I haven't been able to relax for the past week and a half due to, "It's that time of the year again..." Annual Health Insurance Enrollment.... This year the month premiums have completely eaten through my wife's Soc. Sec. and then some coming in at a total of right at $9,000 (just an extra $750 a month.) I've been looking over the various plans that I'm still offered from AT&T retirement, thinking there's got to be a better selection.
I called my doctors office and asked to talk to the person that does the billing. Do you know of which insurances seem to be the most popular, and may be cheaper...? Aaaaaa, Aaaaaa, why would I know that...? Well, you do have to deal with insurance payments all day, don't you...? Oh yes... but, but, but, it's up to the people to select their own insurance. Damn, they do nothing but deal with health insurance companies all day, and have no idea of what they are doing... Unbelievable...!
I called my enrollment benefit office, and they were a little helpful. But their answers always made you wonder if they really knew what they were talking about. If I have a $100,000 hospital bill, this plan will pay 90% right...? Oh yes, of course it will, (duh, duh) I think...?
Finally I call the actual insurance company help line (United Health.) I explain that a $9,000 policy ($750 a month), seemed pretty steep for what we were using it for. Four visits each, 8 total to the doctors office $145 x 8 = $1,160, plus our pills were mostly generic ($7 - $18 retail.) So I asked about one of the 5 insurance plans, Southwest SelectMed Option 1 for only $145.00 a month. Now that would be nice to save $600 a month...! My question was, "The total annual out-of-pocket maxiumn is $4,000 ($2,000 for each of us), what does that mean...?" Answer, "Ok, let's take your wife for example. She pays all of her deductibles and copayments and it reaches $2,000. After that the insurance pays 100%." Same for you, once you've paid all the copayments and have reached $2,000, you will receive 100% too.
Ok, let me get this straight. I can take this cheap $145 a month insurance policy, and once it hits $4,000 for the both of us, it pays 100%. So, $4,000 + ($145x12=) $1,740 for a total for both of us would be: $5,740. And if only one of us was sick, it could be as low as $3,740. Now this does not include our meds, but our meds only come to around $400 a year since they are all generic.
I asked, "Why would I take a $9,000 policy which pays everything, when I can take the cheaper policy that at the worst maxes out at $5,740....? I'd save on the min. $3,260 and possible as much as $5,260. The girl at the help desk said, "I always wondered that myself...!
I'm turning 65 next May, so if any of you have recently gone through the Medicare Part A, Part B, and other parts and have any good advice, please message me and let me know. I have studied the Medigap programs yet, but I think there's some thing fishy there too... (Don't hold me to this), but I was looking at one Medicare gap coverage insurance and it said something like, "$350 deductible for emergency room, $50 deductible for lab work, etc (x-rays and whatever). Then I looked at what Medicare part A covered, and it was 100%, and there were no deductibles for those things. So you think your paying for this extra coverage, but they're taking advantage that you didn't know these bill are already covered... ugh..!!!
Well, that's enough of that..!!!!
