Under 26 year olds now insured bc of Obama's health care victory.

Oxford at the time was charging about $400 for their basic HMO. Not even including dental. Buying insurance as an individual is more expensive. This was circa 1997

 

This. My health insurance is more expensive with my employer than similar private coverage. My employer pays it, but I wish they didn't.

 

Companies have different pricing structures. Some use exact age and some use age-bands. Also, rates are determined by local costs and are, in general, approved by that state's insurance commissioner.

Also most states issue a minimum standard which is usually addressed in the extension of coverage to "dependent" children. In my state, NC, it has been 23.

Typically there are "new client" rates which are afforded to new customers (at a discount) and recouped over the next few years.

The point is that your local or current reality may not be someone else's.

 

there may be many reasons for this but one prominent one is past claim history. If claims were higher for a group than statistically anticipated their renewal rates will escalate more rapidly than a similar group with a lower claims ratio.

 

Did you shop around? Look at other plans than HMOs?

 

I didn't have a deductible for in network if I recall except for emergency visits which was like $50 but there were some restrictions.

I didn't see any policy that was that cheap with such a big deductible though. Anyway, what percentage were you covered for after the deductible, 80%? I had 100% coverage up to a certain amount for most things.

I don't think 80% coverage is very good. That's what I have now. I kite-surf and if something were to happen and I ran up a 100k bill, where would I get 20k from? I'd have to sell stock and take a loss to cover that.

A friend of mine ended up in the hospital and ran up $140k in a few weeks from a head injury and he simply can't pay it even with insurance.

One thing I've learned is that the insurance you have isn't as good as you think it is.

 

Look for an Accident Plan that pays a flat-dollar reimbursement for expenses incurred due to an Accident. They are not expensive and can cover that gap. For young active people who don't yet have a lot of savings this makes sense.
Some are paid by reimbursement and some pay just on evidence of expense.

 

I have been looking in Aflac for catastrophic coverage but waiting to figure out what basic coverage to go for. But the sad thing is, I'm actually pretty well off in that area. 90% of Americans are in a far worse situation.

I may decide to jsut go without it. Life has it's risks afterall. If I had a family though, I'd definitely get it.

 

When HSA healthplans rolled out in 2004-5 I could get a $10,000 Accident Plan on an adult for about $17 per month as I recall. I don't think those rates have probably changed much. That's the cost of a large pizza.

 

Except that if you don't get more people insured health care cost will rise even faster as hospitals are still bound to give emergency service. At least with people insured there is a way to recoup that costs than just pass it on to other patients and / or the government.

 

That's not a bad idea but to make that fully work you would still need a universal mandate.

 

$10k isn't a whole lot in catastrophic coverage but I guess it depends on your main health plan you are coupling it with.

$10k will probably get you a single day in the hospital, but if you have an injury that requires many days and your insurance pays out at 80% with a cap of $50k for instance you might be screwed none-the-less.

But you are right, you can find ways to get coverage to protect yourself and your family. But I am not sure paying an extra few hundred for $10k in accident insurance (it's a lot more than $17 a month per person from what I know) is the right way to go for most people.

 

Right. I was selling HSA plans to families. They would go from a $500 deductible to a $5,000 or even $10,000 deductible. That move alone would cut their premium from $600 to about $275 per month as I recall (2004-5 rates here!).

Then we would get an Accident Plan on the Family of 4 for about $46 (2 adults and 2 kids) and they are still saving about $280 per month. My "advice" would be to monthly put a nominal amount in the Health Savings Account (say $50-100) and put the rest in a more traditional Emergency Savings account. At year-end they could move the maximum amount from the Emergency Savings Account into the Health Savings Account and still get the tax-deduction.

The AP was sufficient to cover their deductible should their healthcare needs be due to an Accident. Their exposure was the deductible when healthcare were due to an Illness. You can even get a stand-alone critical illness plan for that if you have a family history of Cancer or Heart Disease etc. However statistically half of us will have a cancer diagnosis by the time of dying (mostly breast or prostate) although it may not be the cause of our death. The plan pays on diagnosis not fatality.

In my mid-50s I've NEVER been hospitalized for an illness and only one time for an Accident (cracked kneecap and torn patella tendon incurred in basketball). So in my lifetime I could have banked a lot of money in an HSA if I (they had been around) and I had had the diligence to stick with the plan.

 

Well that situation may make sense for a family of 4 if your typical policy would cost $1,000 a month and say was only 80/20. But I think most employer plans would be less correct me if I am wrong? But let's say you pay $1,000 a month for a family of 4 and get 100% coverage, that's $12k a year.

Your plan has a $10k deductible and about $2600 so if you burn through the entire deductible it's still only $12,600 assuming the deductible applies to the whole family and not the individual family members and you have full coverage after that.

A lot of variables for sure, but it could work. Deductibles are a bit tricky though as sometimes insurance companies will dispute what counts against it.

 

It was not company by company. It was state law.

Age 25 for dependents in the state of Texas.

http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/consumer/cpmhealthcare.html

If I had more time I'd go pull the actual bill for you, but I don't. I'm not surprised you don't actually know anything about healthcare and health insurance.

 

You are probably missing some key components of your plan. Even though it's 80% coinsurance there is usually a stop loss amount that will cap your out of pocket spending.

 

It's hard to generalize but yes usually less. In my state the Employer is required by law to pay at least 50% of the cost of health insurance on the employee. The employer can of course choose any plan he wishes and he may or may not pay for any of the dependent coverage.

There are just so many variables.

I may have over-complicated my response to you but my point was that a young person who is unlikely to have large healthcare expenses except due to an accident can get a high deductible health plan (to keep monthly premiums low) but pair it with an Accident Plan (for a pittance more) and BY AND LARGE cover their exposure-- maybe even with ZERO out of pocket if you have a 100% plan after satisfying the deductible and an AP to cover your deductible obligations.

You are exposed for a catastrophic event due to illness however you can always opt for a low-deductible HP option (rarely seen in the individual marketplace) and probably more than double you monthly premium cost.

The consumer chooses the level of risk they want to take.

 

it was 13 years ago man.

 

This is totally unrelated to the main topic, but damn, you eat some expensive pizza.

 

What parents do for their own children is of no concern to you. It seems rather presumptuous of you to suggest that you know how to care for other people's children better than their own parents. So you are extending your unreasonable logic, IMO, to suggest the public policy itself is flawed ...when in reality it is the other way around.

Just an observation. But of course we all have our own opinions. It's just IMO, you opinion is rather odd.