Anyone know where i can get some cheap health insurance. I’m 26 and in great shape just need it to cover any hospital visits from sports. last fall shelled out 260 a month for blue cross and blue shield.
Thanks
Anyone know where i can get some cheap health insurance. I’m 26 and in great shape just need it to cover any hospital visits from sports. last fall shelled out 260 a month for blue cross and blue shield.
Thanks
$260 a month is not too shabby for private insurance.
Outside of insurance provided through employment, you may not find cheaper coverage.
I’ve found www.ehealthinsurance.com to be the best website for comparison shopping.
I don’t know too much in terms of specifics, but I do know Blue Cross/Blue Shield is technically a non-profit corporation, so you probably won’t find rates that are significantly lower.
[quote]The Cardinal wrote:
I’ve found www.ehealthinsurance.com to be the best website for comparison shopping. [/quote]
I checked this site out about a week ago and I saw plans in the $60-100 range.
I don’t like going to the doctor for every little thing, try to keep myself in good health and believe in preventative care or change in lifestyle as the first line of treatment. So I’m looking for something that will cover me in case of an accident or emergency so I don’t go broke. I don’t mind paying for doctor visits, labs, and some basic care, the usual mundane stuff, but I want something that kicks in when I REALLY need it and am looking at testing or treatment in the thousands of dollars.
So, what am I missing when I’m looking at a sub $100/month plan if a $260/month plan is a good deal? I am completely new to this and was just browsing to get some baseline feel. The first 2 posts in this thread have just really shocked me, as they contradict what I have seen so far.
I give this thread a major bump and would appreciate any advice on insurance shopping.
Nick
Thanks to fat people with all kinds of health problems, the health insurance has gotten alot more expensive. The minority being us taking care of our health are paying too much for it. I haven’t had health insurance for the past 2 or 3 years and i keep praying nothing serious happens to me like car accident. My soon to be wife has her health insurance thru her work and if she included me, it’s be a whooping 250 extra a month! Fuck that! It’s just not fair. I barely ever get sick or anything as I really take care of my health but it doesn’t matter to the insurance companies apparently.
Fat people are the cause? Um, no.
THe costs have increased for various factors, beginning with 1) the main reason: there are more administrators that work in health care than there are doctors and nurses combined. Everyone who pays for Health insur, employer and employee, is funding a vast bureaucratic network 2) Pharm companies and their outrageous prices (a/w/a their blocking of certain natural remedies and herbs- not a huge part of the problem, but still…) 3) “health care” companies that are for-profit, and thus charge high prices for even basic services 4) litigation happy Americans that raise the cost of malpractice insurance that MDs have to pay 5) misinformation spread by pharm companies that state that every single health care problem needs to be cured with a drug, when exercise, healthy diet and sound supplementation are by far the best way to cure/alleviate non-critical health problems 6) dr’s that play the prescription game and never educate themselves on alternatives or prevention -again, not a big factor but part of the problem nonetheless.
Hopefully, we’ll get national health care soon. Not under Bush, but under another, more rational, president.
Its going to be a brutal fight against the pharm companies and HMO and other “health-care” companies though,
MDs will eventually support it I think, because they are making less and less money every year and at some point, they’ll agree with the idea.
Plus, those MDs who want to make “more” money -if that is possible, given the rising costs of their profession- can just stay private, or work as a private MD on the side.
Based on my experience, The_Incubator (hey, maybe we should get “The Donald” to join our li’l discussion, but I digress :-)), the key differences in the price of various plans are based on:
Oh, and one more major factor:
Gender, and if female, whether she is of child-bearing age.
I have a PPO from Blue Cross Life and Health in CA. It is $104.00 a month. Call them up at 1-800-810-BLUE
Mike Mahler
Another reason health insurance is so high is the advances in healthcare today. My wife and I pay $450 where I work, but she stayed in the hospital 8 days, gets ongoing outpatient chemotherapy, and brand name prescriptions, and we rarely get bills for that.
We dont have to ‘take our chances’ like some people, and know that while it’s expensive, we have the best healthcare in the world at our disposal. Kinda makes it worth it.
i recently checked out some quotes at http://www.oneshopinsurance.com they have a couple of known companies here. so it’s cool. here are some infos:
Fee-for-Service
These plans generally assume that the medical professional will be paid a fee for each service provided to the patient. Patients are seen by a doctor of their choice and the claim is filed by either the medical provider or the patient.
Managed Care
More than half of all Americans have some kind of managed-care plan. Various plans work differently and can include: health maintenance organizations (HM0s), preferred provider organizations (PPOs) and point-of-service (POS) plans. These plans provide comprehensive health services to their members and offer financial incentives to patients who use the providers in the plan.
The real cause of the terrible healthcare prices is the two-tiered system we have. Old people and the poor get their health care free or almost free, and therefore there’s very little price sensitivity, allowing health care companies to charge whatever they want because the consumer isn’t paying anyway. Who are the people that get fucked by that? Not the poor, not the well-off, but the people somewhere in between. The best option is completely socialized medicine, but I’d rather have a completely free market system rather than the bogus thing we have now.
Hey Peter, where are you from?
Why do you need Heath insurance? Just put them in the fridge and they will never melt.