Is there any good health insurance company or plan?

I'm at the moment right now where I have to renew for another 3 months and I'm not particuarly happy with my current insurer (Blue Shield of California). But after reading online comments and reviews about some of the other company I am beginning to think I can't find one that is anything but a greedy, self-serving, bureaucratic mess that exists only to profit rather than provide. Any suggestions on other companies I can take a look at? Thanks!

Try not to get sick until the age of 65.

I have high blood pressure but I take medication for it, otherwise I have a pretty much immaculate health record. Since the company knows that, they can look at my history with them and see the lack of claims over the years, I would think they would reduce my premium to almost nothing based on that. But it keeps going up and up each year, while it seems they keep mailing me more and more notices saying this isn't covered or that is limited so such and such an amount, it's like they are slowly chipping away at the deal I thought was getting at the beginning.

I'm surprised you got any quotes at all.

They use anything even remotely significant these days to either deny coverage or charge outrageous premiums.
Mostly they don't even take people that have conditions such as high blood pressure.

I have Wolfe-Parkinson-White (WPW) and was quoted $1200 a month with a $10,000 deductible... back in 1997. Even though I have had the corrective heart surgery to fix the WPW (it's a birth defect). I'm otherwise completely healthy.

has only gotten high in the last 2 years and I think it's because I'm taking care of my 91-year-old mother full time, as in 24/7. For many years my blood pressure was 120/80 but I don't recall them ever asking what it was when I signed up.

you probably had a physical. My ex-girlfriend (a PA) used to do these for insurance companies (health and life) all the time (this was almost 20 years ago now). Draw a little bit of blood, weight, height, blood pressure, short history. She used to go to their places of employment or homes to get the info. She would spin their blood down in a centrifuge that was on our balcony. Look at the amount of fat cells in the blood. Then send off another test tube for virus checks (AIDS primarily).

If you had a group policy which was converted, they often didn't (and still don't) get much information at all, perhaps a history questionnaire. Name of your doctor (and then they get the real info from the doctor's office).

In fact, if you had a regular family physician at the time of getting an individual policy, they might have gotten your complete medical history from them.

it was in 1996 that I changed from group to individual and originally I had PacifiCare but I can't really remember why and how I switched to Blue Shield... I don't remember having to take a physical to get it... I was a lot younger and my blood pressure was normal then... I guess I'm lucky to have a plan! Even though I feel like I am paying about $140 a month for nothing.

there are people who've had issues with them, but by and large I'm satisfied.

after taking my Mom through their system for years, I have a pretty low opinion of Kaiser. She has SCAN now and it's a lot better. I'm sure Kaiser works out well for many people, but I think Kaiser has too many pitfalls.

I'm talking about the ones that you had during your current coverage. Some don't cover something you might have had 3 months ago.

at least in the paperwork I have in front of me. Probably buried somewhere in the booklets and letters is something about that, but I don't really have time to dig through it all. Curiously they did send me a letter stating that effective Jan. 1st they will no longer automatically reinstate policies that are cancelled for nonpayment of premiums. If you fail to pay by the due date, they will cancel it immediately and in order to reinstate it, you have to re-apply all over again. I guess this gives them a chance to deny you based on whatever claims you had with them before. And that if you are offered a new policy it might have a different premium. So it seems like they are doing that to take another window of opportunity to drop people. What I don't like is the endless series of letters amending my agreement with them, and I have to either take it or leave it. It's like the initial agreement I had with them means nothing. I don't know any kind of contract or agreement that lets one side of it amend the agreement at will, giving the other no say in it at all and no recourse but to just stop paying.

Not too long ago, we sent in payment to pay a bill. A week later, we got a notice from the company that they hadn't received payment, and requested we send it in. A couple days later, we got our bank statement showing that they had cashed our check. I called the company, and they admitted the check had been misplaced, but they found it after the nonpayment notice had been sent, and to disregard it.

I wouldn't depend on your health insurance company to be so agreeable. When you send certified mail, return receipt requested, somebody at the company has to sign for the payment, and the signed receipt is mailed back to you. Additionally, you can track your payment online using the tracking number.

It costs a few dollars, but it is well worth the money if the mail has to get there on time, and it provides proof that you sent it.

took on HCR. http://knowledge.emory.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1272

<snip>
Knowledge@Emory: Do you think health care reform is needed?

Amos: Yes. I don’t know to what degree, but I absolutely think it is needed. I am no politician, so I don’t know how they are going to address it. We don’t want a lot of uninsured people. We want to find a way of limiting the number of exclusions based on preexisting conditions.

Knowledge@Emory: What do you think will happen if healthcare reform is not passed?

Amos: Employers have to find some way of taking care of workers. How and in what form, I don’t know. But there is a moral obligation to try and find it. Economic obligations of course have to be considered, but most employers are trying to find a way to resolve this. It may mean higher deductibles and catastrophic coverage, but at this point, I don’t think any of us know.

<snip>

My mother's Medicare supplement is through this company and I have been totally amazed at how trouble-free it has been.

I've decided that *IF* we get a mandate with no PO, this is the first INSCO I'll look into. But, I guess availability is determined by the state in which you live.

for my Mother, they have paid nearly everything and caused no trouble at all. The only thing they wouldn't pay was a prescription that her doctor wrote for a non-standard use of a drug or "off-label" use, which in retrospect was probably not a good idea anyway. But they have paid virtually everything and what they don't pay is covered by Tricare for Life. My Mom's very lucky to have both.

Your mom is lucky.

Not only does she have Tricare for Life as a benefit from being married to my (now deceased) father, but she also has SCAN as a Medicare Advantage plan, although she could give that up and use Tricare for everything, and save the cost of the Medicare premium (around $96 a month). Some provider discouraged me from having her give up SCAN so we haven't made any change yet. She also gets a little-known benefit from the VA because she herself served in the military, a pension called Aid & Attendance, which requires an incredible amount of paperwork but she gets over $1200 a month from the VA to help pay for the caregivers we have 6 days a week. So she is really set on health care - I'm the one that is just barely treading water!

because they take so incredibly long to pay, and it was causing issues with our docs. Some payments wouldn't be made until 6 months or more after the visit.

it has its horror stories, but by and large, they have provided us with excellent healthcare, choice of doctors, and access to them.

Not cheap, though; we recieve their top-of-the line coverage as a part of my wife's benefit package.

A new company is more likely to drop you, if something unexpected happens.

I went ahead and sent in the 3-month renewal but I'm still going to look around for a better deal.