Medical Insurance

[gso-crew]

Called Blue Cross and Blue Shield NC today, I can get pretty much the same coverage I have now for around $150.00 per month ( 47 year old, non-smoker). If I take a $2500.00 dedutable I can get it for $100.00 a month.



Blue cross told me that under the Usair group plan they pay and then bill Usair.

 

[Bradly71]

Just a quick post to answer a couple of recent questions. I think we had similar threads last year about this... after leaving US via a furlough I went to work for the largest BCBS plan in the country. I actually deal with this exact type of situation....

Doctors/Hospitals submit claims to BCBS - we pay them. Then U gets a monthly bill for these plus their service fee (usually $1 or $2 a claim) - then U pays BCBS. They day they stop paying is the day your claims don't get paid either.

Laws in your individual states concerning self-insured policies dictate what happens should the company cease to exist. Most providers have you sign that little financial responsibility sheet at some point. This would be a situation where that is useful for them. If the policy is terminated because the company goes out, then the patient or patients responsible party is liable for any outstanding bills. Many states have laws that say the same thing, without that form being necessary.

If you are able to get insurance shortly after loosing it, usually a letter of credible coverage from the previous insurance company will suffice for your new carrier. That usually gives you coverage for pre-existing, unless the new policy states otherwise.

Long story short... if U goes under, the best bet is that any outstanding medical claims would be yours to pay. BCBS would pay claims until the "pot" for U ran dry, but legally no one can say how much is in that reserve at BCBS.

I imagine this is as clear as mud.. but wanted to put in my two cents....

back to lurkin on the board now... 😛h34r:

 

[BoeingBoy]

Bradly,

Thanks - very good info to know.

Just one question if you can answer. I understand that coverage for pre-existing conditions hinges on "continuous" coverage, but from personal experience when my youngest got too old to be covered as a dependent but wasn't covered by an employer (the 6-year college plan!!), I seem to remember that there was an allowable short time that could elapse between coverage and still be considered "continuous". Any info.

Jim

 

[Bradly71]

Bradly,

I seem to remember that there was an allowable short time that could elapse between coverage and still be considered "continuous". Any info.

Jim

[post="173025"][/post]​

It is usually 30-90 days depending on the company.. thats actually a question you would have to dig through with them to get a definitive answer on.

 

[US1YFARE]

if they go under and are indeed self-insured (which they probably are), you probably have no protection--there are only a few exceptions justifying intervention by the Dept of Labor and they would generally involve misconduct on the part of the airline. you basically stand in line with the other creditors.

the waiting period would depend on the company--could be 30 days, could be 9 months. There are probably certain exclusions for RX benefits and pregnancy (meaning that the waiting period doesn't apply).

COBRA would probably apply and is expensive, but if you have a pre-existing condition excluded by a new policy, you may have no choice.

 

[gso-crew]

I worked with a guy that had several adoped children and ended up with some huge doctors bills, I mean 100,000.00. He would send in payments of $10.00 per month and as long as he sent them some money each month they could not do anything to him but send ugly letters. His lawyer told him to do it that way. He's still doing it. Has be for 20 years. This guy owned serveral home and other than his med. bill was doing okay financially.

 

[Aryeh]

The solution has been found for years and in nearly every industrialized nation on the planet: A nationalized health system!!!
And before some chime in with their "socialized medicine, therefore communist, therefore evil" argument, nationalized health care exist in as many forms as there are countries in which it exists. Some poor, some excellent and some in between.
And horror stories exist in all of them as they do in the USA.
If you poll Canadians, Germans, the Dutch or countless other citizens of such countries, you'll find most are satisfied with their systems and wouldn't trade theirs for the disfunctional "system" in the US with costs that increase many times more than the inflation rate every year.

 

[US1YFARE]

I worked with a guy that had several adoped children and ended up with some huge doctors bills, I mean 100,000.00. He would send in payments of $10.00 per month and as long as he sent them some money each month they could not do anything to him but send ugly letters. His lawyer told him to do it that way. He's still doing it. Has be for 20 years. This guy owned serveral home and other than his med. bill was doing okay financially.

[post="173048"][/post]​

Not really relevant to the thread, but I fell compelled to respond. The rules with adoptions are different these days. Your insurance carrier should pick up the medical bills of the newborn as if the child was a natural birth and not an adoption. In the case of birthmothers, many of them qualify for Medicaid or they have their own health insurance. If they do not, birth expenses range from $1500 in small towns to abut $10,000 in large cities like NY.

 

[ualdriver]

2BorNot2B-

I'll send you this via a private message and also I'll put it on the forum so that others can read it, because I don't think anyone in this thread has answered your question and it is a concern for me as well as I work at United and I've done a little research on this subject. We both might be in the same situation in the up and coming months!

Anyway, go to this website: www.ehealthinsurance.com

Basically, it's a website that finds health insurance for you at a variety of different prices and level of coverage. You simply type in your zip code and your family members' sex and date of birth and it comes up with many plans at different costs that you can select from. For example, I put in my family situation (wife, two infant kids) and came up with a varitey of plans from $129/month to $990/month depending upon what kind of deductibles the plan had, what the plan covered, the name brand, what you pay per doctor visit, etc. etc.

Now I agree with some posters that if you got the exact plan that you currently have through your work, you'd be paying a lot of money *IF* anything were to happen to your airline, or mine for that matter. However, since it is likely that all of us will find life and work after the possible failure of our respective airlines, one may only need a cheap, high deductible plan until new work is found that will cost under a couple of hundred bucks a month just to protect one's self from a catastrophic medical problem (car accident for example) until a new policy can be obtained from a new job or other source. These cheap policies are pretty poor as far as benefits provided compared to what we have at our respective jobs, but at least you can protect yourself and your family assets from a catastrophic medical emergency or illness.

Good luck to you and I hope this web site helps you if you need to use it.

 

[jimntx]

Based upon my own experience when I was self-employed...

A. THE GOOD NEWS
1. There is private insurance available.

B. THE BAD NEWS
1. It is as expensive as all get out.
2. If you are over 40, you probably won't qualify.
3. If you have ever seen a doctor for any reason, you may not qualify and if you do, whatever you saw the doctor for will be permanently excluded.
4. If you have ever had a "treadmill stress test", a blood test for AIDS, Diabetes, Cholesterol, or any test for any chronic condition, regardless of the result, you will not qualify.
5. If you have children, well, let's just hope that Daddy left you a trust fund to help with the premiums (see B.1, but triple the answer).
6. If any of your children fall under items B.3 or B.4, I hear that some of the community-owned charity hospitals give excellent care. You only have to wait 10-18 hours to see a doctor.
7. If you live in certain zip codes, you will not qualify. I have a friend in Houston who lives in a $500,000 townhome near downtown. After the kids left home, he and his wife sold the house in the suburbs and moved close in. He and his wife are in excellent health--eat right, exercise daily, etc. But, because they have the same zip code as the "gay" area of town, they were denied insurance. (This wasn't the official reason, but their insurance agent of 20+ years told them that was the real reason.)

5 years ago, I paid over $300/mo for insurance just for myself that had a $1000 deductible, and a $5,000/yr stop-loss. As I had once had a "glitchy" stress test--the Dr. documented that I had no heart problems and that I give a "false positive" on stress tests--cardiac care of any kind was permanently excluded. I'm also from a family that has genetically high cholesterol levels. Coverage for cholesterol-lowering drugs was permanently excluded; so, I was paying almost $200/mo just for my cholesterol medication. Did I mention that I took this insurance only after I was turned down flat by 5 or 6 other companies?

(Just doing my part to cheer up the troops. )

The cost of health care and health insurance in this country is a scandal. Does it not bother anyone that among the industrialized nations of the world, we are the ONLY nation where 20% of the population has no health coverage of any kind? That most of that 20% have no access to medical care other than hospital emergency rooms? Yet, we can devote BILLIONS to "re-building Iraq and making it safe for Halliburton"...Uh, I meant to say safe for democracy.

 

[jimntx]

Called Blue Cross and Blue Shield NC today, I can get pretty much the same coverage I have now for around $150.00 per month ( 47 year old, non-smoker). If I take a $2500.00 dedutable I can get it for $100.00 a month.

[post="173012"][/post]​

That's what they tell you over the phone. Have you actually applied for that insurance? You may find that because of the ingrown toenail you had treated back in 1976, you don't actually qualify for their lowest rate.

It's like the 0% financing on automobiles being offered by some of the dealers these days. About 1 in 1000 actually qualify for that rate.

 

[deltawatch]

deleted

 

[local 12 proud]

well lets just keep letting all the illegal aliens come into this country and use our health care system free of charge, and people wonder why health care is so costly in this country? why auto insurance is so costly? most never obtain a drivers licence, hence they cant be insured to those of us in society who obey the laws and work hard to get ahead we get to subsidize the rest who refuse to, this country is going to hell in a hand basket unless things change, and you ca bet your sweet a$$ bush or skerry will not address this problem because they dont wont to piss off the minority vote! ok go ahead and blast me, this is not a racist remark though im sure some bleeding heart will twist it as such! :blink:

 

[local 12 proud]

Bill limiting health care to illegal aliens rejected
Legislation would have required hospitals to obtain residency statusThe Associated Press
Updated: 4:10 p.m. ET May 18, 2004WASHINGTON - The House rejected legislation that could have led to hospital emergency rooms denying some services to illegal aliens while helping to get them kicked out of the country.

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Hispanic legislators led opposition to the bill, joining medical groups in contending that it would turn hospitals into law enforcement agencies and prevent illegal residents from seeking life-saving medical treatment.

It was defeated 331-88.

The legislation came to the House floor as a result of a promise that GOP leaders made to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., in exchange for his vote on the Medicare prescription drug bill that narrowly passed last November.

Rohrabacher was ready to vote against the Medicare bill because it contained $1 billion over four years to reimburse hospitals for treating illegal immigrants. The Orange County conservative was told he could offer legislation to counter the effects of that provision.

Rohrabacher’s bill would have required hospitals receiving money under the provision to obtain information on the immigration status and employer of people seeking emergency treatment. That information would have been sent into a database set up jointly by the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.

The Homeland Security Department would have been required to initiate deportation proceedings against illegal aliens.

Employers would be responsible for costs
In addition, employers of illegal aliens would have been responsible for the cost of unreimbursed emergency room care, and hospitals would not have had to provide care for an illegal alien who could safely be sent back to his or her own country for treatment.

Rohrabacher said health care for illegals has extended to heart bypasses, transplants and cancer treatment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those opposed to his bill, he said, “are voting to spend our limited health care money to make America the HMO of the world. And then they act surprised when even more tens of millions of illegals flood into our country.â€

But Hilda Solis, D-Calif., said the bill would turn hospitals into law enforcement and immigration agents, and would have lead to scenarios where women in labor would have to choose between going to a hospital and being deported. “What kind of fear does that place in a community?†she asked.

Rep. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the House’s no. 3 Democrat, envisioned being asked to prove his citizenship in an emergency room because of his name. “That’s shameful. You wouldn’t ask any other citizen that,†he said.

The Federation of American Hospitals, American Hospital Association and other medical groups wrote lawmakers urging opposition to the bill, saying it “would virtually ensure that illegal immigrants will avoid getting the appropriate and timely lifesaving health care they need, when they need it.â€

Rohrabacher said illegal aliens make up 43 percent of those without health insurance, and thus account for at least $9 billion of the $21 billion that hospitals reported in uncompensated health services last year. The office of Sen. Jon Kyl., R-Ariz., who was behind the $1 billion in the Medicare bill, put the annual cost of treating undocumented residents at about $1.45 billion.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

WELCOME TO AMERICA :down:

 

[local 12 proud]

almost half the uncompensated health care services were attributed to ILLEGAL ALIENS in this country and we are blaming the health care system? WTFU america, our government is to blame for turning a blind eye to this CRAP!