Another big problem is the co-pay system. I have good health insurance that costs me $12.00 a month. Catch is that there is a $3,000.00 deductible. I have no problem with this, I go to the doctor maybe twice a year and, not counting proscriptions, spend under $500.00 a year on everything. If I need it for major medical it is there.
I think I am the only person in my branch who chose this plan. The rest chose the kind where you pay $10.00 or $20.00 a visit and they go for a stubbed toe.
I think I am the only person in my branch who chose this plan. The rest chose the kind where you pay $10.00 or $20.00 a visit and they go for a stubbed toe.
I never thought that I'd say this, but thank goodness for the passage of HIPPA, at least the "portability" portion of it. You see, I used to work for a company with no insurance benefits, and being the somewhat responsible sort, I decided to get my own insurance... This was back around 1995 or so... While I rarely used my insurance, not bothering to see the doctor for more than a year at a time, I did have 2 problems... I was diagnosed with Crohns Disease, and I needed emergency back surgury, due to an extruded disk (into my spinal canal). Well, while my insurance had always gone up substantially every year, whether I ever filed a claim or not, the last 3 years I had my insurance, it seemed as if the insurance company was trying to force me to drop my coverage by really jacking up the cost of my premiums. FWIW, I haven't had a single claim at all in the last two years (no Dr visits, or Rx) of coverage... But the cost went up 24% and 29% a year respectively... Luckily, the company I worked for was bought by a very large company, and due to HIPPA, they had to accept me into their insurance coverage... Which runs about $90 a month... Had I not gotten that coverage, my insurance premiums on my self insured policy would have run $495 a month... And that was with a $4000 deductible, the greatest they would allow.
At the rate things were going, I figured that I would be able to afford another 2 years of insurance at most... After that, I would have had to sell my house for just a few more years of coverage, or dropped it entirely.
Mark
You have made a responsible choice to use insurance as a safety net against an unexpected financial disaster rather than as an admission ticket to an all-you-can-consume medical smorgasbord.
The co-pay system is in place to avoid making medical care totally free and thereby make it cheaper for Moms and senior citizens to socialize at the Doctor's Wating Room that it would be to socialize at the local latte stand or bowling alley.
When I was an active duty Navy medical officer, "recreational medicine" by bored dependant wives (Dependant Wife, Navy Active Duty.....Military ID Code: DWNAD.......Pronounced "Dwah-Nads") was becoming such a problem that the Navy was seriously considering instituting a co-pay system of $5 per medical visit so that DWNAD's would consider taking their four kids to Chuck E. Cheese instead of the Navy Clinic on a boring rainy day.