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Post by friskers on Dec 21, 2008 13:08:18 GMT -5
My insurance went from $78 a month to $495 a month dental/medical combined but still thats bs! OMG thats outrageous increase , who may I ask is your insurance?
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Post by friskers on Dec 31, 2008 13:44:31 GMT -5
First let me say that if you get quotes from a website called einsurance you will be bombarded by health insurance agents ! But the good news is they get you many quotes and it makes it much easier to compare that way. I got a call from an insurance agent who's from FIRSTHEALTH....has anyone heard or have information regarding that health insurance? He wants to get me into a group plan with other self employed people with other small business owners at a much cheaper rate that also includes disability insurance ,something i don't have. Very good benefits with no deductible and small copay for doctors and prescriptions. Hes also advising me not to disclose i have insomnia Everything he told me was just too good to be true! He told me individual plans gets premiums raised alot and frequently and if you have something serious like cancer they will raise your premium where as a group plan this does not happen. He also said many people are unhappy with bluecross and hes always having to deal with their "shannanagins" as he put it ;D I think I may give this some serious consideration . Haven't heard back from aetna yet. I'm even happier now as this kind of plan sounds ideal for me! I didn't even know i was eligible for this kind of group plan as i do have a small business but have no employees and i thought you needed at least one to go with a group plan
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Post by friskers on Jan 3, 2009 0:15:20 GMT -5
I cant beleive now what bluecross has done to me now! I canceled my insurance the 10th of dec in a hand written letter. They wrote back and said they only cancel insurance at the beginning of the month and are charging me a whole months premium at 357.00! Technically I only owe them 10 days worth, somewhere around one third of that...like 120.00. it seems illegal what they are doing. I have perfect credit and am afraid they may screw up my credit if I dont pay it. I hope this crooked bluecross health insurance goes bankrupt!! if anyone can advise me what my rights are Id appreciate it
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Post by Carrie♥ on Jan 3, 2009 1:17:39 GMT -5
Ah Friskers...that isn't cool!!!
I just went through that, well similar except my kids was on OHP but yeah the state paid her premium for the whole month and I canceled on the FIRST!!! Nothing they could do, already paid the premium.
It didn't hurt too bad 'cause I didn't have to pay out of pocket but hurt enough 'cause what a waste of money...
Sorry...that sucks!!!
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Post by friskers on Jan 3, 2009 3:51:23 GMT -5
Carrie Im still in shock that they can even do that. You should be able to cancel at any time and not billed forany day after that. Blue cross just got fined a million bucks for dropping peoples policys after they got sick . tinyurl.com/89kz6jThe more I read about peoples horror stories about insurances not paying and rejecting claims I wonder if id be better off not even having it!
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Post by Carrie♥ on Jan 3, 2009 11:09:41 GMT -5
I read that article Friski and am sickened by it. That is sickening but I actually think the whole health insurance plans is! I'm down for Sicko...I hate managed care and would NEVER pay for it...never. I have nothing to loose though, like a house so I would absolutely take my chances. In a way that totally bites because I do understand that unpaid ER bills are part of the reason rates are so inflated. But I totally feel it's a clear catch-22 and NO WAY would I pay their outrageous prices for the BS services I've heard about, like the article you linked here. They probably wouldn't even accept me...heck if I wasn't on with my job I'd still be insuranceless. I do understand a 30 day notice to cancel a policy but I don't understand a 30 plus days because of their policy not to cancel mid month. So they're making you pay the whole premium for January? Yeah...that isn't cool...I wouldn't pay. But again, I don't do anything with credit. I'd make them work for the premium money before they got it and then I'd give it too them $5 a month 'til it was paid off. That article is irritating...yeah they care. I don't get it all, I'm not sure how it all works but for every filed the inspecting agency touched to have had wrong doing I hope they get fined much more in the future, even more if they don't change their ways. So you finally decided? Where is that post...I wanna be nosy and see what you're doing .
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Post by friskers on Jan 3, 2009 20:04:16 GMT -5
Hi Carrie No they are making me pay for dec 1 through jan 1. I didnt understand their cancelation policy and thought they would just drop me when I didnt pay my bill and alsowas waiting to hear from them on the other plan they jacked up on me.My brain is too tired to explain it all, Im just fried from all this. Sorry Ive reached my melting point with all this insurance crap! ;D i think Im going with this other plan for small business owners that includes disability . This insurance agent is very anxious to meet with me but Im putting him off till I understand 100 percent completely what Im getting into. So far hes been very patient with me . he did neglect to tell me though there is a one time association fee of 115.00........not too much i suppose and I checked out his credentials and he is a licsensed insurance agent. I started reading about insurance fraud and got very worried he might be scamming me. Check this out........on insurance fraud tinyurl.com/9fonqffirst his name and id number didnt check out and i freiked but the second time I put it through he did checkout This has been quite an unpleasant learning experience about health insurance!
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Post by Carrie♥ on Jan 4, 2009 0:34:25 GMT -5
Yeah I'm sorry Friskers...I'm just sorry and know how you feel! Tired of being tired ! I'll be thinking about ya!
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Post by zabrubon on Jan 4, 2009 16:03:40 GMT -5
With my new job(working two jobs now) I have reached the three month mark(can't hardly believe it) and now am offered company insurance. The regular plan is a PPO and it has a $250 deductable a month for approximate fee of $150 a month. They also offer HMO. Now I have heard horror stories about HMO but don't know if that is an extreme or not. My gyne and my holistic internist is in the HMO book. So do I take it? It would only cost me $100.00 a month and covers so much more than the PPO. I have to tell them by Monday so I think what I will do is keep the regular insurance I have carried on myself for $350 every two months with the $5,000 deductable and get the HMO. I don't have that kind of money and I will have to wait on paying my mortgage because of this decision. I hope I am making the right choice having two insurance policies. Conincedentialy they are the same company, Blue Cross Blue Shield. Any advice on the HMO?
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Post by Carrie♥ on Jan 4, 2009 16:30:45 GMT -5
Hello Beautiful BBBBonnie! I don't understand the differences between HMO and all the initials you're talking about !?! Is it just me? I pay $250 for my kids...plus my job pays some of their premium but I don't remember exactly how much. So $100 doesn't seem like much unless that's additional!?! I was in for a big surprise when I walked into this world last summer and really realized HOW expensive health care plans are...I just don't like it. We've got enough to worry about with rent/mortgage/utilities/car note or not and insurance. The outstanding amounts us Americans have to pay for health care is embarrassing and a shame for our people.
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Post by friskers on Jan 4, 2009 19:59:54 GMT -5
Hi Bonnie Thats great your offered health care through your work. If your choice docs are in the HMO why wouldn't you take the cheaper plan? i don't know much about HMO's , Ive always had PPO plans because to like to choose my own doctor . I could be totally wrong about this but I dont think your allowed to carry more than one health insurance policy Carrie PPO stands for preferred physicians organization, meaning doctors take a lesser negotiated fee for their sercvices. So even though ive had very high deductable plans what Ive paid out of pocket has been considerably less with the bluecross PPO doctors for example.
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Post by friskers on Jan 5, 2009 2:55:01 GMT -5
OMG i just cant beleive it. This insurance agent is trying to rip me off or at best just try to keep me uninformed .It all started sounding pretty good great in fact until I asked for the policy in writing and he emailed me this bogus looking policy that didnt give any details to the plan. So I went online to check out each of his companys and all 3 have the same complaints over and over again about the policys are vague and not written in a understandable way , have caps and exclusions all over the place and are just plain bad policys and inpaticular the agents wont give you the full plan until you sign the papers and this waas the deal breaker. they want an automatic premium taken payment from your bank every month. I also asked him if my premium would go up during the underwriting proccess and he said no it shouldnt and I brought up the fact I take a prescription med and he said oh well maybe it will go up just a tiny bit like 20 or 30 dollars 20 percent . I said 20 percent of of my premium would be 50 dollars!! What does he think I cannot do math?! im so utterly disgusted right now . Sorry to be a downer here but if it saves anyone else from this kind of experience then its worth sharing.These are all the companys hes affiliated with Also horror stories of people getting premiums withdrawn after canceling and not gettting them to stop the automatics bank payments. tinyurl.com/73frm6I think Im going to just go without insurance for a while and take my chancesand pray to God nothing happens to me!
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Post by zabrubon on Jan 6, 2009 1:12:41 GMT -5
Friskers, thank God for internet. We are so blessed to be able to research these bogus scam artists. I think you should go HMO blue cross. I have been researching the hospital ratings for some of the HMO providers(dr's) One hospital St Joe is four star. Rated by other doctors and so that sound good to me. Fact i would have to drive thiry five minutes there.
HMO you have to pick a doctor and then he provides tells you what hospital he uses and so you have to use that hospital. Then to complicate things more, under the HMO you have to pick an Gyne at that some network. Now I have no clue who to pick. So I started researching and found a private blog on gyne in Chicago and all these ladies were taking about doctors they really like and I found one on that chat that was on the HMO list under the same network as my regular doctor. I hope I explained this ok. It is a bit confusing.
Chicgobonnie
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Post by jwf on Jan 6, 2009 1:58:34 GMT -5
What happened? Did someone spill sorghum on their insurance papers?
Sounds like I missed a good chat and a little birdie told me Anthill was bragging again- about his lapping abilities.
I'll admit I've slipped a bit and have been using maple syrup more than sorghum lately, but who's counting?-- I'm years ahead in that department.
Blue Skies...........John
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Post by friskers on Jan 7, 2009 0:37:12 GMT -5
Hi Bonnie yes thank god for the internet. I was really close to taking that insurance too ! im not that crazy about the whole HMO plans although I may still consider Kaiser in the future. I wrote Blue cross and told them I couldnt afford to pay them and to please not bill me anymore ;D i wonder whats going to happen next?! John and Ant . Why dont we just settle this right now and say your equally great lappers ! ;D
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Post by ANTHILL on Jan 7, 2009 3:04:17 GMT -5
What happened? Did someone spill sorghum on their insurance papers?
Sounds like I missed a good chat and a little birdie told me Anthill was bragging again- about his lapping abilities.
I'll admit I've slipped a bit and have been using maple syrup more than sorghum lately, but who's counting?-- I'm years ahead in that department.
Blue Skies...........John...........John eating maple syrup is clearly a breach of the SLA's (sorghum lappers association's) rules and regulations that states That once that you have given your heart soul to the delicious sorghum that no maple syrup should cross thy lips or else a pack of sorghum lapping hillbillys will come down from the hills and cat your dogs and drink all of your moonshine ;D Can't you see what that Devil maple syrup has done to you for shame ---I hope one day you can get back on the dark and sticky path to sorghum heaven and swear off that Devil maple syrup ;D
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Post by friskers on Jan 7, 2009 20:57:32 GMT -5
MEN!! Quit your bickering and boasting fellas! ;D Anyways I feel kind of terrible now that I ranted on these companys because I was talking with a mechanic friend of mine who had insurance through midwest and he says there great ,hes had them for 7 years and he did have a heart attack and they paid up just like they should no problem. He also said a friend of his works in billing and they said that particlar insurance always pays and they never have problems with them. Jeez its hard to know what to beleive or who to trust. I am just going to leave all of this alone for now and go without insurance ..its fried my brain and I need a rest. Its such an important decicion to make I dont want to make a bad choice. The good part is having a little extra money to spend on my preventitive health care and it makes me want to take even better care of myself because Ill be so screwed if something happens to me . I cancelled Aetna 's application I had with them too I read so many bad things about them but Im not going to go there!! Oh and whats the difference between anthembluecross and bluecross/bluesheild??Anyone know?
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Post by friskers on Jan 8, 2009 22:56:47 GMT -5
tinyurl.com/9pr6zr So today I saked my customer what health insurance she carries as she is a self employed hairdresser. she said bluesheild is good and has had them for a few years. So ............in my research found this. So what are all health insurance companys rippoffs!!. There must be at least one good one out there?
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Post by friskers on Jan 10, 2009 20:58:56 GMT -5
this is funny i need to laugh ....... ;D "The Top 10 Signs You've Joined A Cheap HMO 10. Annual breast exam conducted at Hooters. 9. Directions to your doctor's office include "take a left when you enter the trailer park". 8. Tongue depressors taste faintly of Fudgesicle. 7. Only proctologist in the plan is "Gus" from Roto-Rooter. 6. Only item listed under Preventive Care feature of coverage is "an apple a day". 5. Your "primary care physician" is wearing the pants you gave to Goodwill last month. 4. "Patient responsible for 200% of out-of-network charges" is not a typo. 3. The only expense covered 100% is embalming. 2. With your last HMO, your Viagra pills didn't come in different colors with little "M's" on them. 1. You ask for Viagra. You get a popsicle stick and duct tape." ;D ;D - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Post by friskers on Jan 13, 2009 23:31:28 GMT -5
So my friend who has kaiser now has nothing but fantastic things to say about them . Hes only had them a couple weeks and gone in for several things now. He says they are lightyears away from other doctors hes seen, hes had sinus pain for years and they kept giving him antibiotics when it really wasnt an infection at all. The kaiser doc knew right away it was myalgia(muscle pain) gave him muscle relaxers and his pain is gone! His shoulder has been messed up for years too and no other doctor would give him a steroid shot but the kaiser doc did and his shoulder pain is now gone too. hes also had night terrors as he calls them and got a scrippt for that and a scrippt for a rash and as he waited for his scrippts he got an xray on his shoulder .The whole building has everything right there. im definetley going to reconsider them again. Now they sent an email saying I may be able to get into a group plan with them Im going to wait a few months though. I just spent a fortune at the healthfood store as they are having a 25 percent off sale! Who would have guessed Kaiser really has stepped up to the plate apparently
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