For the eight years we lived in California we had Kaiser HBO, and we loved it. Sure, you needed to use their facilities and doctors, but they all were wonderful. Actually, when we decided to leave California, we strongly considered Georgia because they have Kaiser there. (Ended up in Tennessee due to a job offer DH couldn’t refuse.)
For her last couple of years, my mom was on a Kaiser Permanente Advantage plan. There was a large facility just a couple of miles from her home. People there were friendly and it looked to be a pretty good solution for her.
But one thing struck me. She could drive herself there, but she couldn’t walk very far. Here in my small town—population > 40,000, we have two hospitals. Both offer free valet parking at every entrance. You drive up, a volunteer valet gets you a wheelchair if you need one, gets you into the facility and parks your car.
At the K-P facility, there was none of that. They had handicapped spaces near the entrances but no one was at hand to help you get in. There were wheelchairs, but you had to look for/find them yourself. Bottom line, if my mom needed to go, she had to call a friend to take her. So she didn’t go. Thus, things that should have been looked at and dealt with weren’t.
Perhaps it is just a difference in culture and expectations. Small Midwest vs suburban California.
You surely mean HMO, not HBO. If an HMO works for you, that’s great. Where I live HMOs are nonexistent. We have a PPO (preferred provider organization) advantage plan from Blue Cross that we have been happy with so far.