Sshh secret - no medical insurance

[John61CT]

Wish more folks would estimate the cost out of pocket for cancer chemotherapy, or heart bypass surgery

I see these things from a global perspective, as optional luxuries only relatively wealthy people have access to.

For most of humanity, when your number comes up, it's time to go.

If it gets too painful, eat a bullet. I can live with that personally.

 

[Anniesezhi]

And this is why I haven't quit my job and jumped. Unfortunately I am tied to the insurance paid for by my employer. There is no way I could afford it otherwise, plus huge deductibles and out of pocket expenses. If I were completely healthy I might take the risk, but I have had 3 surgeries in the past 7 years along with several other hospitalizations, and that would devastate me if I had to do it without the paltry insurance I do have.

 

[Travelmonkey]

We are paying $70 a month for a couple, late 40s for a policy that has a $500 a year deductible but covers 100% for regular checkups, flu shots, etc.  They even give us back a $50 visa card for getting a checkup and a $25 card for getting a flu shot.

This is for a MAGI income of $23,000 a year.

Wow that's great.  This is a lot lower than I saw when I was looking into hypothetical scenarios for WA on the marketplace.  You seem to be in a different situation than me, but I didn't see any plans with lower deductibles at any price.

 

[RVTravel]

It always does depend on age. Once you hit 50, watch it skyrocket.

 

[Goshawk]

Wow that's great.  This is a lot lower than I saw when I was looking into hypothetical scenarios for WA on the marketplace.  You seem to be in a different situation than me, but I didn't see any plans with lower deductibles at any price.

Someone mention Kaiser Senior policy in California was that cheap for people who are poor.


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[AnonymousDog]

I opted to go with a healthcare sharing plan. It's a different way of covering yourself for healthcare and may not be ideal for everyone. It is not insurance. That said I save over $500 a month this way - $150 a month for the Gold plan plus a small quarterly fee for the "catastrophic" coverage. I'm basically a "self-payer" when I need care so I pay out of pocket usually at a discount and then get reimbursed. So far I haven't had any charges that I could submit for reimbursement so I ccan't say how smooth that will be but I haven't seen any red flags yet.

Obviously with anything like this you need to do your homework.

 

[user 13531]

Someone mention Kaiser Senior policy in California was that cheap for people who are poor.


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If you make less than $16K single or $24K couple in california you can get medical and basically get free care..

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-medi-cal-growth-20151224-story.html

 

[NoMadYesHappy]

My health insurance used to be almost $700 a month with a $4500 deductible. I had to be dragged to the doctor because I was just not willing to pay for insurance I could not afford to use. GURRRR!

I've decided to go without and pay whatever penalty the sheriff of Nottingham decides I should pay ... it's GOT to be less that the thievery at gunpoint I've had to deal with in the past.

Double GURRRR!

 

[user 13531]

I don't have insurance either. Mine was $828 per month with a $6500 deductable through obamacare. My blue cross plan got canceled 30 days after obamacare was signed into law. I've been uninsured ever since...

1.7 million individual policies were canceled in california when obamacare became law...

It's the price we pay for working....

 

[user 13531]

It may be something like this...

I believe they are exempt from parts of obamacare...

https://www.cnbc.com/id/100935430

 

[Travelmonkey]

I opted to go with a healthcare sharing plan. It's a different way of covering yourself for healthcare and may not be ideal for everyone. It is not insurance. That said I save over $500 a month this way - $150 a month for the Gold plan plus a small quarterly fee for the "catastrophic" coverage. I'm basically a "self-payer" when I need care so I pay out of pocket usually at a discount and then get reimbursed. So far I haven't had any charges that I could submit for reimbursement so I ccan't say how smooth that will be but I haven't seen any red flags yet.

Obviously with anything like this you need to do your homework.

I read an article about healthcare sharing plans and it sounds interesting.  From what I recall, it is ACA compliant so no need to pay the penalty.  Is this correct?  Can you share the name of the provider?

 

[user 15857]

I read an article about healthcare sharing plans and it sounds interesting.  From what I recall, it is ACA compliant so no need to pay the penalty.  Is this correct?  Can you share the name of the provider?

There are three programs in the USA that are allowed exceptions to the ACA.  I've been enrolled with Christian Healthcare Ministries for several years, the biggest problem: it's not branded private insurance and I've been refused medical care, much like medicare patients often face.  CHM has met every qualified medical need of members for over 30 years and is affordable at $150/month for the Gold plan.

 

[user 13531]

There are three programs in the USA that are allowed exceptions to the ACA.  I've been enrolled with Christian Healthcare Ministries for several years, the biggest problem: it's not branded private insurance and I've been refused medical care, much like medicare patients often face.  CHM has met every qualified medical need of members for over 30 years and is affordable at $150/month for the Gold plan.

In your experience, has the shared billing reimbursement been sufficient to cover the entire medical bill? How long has the reimbursement normally taken?

Thanks in advance...

 

[AnonymousDog]

Ditto what dexstrom said.

I’ve only needed to see a dr once since I’ve been on the plan and I basically told them that I was a self-player and received a reduced rate of about 80% off. So far so good.

 

[ZoNiE]

I get non conforming PPO insurance for about $460 a month for me (50), my wife (49), and my son (23)who does NOT live with us. "Normal" conforming insurance would be $1,600 per month. It's the same coverage but no copay, It's 80/20 on a discounted rate. $1K deductible, so catastrophic coverage is there. I've saved the "Penalty" in the first month, and over a year, maybe pay out $1.5K more for our part. The only catch is I can only get 3 month policy at a time, and have to change insurers after two or three (rule is two, but got away with three) 90 day periods. The deductible resets each 90 days, but then the annual plans are 4-6K deductible anyway. It's not great, but my workaround for the atrocity that Obamacare is. So in a nutshell, I save about $1,100 per month, and If I have to shell out the deductible amount, boo hoo, it's only $1K. I'm still $10K ahead every year.

 

[Travelmonkey]

There are three programs in the USA that are allowed exceptions to the ACA.  I've been enrolled with Christian Healthcare Ministries for several years, the biggest problem: it's not branded private insurance and I've been refused medical care, much like medicare patients often face.  CHM has met every qualified medical need of members for over 30 years and is affordable at $150/month for the Gold plan.

A couple of follow up questions, if you don't mind:  when you were refused service, did the doctor's office simply not want to provide a cash price or was there paperwork they didn't want to deal with?

Regarding the catastrophic insurance, it looks like it is $25/qtr plus $40/year, right?

 

[RVTravel]

It would be interesting to know which of the no-state-tax states (TX, NV, FL, SD, WA, WY, AK) has the best medical care prices.

 

[user 13531]

Since I don't have insurance, any time I've needed a doctor visit, it was a cash rate. I've never had a doctor agree to anything lower than the standard medicare reimbursement rate, which I'm ok with.. The doctor always requires payment at time of service which these programs don't want you to agree to. I'm guessing there will be a lot of medical providers who won't be interested in having you walk away after treatment with no compensation.

 

[John61CT]

Pretty inherent conflict between states that insist on keeping taxes low and those with a robust social safety net.

Be surprised if there's any overlap there.

 

[Travelmonkey]

The doctor always requires payment at time of service which these programs don't want you to agree to. I'm guessing there will be a lot of medical providers who won't be interested in having you walk away after treatment with no compensation.

From what I read, it sounds like you pay the cash rate at time of service and the program reimburses you.  That's why I can't understand why he was refused service.