Which health insurance do you use?

[Clocker]

I am in the process of obtaining health insurance for my parents. The costs are absolutely obscene.

Anyhow, what are the major health insurance companies in CA.

There is Bluecross and Kaiser. What else. And what do you reccomend. I plan on spending 350 a month per person.

 

[compuwiz1]

Originally posted by: Clocker
I am in the process of obtaining health insurance for my parents. The costs are absolutely obscene.

Anyhow, what are the major health insurance companies in CA.

There is Bluecross and Kaiser. What else. And what do you reccomend. I plan on spending 350 a month per person.[/q]

That's a horrid amount of money per month. Some people could buy a new Mercedes for that...and a nice one.

What are the circumstances, where you must buy your parents health insurance?

 

[Rogodin2]

I don't have health insurance anymore. I do have catastrophic, but that doesn't count as health insurance.

Rogo

 

[Clocker]

Sorry I meant to say parent, well mother in law. She is 63. Not old enough for Medicare.

So, i really dont know what to do other than buy health insurance. I just got quotes from blue cross and Kaier and they are about 300 plus dollars for crap coverage.

 

[jadinolf]

Secure Horizons is my HMO.

 

[Mill]

122 a month -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama Individual Plan

 

[BoomerD]

Good luck. Health insurance is outrageous in Kahleeforneeya. My wife & I are both in our 50's and the cheapest policy we can find is well over $700/month...and that's with very high deductibles and high co-pays. Sux to get old...

 

[compuwiz1]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Good luck. Health insurance is outrageous in Kahleeforneeya. My wife & I are both in our 50's and the cheapest policy we can find is well over $700/month...and that's with very high deductibles and high co-pays. Sux to get old...

We should move back to Spokane and work for Kaiser aluminum for a few months, until we get benefits.

 

[kt]

There's Aetna and HealthNet. I think Medicare is through HealthNet now.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: compuwiz1

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Good luck. Health insurance is outrageous in Kahleeforneeya. My wife & I are both in our 50's and the cheapest policy we can find is well over $700/month...and that's with very high deductibles and high co-pays. Sux to get old...

We should move back to Spokane and work for Kaiser aluminum for a few months, until we get benefits.

IIRC, that'd be hard to do, unless we can turn back the clock...Kaiser is shut down. I went by the Trentwod mill in 05...completely closed.

 

[ponyo]

I've had my mom on Kaiser the past 5 years, and I used to pay $603 a month for her with $0 deductible. She's 52 years old. I changed her plan to $2500 deductible this year and I think I'm paying around $275 a month for her. I should have changed it sooner but I was lazy and never got around to it. She used it couple times for routine checkups and she seems pleased with their service.

 

[doze]

This site has comaprisons and rates http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/

 

[senseamp]

It's a good idea to set a high deductible. Insurance is for expensive unexpected events, not routine costs you can afford to pay out of pocket.
From my experience so far, UHC PPO was pretty good, BCBS seem like a bunch of cheats now refusing to pay for a CT that they made me wait for 2 months before they preapproved. We'll see how that gets resolved, but so far they are off to a bad start.

 

[geckojohn]

Do you still need help with health insurance for your parents? Please feel free to PM me if you need advice or help... We work with most health insurance carriers in CA and can give you a nice comparison.

A lot of people these days are turning to high deductible plans to offset the monthly premiums. Blue Shield just came out with a fairly inexpensive and popular high deductible plan called the Vital Shield.

 

[zoiks]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Good luck. Health insurance is outrageous in Kahleeforneeya. My wife & I are both in our 50's and the cheapest policy we can find is well over $700/month...and that's with very high deductibles and high co-pays. Sux to get old...

I think health insurance is outrageous in all parts of the country and not just Kahleefornia.
New Mecseeeco, New yark, Meeeesheeegan among others have pretty high health care costs.

 

[49erinnc]

Aetna was the worst health insurance I've ever encountered. Many of us here at work fought for months if not years on certain claims with them. They are horrendous, IMO.

Then we went with BCBS which we all loved. They were fantastic but at renewal time, they raked us through the coals. It was amazing at how much our rates increased, even with higher deductibles. We wound up going with United Healthcare. I've had numerous claims thus far and not one single problem. We did jack up our deductible to keep the premiums down though. And wouldn't you know that I wound up having surgery 2 weeks after our new policy kicked in. So, I owed a good bit because of the deductible but everything else was better than expected as far as coverage/payments.

 

[habib89]

kaiser, healthnet, blue cross, brown and tolland... that's all i know.. i had blue cross for about 6 months.. it was great! but it was pretty expensive.. mostly paid through my last job..

 

[MrWizzard]

Health care coverage in CA is going to be expensive. At $350 you are going to get an average policy.

Something to consider how often do they need the doctor at this point in life. If not too much you may want to consider a HSA.

 

[jackace]

Health insurance is a joke in this country anymore. Some of these larger insurers are making billions of dollars selling us this crap.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Originally posted by: jackace
Health insurance is a joke in this country anymore. Some of these larger insurers are making billions of dollars selling us this crap.

They are not making billions of dollars!!!!!!!

As I mentioned in this thread, health insurance companies don't make nearly the amount of money that people think they do.
Here are some FACTS:
Here is the 10Q for Cigna:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/ed...907000609/cigna10q.htm

Let's take a quick glance at the income statment shall we?
Revenues: Premiums and fees: $3.708M.
Benefits & Expenses: Health Care medical claims expenses: $1.719M.
Other benefit expenses:$839k.
Total of $2.558M in health expenses. That is a 69% loss ratio, with only a $1.15M profit as a result of premiums and fees (that's only $4.6M per year which is quite pathetic).

That is a quarterly statement.

Billions.......HA!

 

[IGBT]

..I have Kaiser under a group plan.

 

[geckojohn]

Health Insurance is expensive because of the rising costs of health care and expenses.

A lot of the insurance carriers are trying to find new plans with higher deductibles and other options to keep the premiums lower and more affordable.