Health insurance question for the hive

Fletch1 wrote: FYI. If insurance is offered from your employer, I don't think you would be eligible for subsidized exchange coverage. I'd take the UHC from your employer. Again, check with your employer about HSA. Our family plan is a $5,000 ded with $7000 out-of-pocket. My company puts in $3600 throughout the year, which of course is half of the max out-of-pocket. It only cost $80/month also. You can also contribute and it would be pre-tax $. At first it sucks because you have nothing put back, but you can keep saving and rolling it over every year. Your employer may not be as generous as mine though.

Thanks for your experience with UHC. I think my family ded is $5K IIRC. I'm just going to go with one of the UHC plans because if I just don't get insurance and bank money away, I'll be giving the gub'ment money for nothing. That doesn't sound like what I'd ever want to do.
They do contribute to my FSA, it's either $50 a pay period, or a month, I don't remember.
Now I have to run the numbers again to see if I'm going to go with the PPO or the high-deductable plan. We never hit the family deductible, so I don't think the HDHP is the way to go for us.
I was afraid this thread was going to devolve into an Obama bash fest or some other political mess. Thanks for not letting that happen folks.

If you never hit the deductible the HDHP may surprise you and save you money.

Depending on you previous plan, you may be able to download your claims from last year to see what the out of pocket would be for a HDHP.

In my case, a family of 4, based on last years claims I come out $2000 ahead with a HDHP.

To help build up the HSA, I contribute the difference in the PPO and HDHP. That works out to paying myself $150 every 2 weeks rather than it going to the insurance. My employer contribute $50 every 2 weeks also. At the end of the year the combined contributions will be equal to the max out of pocket.

Swank Force One wrote: I never used the word "illegal."

Umm... OK. I stand corrected.

You're right. You said "...they're breaching various contracts".

Thanks. I guess.

Hmmm. Seems to me the insurance companies are twisting some arms, i.e. 'you better not charge anybody else less than you do us or we will withold payments'.

This doesn't seem right. I know of no other business that does this. I handle service contract claims all day every day, those are nothing more than insurance policies and they have NO say in what we charge. If we were to decide to charge a customer with no contract less than a service contract would pay, it's none of their damn business.

Maybe it is about time to E36 M3can the insurance companies and go to a single payer system. And yes I know I've argued against that in the past.

In reply to Curmudgeon: That is what some say was the end goal in the first place and this nonsense was just to have something worse than single payer we can rally against.

In regard to the insurance setting what they will pay, rather than the company performing the service:

Isn't that what car insurance companies do with body shops?

If I recall correctly from the last time I had an auto claim, the hourly rate the insurance pays is significantly less that the shops posted rates.

On edit: I realize now that you probably meant insurance as a whole not just health insurance.

In reply to jstand:

I got a dent in the quarter panel of my Impala SS. Body shop asked if I was paying cash or turning it in on insurance. I paid $170 on what would have been $800 billed to the insurance company.

I'm not surprised that cash price was less than the insurance. I was just observing that in my experience the insurance estimate has what seems like a low hourly rate compared to the rates the shops have posted.

I'm curious though, was the difference you saw in price due to hourly rate or the shop charging actual time vs the hours the insurance estimated?

Honestly, I think the dude just stuck the cash in his pocket. I'm pretty sure I didn't even get a receipt.

nicksta43 wrote: In reply to jstand: I got a dent in the quarter panel of my Impala SS. Body shop asked if I was paying cash or turning it in on insurance. I paid $170 on what would have been $800 billed to the insurance company.

isn't' that why you have an estimate, get the check handed to you and then do whatever you want for repairs ?

that's what we did when my Mom got hit in the parking lot (hitter didn't leave any note)

nicksta43 wrote: Honestly, I think the dude just stuck the cash in his pocket. I'm pretty sure I didn't even get a receipt.

Seen that happen at MANY independent body shops. If it's cash the IRS never hears about it, as long as the body dude still gets paid there's no trace. I knew one indie body shop owner who also ran a tow company, ALL cash went directly into his pocket, it never saw any sort of record keeping.