What's the best ,cheapest health insurance co.

[kimmerspixelated]

...if one is looking to cover a family of 3? Cinergy? Anyone have experience with anything other than BCBS? Thanks..

[county worker]

1. It really matters that your doctor accepts the insurance not how cheap it is.

Doctors, hospitals and clinics contract with insurance companies. They do not have to contract with anyone, meaning they do not have to accept your insurance. If the provider feels that the reimbursement rate, paid by an insurance company, for a certain procedure is too low than they may not contract with that company. Usually the insurance companies pay some percentage of Medicare. Some companies pay more than Medicare, most pay less.

So usually a "cheap" insurance is no insurance at all if your provider doesn't accept it. You may be paying premiums for nothing. Check with your doctor before you buy any insurance.

[tritsofme]

26. It is my understanding that the Medicare reimbursement rate is considerably lower

than the rate paid by most private insurance plans.

The reason being that the feds can set the rate lower and tell providers to take it or accept no Medicare patients.

[county worker]

33. Many insurance companies pay less than medicare.

Ususally 80% of Medicare if it is lower.

[rucky]

2. I've been happiest with Kaiser, if there's one in your area. n/t

[Cant trust em]

6. Kaiser feels like the health care factory to me.

I feel like the time I have with my doctor is very short and I get a very assembly line kind of vibe from it.

[rucky]

9. Maybe it's because they start their appointments on time?

I think of all the other clinics where I spend more time waiting, but the same amount of face time with the people treating me.

[Cant trust em]

14. My initial stuff (blood pressure, weight) started on time.

I waited another 20 minutes before I actually saw my doctor. He talked to me for about five minutes, wrote me a prescription and then went on his merry way.

[Ms. Toad]

17. Try to find a Kaiser affiliated doc who is not

employed by Kaiser. In our area, Kaiser offers a lot of primary care docs who are not employed by Kaiser - I have the option of choosing either at the same price. Since I had the really bad experience at Kaiser in the 70s of having to choose a new Kaiser PCP every time I went to the doc I deliberately chose an affiliated doc. Our doc is quite reasonable and doesn't, in the least, feel like an assembly line - and as far as wading through the bureaucracy each plan is different, but I don't find Kaiser any better or worse than any other provider.

[wryter2000]

19. I also love Kaiser

In the interest of full-disclosure, I have to add that I work for Kaiser. However, I'll also say that in my job, I hear of everything bad that happens at the hospital where I work, but I still get my health care here.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. I was on Kaiser when I lived in Oregon, and even though it

got more and more expensive every year, I still liked it better than what's available to me here in Minnesota.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

29. Kaiser has worked for us - replaced both of my hubby's hips nicely. I also

have my sons (in college) insured through Kaiser, at what I think, is a reasonable price.

[Midlodemocrat]

3. Are you looking for employer provided? Or self pay?

[kimmerspixelated]

5. Self-pay.

[Captain Hilts]

7. You might find something, you might not. Hard to say. The system's geared for employer-provided.nt

[Midlodemocrat]

12. Go to your state's AG site and see which companies offer

self-pay.

Go from there. Different insurance companies have different deals based on Medicare carve-outs, etc. Stating that one company is better than the other is ignorant. The policies are based on what the end user wishes to pay for.

[ohheckyeah]

4. Cinergy has very limited benefits.

I checked into them and the benefit for diagnostic tests was $100. That's not going to go far with most diagnostic testing.

[ejpoeta]

11. love their commercials though... keep wondering about the fine print.

[Vinca]

8. Go to your state's insurance commission site and see what companies

are approved to do business in your state, then go to their web sites and get a quote. Good luck - you'll need it.

[ejpoeta]

10. i thought there was a site where you could go get quotes from for health insurance.

i can't think of it right now. but i swear there was one. hey, if you are in ny, bcbs keeps having commercials about how great they are and how they work with people and crap like that. uggh.

[ThomWV]

13. Exercise

[damntexdem]

15. Medicare.

And it COULD be offered to all if only the politicians would get serious.

[wryter2000]

20. Yup.

And I'm with Dr. Dean. If you simply offered a non-profit plan from the government, people would select it, and the for-profits would go the way of the dodo without having to legislate them out of existence.

[Ms. Toad]

16. I would suggest finding an insurance broker to do legwork

for you.

They generally have access to lots of plans, and a good one can pre-screen for you so that you do not rack up a "have you ever been declined coverage" mark against you. Insurance is far harder to get once you have been declined anywhere.

As for which company - I've had experience with Kaiser, Medical Mutual, BCBS, and a few others I don't recall. I have found more difference over time (more recent providers being much quicker to deny coverage than earlier ones were) than between providers. Everyone has gotten very bad recently (the last 10 years) about denial of coverage based on technical details. The good news is that I have won every fight that I've decided is worth fighting (with multiple providers) - so as long as you are reasonably compliant, read the rules, and are willing to muck through the bureaucracy and be scolded for not following the letter of the contract most everything that should be covered will wind up being covered.

Look for a realistic lifetime cap (at least $2,000,000 these days). It seems like a lot - but if something really bad happens you don't want to be uninsurable with anyone else and have no more coverage with your current carrier because you have maxed out.

[Telly Savalas]

25. If you're having problems navigating the waters on your own a broker may help.

But brokers may have bonus incentives for steering so much business to a particular insurer. So be aware that a broker's interests might not be completely aligned with yours. But if the thought of doing all the homework on your own seems overwhelming, then it may not hurt to find a broker with a good reputation.

[Ms. Toad]

28. I have been turned down for insurance -

after just submitting applications on my own. I had been previously insured and my health had not changed, so it never crossed my mind I would be turned down. Being turned down, though, now means I cannot get any other insurance except the high risk pool - even though not all companies would have turned me down initially.

So - from my perspective it has nothing to do with avoiding homework, it has to do with having a relationship with insurance companies through which informal inquiries can be made without racking up a formal denial. The same broker who helped me find a private alternative that worked once I was no longer eligible for the general market insurance when I was a stay at home mom (short term policies that provide catastrophic coverage) also later helped our small business find the only insurance company in the state that provides domestic partner coverage to businesses with fewer than 50 employees - it didn't when we initially asked, but he was able to work behind the scenes to convince them to provide coverage.

[Thothmes]

18. Tricare, It

only requires twenty years of your life. After that, almost no cost to you regardless of the hospital bill.

[hunter]

21. Cheapest means worthless when you really need it.

But what do I know? My wife and I haven't been able to buy personal health insurance for many years now. Damn those pre-existing conditions. We have a miserly group plan so we usually end up paying about $16,000 a year for health care (including premiums...) before the insurance kicks in to pay some of the bills just in time for the Christmas season, which is usually about the time they ask if I've considered changing my meds to something less expensive and wildly innappropriate. Someone should prosecute the shit heads for that, but they own the government, not me.

I know a few people who think Kaiser is pretty good deal if you actually want health care, which is not quite the same as wanting "health insurance." Health insurance is ephemeral; once you start costing the insurance company more than you pay in premiums it evaporates quickly. Then you are left out in the cold -- sick and broke.

I hate the health insurance companies. They are killing people, and they are killing the nation.

[Telly Savalas]

22. You can shop around at places like ehealth.com

and there's probably other comparison tools like that online. (Ehealth doesn't have everybody listed so you probably want to use google to hunt for other options.)

Different companies made different price adjustments for factors like age, gender, where you live, smoking status, health status, and things like that so there's not one company that has the lowest rate for everybody. You have to shop around to find the best fit for your family.

You also want to make sure the benefits are appropriate for your situation -- do expect to use a lot of medical services and want robust coverage, or do you just want to have cheap insurance with a high deductible that's there in case of an unexpected catastrophic event? Read the fine print to know exactly what's covered, what's not, what things go towards the deductible, how the out-of-pocket maximum works, etc.

As other people have indicated in this thread, you're going to want to make sure that any doctors you like are in the insurer's network. If your favorite providers aren't in the network, then the coverage is going to be so crappy that you're essentially throwing your money away. You can generally find a network directory on the insurers website.

You also may want to vet the insurer to see how much of a pain in the ass they can be with regards to denying claims. I don't know of an easy way of checking this, but your state's Department of Insurance would probably be the place to start.

Finally, you're going to want to be as honest and complete as possible when filling out a medical application. Insurance companies are known to cheat people by denying coverage for failure to report medical conditions on the application even if those conditions have nothing to do with the denied claim.

If anyone in your family has a serious medical condition, getting insurance at an affordable rate may be impossible. In this case, you might want to check and see if your state has some sort of high risk insurance pool.

Purchasing health insurance is navigating a minefield so take your time and conduct due diligence.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. Depends entirely on where you live

Your state insurance commissioner's office can tell you which companies operate in your state.

[marmar]

27. The Canadian government.....

n/t

[midnight armadillo]

32. LOL you beat me to it.

.

[skooooo]

30. Anyone know about Aetna health insurance??

That's what I hear is taking over my coverage...I'm afraid coverage will erode. Right now it's pretty good, except for dentistry.

[ohheckyeah]

31. I pay my own and have

Anthem Blue Cross Blue shield. It's ok but I have a high deductible to make it affordable.

I got a much better deal going through a broker than I got on the Internet. When my insurance went up to $550 a month with a $5,000 deductible I called a broker. He got me the same coverage with a $3500 deductible for $240.