop owners, chicken farmers, plumbers, machinists, and artists who have taken on the risk of making their own way - and who have been successful beyond their own imagination.

a couple times....damn near killed myself trying. Did pretty well at one business for a while, but couldn't keep it going long term. Now I have a 2 year old daughter, which puts risk-taking into a whole new light. If it was just me, I would have been out of here a long time ago.

Absolutely no other pre-existing conditions, but they get allergy shots. So no insurance for them. :grr: :banghead: :wtf: It's a friggin' joke.

Things like this are one of the reasons I avoid medical care - including routine preventive care. When I do see a doctor I make it clear up front that I provide my own health care and that I would appreciate if they would keep my medical records as clean (and sparse) as possible. Most have been understanding and apparently at least somewhat cooperative. Of course, it has been about ten years since I've seen a doctor and about fifteen years since I've had routine preventive care. I carry high deductible coverage for catastrophic injuries and diseases. I figure I'm on my own for everything else - including optical and dental care.

Yeah, it's a joke.

I'm sorry, nobody should have to go more than a year without a routine doctor's visit, my god. That's ridiculous. I started a thread in GD about this, because I want to keep waking people up to just how insane this is. Oy.

I have catastrophic health coverage. I should be covered if I am diagnosed with cancer or if I am injured by a drunk driver. That makes me more fortunate than many.

What I don't have is any level of assurance that I can maintain even that level of coverage should I seek routine medical care and find my records reflect that I have a medical condition or precursors to one. Such things are often grounds for cancellation or denial of new coverage.

getting well woman exams. That can be so critical, especially if you are anywhere approaching middle age.

"Tax dollars are used to provide that medical safety net to some US citizens (veterans, Native Americans, some children, disabled and low income folks) but not to others. Once again, some are more equal than others. "

that consumers will need to organize and pursue competent and well financed litigation to force reform in the health care system. There are no incentives for voluntary reform. I suggest litigation under the Equal Protection clause because it would be based on the foundation of constitutional law. There are other avenues that could easily be litigated as well. For example, many states have statutes that prohibit price discrimination in health care - yet we consistently see a single provider offering the same service at multiple rates.

Unfortunately, I am unaware of any consumer organization contemplating (or capable) of pursuing such litigation.

premium health care for themselves and their families, who seem to take great joy in denying such care to those whom they are supposed to represent.

You would never find anything cheaper than that paying on your own. You can't afford NOT to have it, IMO. You're going to have to cut costs in some other area. One inpatient visit will bankrupt your family without insurance.

there is nothing left to cut, I have cut it all. Cable TV, gone. Internet at home, gone. Home phone line, Gone. Magazine subscriptions, gone. Dining out once a week, gone. I could go on, but you get the picture. If there is nothing in the budget left to cut, it doesn't natter what it costs, if I can't afford it, I can't afford it. The extra $100 a month just isn't there and I can't make it materialize out of thin air no matter what......:(

all these American families like yours working so hard to make ends meet and drowning anyway. HATE THEM.

this shit all started with the damn Reagan administration. When they came up with the idea that it would be good public policy to kiss the powdered and pampered asses of the multi-millionaire class, which has now become the multi billionaire class, they never gave a damn as to whose detriment it would be :mad:

I just want to give up and quit. Hell, I can sit on my ass and do nothing and be flat broke, why should I work my ass into the ground to be in the same boat :shrug:

coverage sux for day to day stuff but if you have a hospital stay you have some protection

Makes me glad I opted for high deductible catastrophic coverage. Doctor visits aren't covered. Ambulatory services are as are scrips. By the time I pay my deductible and my co-pay and cover expenses that are not covered I figure I am out close to $10,000 before any coverage kicks in. But I don't have the policy for routine care. I have it for catastrophic major medical needs.

I hope to relocate to another state in the next year or two. I'll be looking for new coverage then.

With a diabetic daughter, medical insurance eats me alive. I had to bite the bullet for next year and go with a high deductible plan. Lower premiums, and more complete coverage after I pay the astronomical deductibles.

There are some amazingly affordable options for insurance, but a lot of the time the Human Resources dorks don't know where to look.

they are only offering us one option, it's a take it or leave it deal. they said they shopped rates for us and blah, blah, blah this was the best they could do. I don't know what to believe from them anymore :(

I would think you'd get a better group rate getting covered through your employer, but maybe not. It's certainly worth running the numbers, though, to see if you can get a better deal on your own.

We're currently covered for health insurance through MrShine's employer and yes, it's expensive, but as far as I'm concerned, worth it in the end.

Don't even get me started on life insurance! We've got two kids, 11 and 14, and MrShine is almost 52 and is the primary breadwinner for our family. I've got virtually NO financial protection for us, should he die unexpectedly, so we've been going through the motions to get us both covered with term life insurance policies. Ugh. It's been something I've been procrastinating on for years. Unfortunately, his family's medical history is a disaster and now that he's over 50, himself, we're lookin' at high rates for the coverage we want. Sigh...Plus, we have to get approved! That piece hasn't even happened yet.

Yes, it'll be an additional monthly expense we now have to budget, but the peace of mind we will feel knowing we'll be OK financially should something happen to him or me (heaven forbid)is worth it, in the long run.

I HATE dealing with insurance crap. I see it as one of those "necessary evils." :hi:

:hi:

I'm looking around as we speak and you may be right, that may be the best we can do. If that is the case, we may be destined to join the ranks of the uninsured. :(

Mrs Gtrman broke down crying on the phone a minute ago. She was going through all our monthly expenses, trying to find another $100 a month we could trim back and just couldn't find it. We have eliminated cable tv, internet at home,home phone line, dining out except on very rare occasions, cancelled all our magazine subscriptions and pretty much eliminated any and all discretionary spending. I traded my truck down for a savings of $200 a month on the payment and so on and so forth, it just isn't there :cry:

She suggested we look into getting a divorce so we can perhaps get our daughter on the state health insurance....I just don't know anymore. And I hope any lurking conservatives look at what I just wrote. Goddamn conservative cocksuckers that run around touting the sanctity of marriage" are the same people that got us into this mess!! Thanks a lot :mad:

:hug: it makes me sad to think you're actually considering divorce as a means of getting your kid covered. That seems really messed up, somehow. :(

Maybe you could get a cheaper, catastrophic-only policy through someplace else. Doesn't your company offer any other options? Can you sit down with HR or whomever, and have them help you figure out another solution?

Don't give up! I am sending you all my best wishes for a easy and affordable resolution to this problem. I believe there can be a way out of no way. Keep open to possibilities you haven't even thought of yet. :hug:

so far, it looks like a take it or leave it option. We're a nationwide corporation and HR is 1000 miles from here. I doubt the want to "sit down" with anybody and hear them "whining" about the cost of the coverage they are "generously providing" for us. I may shoot them an email and ask anyway.

thanks again for your support :hug:

They have a deal with New York Life that can provide up to $50,000 of insurance and they claim that most AARP members will qualify. No physical exam. It pays benefits from day one if the applicant hasn't "materially misrepresented" answers to the three questions, such as "have you consulted or been advised by a doctor in the last six months for cancer, heart disease, blahblahblah." The rates seem reasonable. You can find info on the AARP web site.

just how old do you think I am? :shrug:

:rofl:

I was replying to post #13.

unfortunately 50K isn't even close to what we'd need...but I guess it's better than nothing.

We currently have a measly $300K through his work, but we need to supplement that one with quite a bit more. Our kids are still relatively young and we've got to have enough to pay off the mortgages and pay for college, too.

:hi:

...and that's a bit of more help, perhaps.

saw an article in the paper bout a week ago and one of the companies that was offering private insurance was getting investigated because they never seemed to pay out claims....

check with various associations--some have a health insurance program with membership.
local chamber of commerce had one a few years back that did not sound to bad

When i was between insurance bout 2 years ago i got some short term thru something called ehealth.com or something like that.

any part time jobs where you can get benes with 20 hours/week?
I think Kohls dept stores have something...

Feel your pain
my group health is hitting me 6k this year.

I would try to get something--my first wife died some 20 years ago from cancer--her total bills were way over 1/4 million.
By a quirk I was way over insured at the time and I survived financially.
I believe in insurance...

I pay about $500 a month out of my paycheck for my family plan. I sould really use that money in my paycheck! My premium is not going up this year, but my co-pay is.

Thus system is just not sustainable!!!!!!

WE ARE DROWNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

drowning, and quickly. I know $100 a month doesn't sound like much to a lot of people, but it is juat huge to me right now. Taking care of a family on a salary in the 30s is just near impossible these days....god help us all :(

That's what I ended up doing. I work the hours that I want and get paid every two weeks tax free. You schedule your own hours and all you have to do is work 1 hour every 45 days to stay current.

Now you won't get rich but I wanted a new car but didn't want to take any money away from the family so I just do the little work at home job, in my back office here and pull in about 450-500 a month. I could make more but it's fine for now. If you want to know who's hiring feel free to IM me.

I work 100 miles from my home and stay away all week long just to support the job I have. My wife takes care of our 2 year old daughter during the week and works on the weekend, when I get to take care of her (my favorite part of the week, daddy and baby time). Then I go out and gig with a couple local bands on weekend nights, which nets me another 300-500 a month. If I can't get by with a full time job and a part time gig paying another 300-500, things are pretty sad indeed :(

Does seem like your time is completely full. I have kids also but they are older and I have free time at night. Sorry my suggestion couldn't help but 100 bucks can be so little and then so much when it's needed.

I know that's got to be what the corporate execs are thinking..."it's only 100 bucks, they can tighten their belts a little and get over it". What they don't realize from their lofty perches is, I hit the last hole on my belt a long time ago and have had to punch new ones to get it to tighten any more :(

High-deductible health "insurance" plans are just a scheme for the insurance companies to make free money, because most people never use up their deductibles, and yet, the companies receive hundreds of dollars a month from each individual.

I sure could use the money that the insurance company is removing from my bank account every month (the only way they'll agree to cover me), but I have this almost superstitious fear that if I let the insurance lap, I'd be struck with some horrible illness.

about whether to drop the coverage or try to keep it. As sure as I do, I will have to just not pay something to keep the insurance....I guess I cn pick a bill not to pay and just let them sue me....and garnish my check, might as well, there won't be much of it left after the insurance hike anyway :(

Maybe you will find it helpful...

they are a locally-owned small chain, with 6 or so stores in the OKC metro, and their prices are VERY good. Way, way cheaper than Albertson's, Homeland or Williams, and when I've priced items at Tulsa's Reasor's, they are also quite a bit more expensive than Crest. Crest is cheaper than Buy4Less, too.
http://www.crestfoodsok.com/

SuperTarget also has pretty good grocery prices - on some items that I buy regularly, they are even cheaper than Crest.

We save SOOOO much on our food budget (also detergent, paper goods, etc) by shopping Crest and SuperTarget. (I don't do WalMart, but I'd be surprised if their prices are significantly cheaper. I've been meaning to do some hard data-checking to verify that, though.)

Clipping coupons and shopping weekly specials (the specials at the expensive chains can be pretty good deals, but not always), stocking up when at all possible, also helps.

I love their stores. That's where I buy most of the groceries and stuff for my little trailer I have here. I wish we had them in Tulsa too.

And if you kept a cooler in your car, you could transport perishables safely back to Tulsa. (Ice is cheap at Crest, just like everything else is. :-) ) Probably not frozen items, but everything else would be fine. You could probably save a fair amount of $$ this way.

they would have a hard time beating warehouse mkt. Or Aldi's. I get most of my dry goods at Aldi foods, especially in OKC. Their prices rock.

:hi:

Fellow Tulsan here. Mine luckily didn't go up this year but that wasn't true for some of the folks I work with. They jacked up the price on the HMO, the PPO I have and pay dearly for stayed the same. They are pushing something called an HRA where you get $1000 of coverage annually, then if you use that up, the next $2000 is out of your own pocket, after that big donut hole, you go on to a third tier that is typical HMO coverage. Thing is there is a $2000 deductible per person and a $2000 out of pocket limit that doesn't include your deductible so that means $4000 out of your own pocket annually. I know the catastrophic coverage is much worse but they are dumping this on people that make probably $8/hour. Truly sucks.

I wish that somehow we could get a significant number of Americans to just say "No more!" and drop all their medical coverage all at one time in protest to this stupid, harmful system. I don't see anything good coming out of most of the Dem candidates on this front, either, except Kucinich. They all talk about wanting to see every American able to buy health insurance rather than see everyone has access to healthcare. That's nothing but a big payoff deal for the current system. I'd really like to see the insurance industry as we know it dismantled totally.

I really do hope that you can find a way to work this out. And you and your wife hold on to each other. You need each other and can fight this together.

On edit: If you haven't already tried shopping for groceries at Warehouse Market, I would check there. Prices are alot lower than any other place. Their produce isn't always top notch but passable most of the time. I can't speak to their meat prices because we don't buy meat but I would imagine they are lower on that, too, since about everything else there is cheaper. I've also bought milk there for 50 cents when it was one day before expiration and it does keep for several days after the date anyway.

:hi:

We already shop Warehouse Mkt, we live on the west side and shop the one at 51st and union. There is also a thrift store in Town West shopping ctr where I buy all my clothes. I haven't bought a new piece of clothing for myself, other than socks in over 2 years :(