who is happy with their medical insurance

[pnutbutr]

Just out of curiosity I want to know if there is anyone besides me who is actually happy with their medical coverage.

[AllieB]

1. Happy? What do you pay per month?

I have very good insurance in that I can go to a specialist without a referral, and we pay a lot of money for this privilege. However, the wait to get into my GP or a specialist is 4-6 months, and the insurance company took months to approve a simple, very common arthritis treatment. If you think private insurance is better than single payer, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

On edit, I will add :popcorn: as this is going to be interesting for sure.

[pnutbutr]

9. I pay

$532 a month for me and my family. It is the only thing we do not skimp on. No percentages, no deductables and $15 copay for regular visits, $20 for specialists. Only thing that has a maximum limit is equipment and it is $5000 yr. and in home care is capped at 3 years.

I would love to see a public option for anyone who wants it but I'm so happy with my current coverage I would go down fighting before giving it up for a public option.

[emilyg]

15. I'm happy

Paid for my cancer treatments. No complaints from me.

[OHDEM]

53. We paid that last year for about the same coverage...

...you're describing. Then in Sept when our renewal came up it was increased 40%. They didn't give a reason or anything...just increased it to over $900/month. We ended up going with a cheaper premium with a higher deductible.

Dealing with them on anything is a pain. For instance, when we made our change, it gets mailed to one place and our premium to another. So, we filled out and mailed the change form AFTER sitting on hold to confirm exactly what to do. And we mailed in our payment where it should go with a copy of the change to explain. Of course, they DID NOT post it properly and it took MONTHS to get the change thru although we sent it in plenty of time. They ended up cancelling our insurance and I had to jump thru a bunch of hoops for the privlidge of overpaying a bunch of greedy ins. execs and inept beaurocrats.

Say what you want about gov't run entities, they can't be any worse than my current health ins. company. (It is a major, nationwide company.) As small biz owners, we'd go to a single payer plan in a heartbeat!

[Hello_Kitty]

2. Just out of curiosity:

1. Have you or any family members actually had to use your medical insurance for a serious illness or injury?

2. Are you okay with the fact that approx. 30% of your insurance premium goes to administrative overhead, whereas with Medicare it's about 3%?

3. Do you find it acceptable that private insurance cos. have entire departments devoted to denying people health care?

4. Are you aware that nearly half of all bankruptcies in the U.S. are caused by medical expenses and that most of those people HAD insurance?

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I have MaineCare and am mostly happy except they do not cover teeth and glasses for adults.

[AtomicKitten]

4. I was just accepted into the Healthy San Francisco plan.

http://www.healthysanfrancisco.org/

It's for people that don't have and cannot get medical insurance coverage. It covers myself and my son for $150 quarterly. At this point, I'm thrilled to have coverage. They even covered a recent hospitalization I had for pneumonia. Cost me $200.

So far so good.

[TheCoxwain]

5. I would be happier if I had a government center that charged me ZERO

Just like it did when I was in London ..

I wasnt even a citizen of UK ...and I did not have to pay for my medicines..


I did not have to wait .. and there is no bloody reason we cant have it here!

[ejpoeta]

57. but you guys HATE your insurance!! you envy OUR system....

it's folks like you who need to be out there countering this bs crap about how awful the other systems are.

[PRETZEL]

6. I was happier with my old coverage but this year my employer

decided that if we wanted to stay with that plan we'd have to pay for it. They offered a HMO which is still fully paid for (including vision) so the choice to switch was pretty easy.

Actually I don't have any complaints. Granted I have to call and get referrals and can only use hospital facilities that are affiliated with my MCP, but the tradeoff isn't that bad. I've yet to be denied any service, generic prescriptions are free, co-pays are cheaper.

[Oregone]

7. I love my insurance!

Single Payer British Columbian MSP. :) $108 a month for my entire family.

[Lex]

8. My coverage is fine, but over $360/mo. just for me (in a group plan) sucks.

On edit: No dental or eyecare coverage, though. Just a basic 80/20 plan.

And I have had no illnesses (knock wood) or pre-existing conditions.

With all that said, I do NOT think others in this country should go without access to medical care under some kind of plan. It's unconscionable.

[woodsprite]

10. I am, but I might not be if hubby and I didn't work at the same place.

And let me add a "for now" after that "I'm happy" statement. Since we work at the same place, it's cheaper for the employer to pay our family coverage than 2 individual basic coverage policies. Now, if you asked me how I like working for that nincompoop witch that I do, you'd get a SLIGHTLY different answer ;)

[MercutioATC]

11. I like mine.

Copays have gone up a bit over the past few years, but that's my only real complaint.

[earth mom]

12. I have great health insurance but it's NOT as good as it used to be & I can't be "happy" about it

when so many millions of people are doing without any health care at all.

I'm sick of the barbaric, greedy and elitist approach this country has to health care.

This country was founded on the fact that "ALL men are created equal".

It's not "equal" when some people get great health care in order to LIVE, while others get none in order to DIE.

[Fireweed247]

13. even if you got yours...

thousands(more than 9/11) of people die every year due to lack of health care.

Even the people who have great insurance, how much would you save every month if you didn't have that bill, if your car insurance went down as well? Do you care about the families that will not have to lose their homes to pay for a medical bill or worse DIE?

And what about Freedom? Insurance is the reason we cannot play at the preschool park because the 'public' isn't insured to play there, the reason you cannot let someone walk across your private property because you might get sued if they hurt themselves etc. When I was a kid, we use to play at the school on the weekends...not allowed to do that anymore because of INSURANCE!

The insurance industry never stops thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people.

[pnutbutr]

16. root

of the playground thing is not insurance companies. Think about it for awhile and it will come to you.

[Fireweed247]

23. it sure as hell is in my neighborhood

the public is not insured to play there, if someone gets hurt they will sue...therefore no one can play there.

Insurance is the reason the school gives for why we cannot play there. Maybe they should have better insurance? Or perhaps people shouldn't sue the school, but they wouldn't if they were injured and didn't have to pay thousands of dollars to set a broken bone.

What did I miss?

[pnutbutr]

27. you got it and didn't even realize it

Think really hard and read your post again cause the answer is in there. It's that little three letter word in the first sentence.

[Hannah Bell]

50. the reason people need to sue is because they don't have a spare half-million

to spend in case their child gets his head cracked open.

think really hard.

most suits for damages get dismissed or reduced unless there's blatant, glaring negligence.

and for big corps, even if there IS glaring negligence.

[Hello_Kitty]

49. Why, you missed the need for tort reform, silly.

The OP is turning out to be a treasure trove of RW talking points.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. My heart attack cost less than $100 out of pocket

My annual premium is up to $24,000 a year.

Twenty Four Thousand Dollars A Year ... for two people.

I am self-employed and therefor buy at street prices. Now that I have had a heart attack, i dare not change until I can qualify for Medicare.

I am, essentially, fucked.

I am INCREDIBLY thankful I can afford to pay for this.

[Dorian Gray]

46. Me too

I pay $1200 a month to Aetna to be covered in NYC. And it doesn't cover everything I need.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Federal retiree. BC/BS carried over. Not great, but it pays when needed.

Having had some relatively serious medical problems in the last few years, cancer, prostate surgery, I have to say they coughed up the dough without a whimper.

[seemunkee]

18. I'm pretty satisfied

I paid out ~$100 in copays for all the tests and surgery for my kidney cancer.

[sammytko]

19. I use the VA and also pay for Tricare

VA is free, Tricare is 20 bucks a month. i am very happy with both. I also have free dental coverage with the VA. My VA dentist is a vet and so is my primary health provider.

[marmar]

20. Our work plans sucks more and more with each passing day.....

I'm ready for some of that "socialized medicine" the wingnuts keep warning us about.

[Joanne98]

21. I don't have any.

[sinkingfeeling]

22. I'm kind of satisfied, but not 'happy' with my employer provided insurance. In 7 years, it's gone

from zero to $1000 deductible and from a $500 'out-of-pocket' annual cap to a $2000 annual cap. Lots of co-pays for cancer treatment. This may be the first year in my life that I'll be able to itemize medical expenses.

[Tracer]

24. I have Medicare PLUS Blue Cross Blue Shield supplemental ...

... and I still wound up paying $8,716.00 last year for apparently non-covered expenses.

[stray cat]

25. Generally fairly happy - I pay some but the employer covers the main chunk

[AllieB]

26. Aren't you going to post that article about the horrors of Canadian Healthcare?

It was published by the Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank. Just wondering what your intention is here.

[pnutbutr]

28. curiosity

And that was a fantastic article despite where it came from.

[AllieB]

37. Where it comes from automatically raises questions regarding its veracity.

Sorry-you should probably read the rules on posting links from RW sources.

[pnutbutr]

38. I was not aware

it was a RW source because I don't really care as the information contained within the article is of more importance to me.

[AllieB]

40. Even though it may be made up, poorly researched and wrong?

So as long as it supports your world view, it's good enough, even if it's Fox News? Again, I think it's pretty obvious what you're trying to achieve here.

[pnutbutr]

44. What was made up?

[hfojvt]

29. my coverage seems to be pretty good

but it costs about $5400 a year and I pay half of that out of my $12,000 income. Pre-tax, at least.

[Digit]

30. What medical insurance?

I am unemployed and have none.
Besides that, I am over 55...

[backscatter712]

33. Same here. What medical insurance?

I'm only 35, but I have a couple medical conditions that make it impossible to buy medical insurance under the current rules.

[tabbycat31]

39. ditto

except I am 29

[pnwmom]

31. We have excellent insurance but it's all tied in to a job, and jobs

can disappear. Plus, our young adult children need good insurance, too. So universal health insurance, with a government run option, is extremely important to me. One thing I liked about Hillary's plan is that it always contained that option -- and she said that if a less costly government plan led to the "withering away" of private health insurance, then so be it.

I'm nervous that Obama might not insist on a competitive government option.

[dionysus]

32. i am, but i'm not married so the company pays for everything but the co-pay

[dembotoz]

34. sorta-new plan as of may 1

we used to have a decent enough plan
expensive yes, but ok
In december we switched to a differnt plan within the same company that was cheaper for the employer but really sucked
I had to swithch from Singular to some otc dreck because with the deductable, i could not afford the prescription even at costco. The alavert sort of worked but i kept my inhaler much closer by.

The owners to thier credit just switched to a new insurance Humana--which seems pretty close to what we had before the switch last fall.
haven't tried out the vision or dental--i need work done on both--but they look better than what i had.
office vistist seem ok (30 or 50)
Hospital visit seems to have some big ass deductable that has me concerned.....
We have not been overnight in a hospital for over 10 years so that may be the same and
i just did not know it.

I have my singular again--30 day supply for 40 bucks.......

In summary
It is expensive
not alot left after it comes out of my check
but it is somewhat better than it has been.....

Happy????????????????????????

it is like finding out a cancer is in temporary remission.
The cancer is still there, but it isn't killing you as fast as it was.....

[jpljr77]

35. Yes. But my wife is a public school teacher in a state/county with strong unions.

UnitedHealthcare. She gets it through the Montgomery County (MD) school system. We pay about $160/month for her, me, and our 10-month old daughter and that includes prescription, eye and dental (administered separately through Aetna).

They're great and have paid for everything so far. The biggest shock to me was the pre-natal and labor/delivery coverage with the baby. We basically paid $0 for everything.

There was a little bit of a hassle because the people at the hospital spelled our daughter's name incorrectly on the Social Security forms. So when we got it fixed, United made us jump through some minor hoops to keep her on the plan. But other than that, smooth sailing.

Aetna's dental coverage has been great so far as well.

I am very lucky. Until about four years ago, I was forced to use the insurance at my work. It's terrible, and I feel really bad for my co-workers that are forced to use it. It's expensive and not great. During the most recent re-enrollment period, I priced out what it would take for my family to be similarly covered at my work: $508. I think that's insane. One employer's plan is $160 and another's is $508 for the exact same thing. And it's basically just luck of the draw.

[demodonkey]

36. Another one here saying, WHAT medical insurance?? nt

[RadiationTherapy]

41. Tacky. I have two family members who have been crushed by medical bills.

I don't give a shit about my medical "insurance" or yours. TO support the current health insurance caste system is just tacky as hell.

[Mudoria]

42. I'm happy with mine... I don't have to pay for it as a single adult

through my employers health plan. Generic drugs are free, small co-pay on name brand drugs, $250 a year towards eye care and glasses/contacts, dental insurance. I have nothing to complain about now. Health care costs keep spiraling as they have been and who knows what the company plan will look like down the road. But at the moment I'm quite happy with it.

[bkkyosemite]

43. I have a medicare advantage plan...they all stink. I want single payer with $100. a month premium

If everyone in the U.S. (adults) paid $100 a month each (which includes all coverage, medical, dental, prescriptions, vision, etc) we would have enough to cover all the things I just mentioned. Population is 307,212,123 (July 2009 est.)" This is BS to pay hundreds of dollars a month on insurances. Most of my money (fixed income) goes to insurances. Go to hell insurance companies.

[RebelOne]

45. I have no complaints.

My medical insurance covers dental, eye care and life insurance and I only pay under $100 a month. This is a group policy through my employer.

[marlakay]

47. I am just happy I have some....

mine is better than most peoples, we are retired from a strong union so have Blue Cross with $20 co pay for doctor and pays most hospital stuff and only pay about $90 a month for it. Union pays most of it. We used to pay high union dues but they don't make retired folks pay that.

I still want universal though because right now my grandkids and son n law aren't on any since he lost his job and daughter can only afford hers which company pays most of.

I also think we need to change to healthcare from sick care. #1 priority...teaching people how to stay well, eat right, etc. Our country fails on that.

[AngryAmish]

48. $250 to have a baby is not bad

1. I did not have the baby - Mrs. AA did.

2. The whole thing cost $250 out of pocket. The actual cost was much, much higher.

3. If at all possible, have your tot at Northwestern/Prentice Women's Hospital. it is so much nicer than the other hospitals. Also having a seperate hospital for having babies means fewers germs for your newborn tot.

[LeftyMom]

51. Nope. I'm assigned to a doctor who never has appointments open.

So rather than paying a bit more to doctors so they could have more accept their plan, they pay a lot more when I get stuck going to the ER for relatively minor shit that can't wait six weeks.

My dental is even worse. But at least I do have it.

[dysfunctional press]

52. i have medicare and it isn't all that great...

when you compare it to national health services in the other industrialized countries.

[area51]

54. insurance

I always think it's interesting when people say they are happy with their insurance. In some cases, it's because people don't realize that in most cases, there is a cap on their bennies, and if they get severely sick for instance, with cancer, they may use up all their bennies and then be SOL. In other cases, I think people believe their insurance is good simply because they haven't been sick with a severe illness and had the rightwing, unregulated, for-profit insurance company refuse their claims. Generally, the insurance company won't fight prescriptions for minor things like doctor visits for colds, etc., but get a more expensive disease ....

How long should we put up with 100,000 people dying per year due to lack of healthcare?

Questions on single-payer healthcare? Find info here.

[mmonk]

55. The people that haven't had a problem yet or have someone

else cover the costs in whole or part. Out of sight, out of mind, there is no problem to them.

[ejpoeta]

58. the problem is that folks that HAVE insurance don't want to rock the boat.

as long as i've got mine, pretty much. as long as they have insurance, they are afraid they'll end up getting screwed. instead, we are ALL getting screwed. try to get them to understand that they are already paying for the uninsured is a joke. they just won't listen.

[annabanana]

56. I don't have a chronic condition (yet) and I haven't had a catastrophic

accident (yet, knock wood) so I don't have a problem with my health insurance (yet).

I truly think that's pretty much the BEST anyone can say of any of the plans out there right now.

[michaz]

59. Pay $462. for a family plan and part is paid by the school district my

husband retired from. It is a very good plan. $15. co-pay for doctors and we don't pay a cent for tests or hospital stays. Medications we pay a co-pay of $8.-$20., depending on the drug. We are very pleased with it. When my daughter graduates from college next year she will be off it and it will go down $162. Then in another 2 years when my husband is 65 and will get Medicare, it will go down again another $150. When I get Medicare, in 6 years, it will go down again.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

60. Every family, even those WITH insurance is just one accident or major illness away from

a financial abyss. One bicycle accident with brain injury? Fageddaboutit. Breast Cancer/Mastectomy? Fageddaboutit. If you lose your job and you had previous heart surgery? Fageddaboutit.

Sicko dealt with people who were ruined despite the fact that they were insured. Enjoy dancing around the abyss as long as you can. Don't worry about the people who have fallen in.

[Vinca]

61. I must be living in a parallel universe somewhere.

We're self-employed and 10 years ago bought insurance for about $750 a quarter. Five years later - after never having made a claim of any kind - it was $1,200 a month and that was with a $5,000 deductible. We couldn't afford it and since dropping coverage both of us have had medical problems that have cherry picked us out of being able to buy insurance at any price. I can't even imagine having good insurance.

[WillowTree]

62. I'm fine with mine.

My premiums are less than $100/mo including dental and all I pay are small co-pays for most prescriptions ($30 is the max and those are few, most are $5 or $15) and part of non-routine dental procedures and I set-up an FSA to cover those.

No complaints.

[hack89]

63. I have excellent and affordable health care

as a retired Naval officer.

[a kennedy]

64. Yup, but I won't be able to afford it for very long.....

I have the type of insurance that my employer is paying for because I had enough sick leave to be converted to premiums. Now that 3 years have passed, and my sick leave is running out I have to pick up the premium myself, and I just can't afford $1600 a month for the family/couple plan. So, looks like I'll be looking for a different type of insurance...... :cry: :cry: :cry: