Bob

Well I was chatting to a mate up in Maine, and quite frankly, I really shouldn't be complaining as I've got it well good in comparison.

He's the IT guy for the local school district and in charge of a bunch of schools in the area and has pretty good medical, that ain't cheap. So far, his bird's only had pre-natal check ups and it has cost $750 so far and who knows what the cost of having the baby will be, a quick and natural delivery without drugs and punted out the door in 48 hours will be a few grand at the very least.

For me, it was $15 co-pay to see the doc, then another co-pay to see the ob/gyn and it will be $250 for the hospital to deliver all in, but they are gauging us for parking, cheeky sods.

My medical ain't bad, $5 dental, $55 for single, or $60 for a family plan a month regardless of family size. I know the company was paying $1500 a some change last year and now around $1750 a month on top of my contributions.

Things that have gone up since last year -

Doctor visit co-pay increases from $15 to $20.

Emergency room visits increase from $50 to $75. (This is refunded if admitted and same cost for ambulance)

CT scans, MRIs and PET scans increase from $25 to $50 per date of service.

Surgeries increase from $150 to $250 per admission.

In-patient mental health and general and chronic disease care admissions increase from $250 to $500.

The prescription drug benefit co-pay goes up $5 in each category. - 10/25/45

They also refund 30-50% cost of weight loss programs, gym, booze or drug programs.

Pre-natal classes, the missus gets a refund, I don't, so that's $90 back, which is good because a tour of the hospital on it's own other wise would have been $45 a person.

Breast pump can be refunded if medically required with a doctors note.

Dental has $50 annual deductible per person and was $1500 max a year and is now $1000, but you get to roll over up to $1500 of previous unused amounts.

So that's a slice of the insurance picture for people who are looking at some of the break down.

I know I'm well lucky, because we've lived with utterly shite medical insurance that cost three times that and also where I had no insurance for a while. It's one of the reasons I don't want to leave this place, even when I had a 20% salary offer somewhere else. Saying that, I might change my mind if I curl up into a ball and hide under my desk as I'm week two in on a three week crunch of 11+ hour days of unpaid over time, "little to no crunch", my arse. Salary is shit too, but the medical insurance redeems many sins, never more true now that we're having a kid.


So how has the hike in medical insurance costs affected you guys this year?

basementwaj

so far, still no insurance...

Am hoping to get some soon so i can get sick

chicagojlo

I had my baby with no drugs and I was in and out of the hospital in 8 hours.
The only difference to my medical this year has been that my prescription co-pays are now $7 instead of $5. Never had to pay a doctor co-pay even for the ER as our insurance has a $2,000 per annum fund to cover those. Still trying to investigate possible costs of having a baby though as one friend had to roll over a year's worth of benefits to manage it!

Bob

It certainly sucks when you don't have it, especially when your in a cold state and have the worry of slipping and breaking a leg...

kins

I had all my babies in the UK. My first experience of giving birth put me off hospitals enough that I had my second baby at home, and only had the third in hospital by accident. But on the other hand the entire thing was free including scans, prescriptions, birth, antenatal and postnatal care, blood transfusion, even my dental treatment in the year after each birth.

I was talking to a Maine friend the other day, she still hadn't paid off her first birth when she gave birth to her second baby. She was saying that the breakdown of costs (most covered by insurance) was shocking - they were charged $400 a night for the bassinet that the baby sleeps in in hospital. But she got everything she asked for and had a lovely stay in hospital both times.

Then another friend, also in Maine, said she was charged nothing other than the $150 deductible for the entire pregnancy/birth.

We're with Cigna and we pay nearly $1000 a month for medical/dental for the family of five. No deductible, no annual limit that I know of, $25 to see the doctor, $100 to go into the ER, similar prescription costs to yours, and we can choose our providers. So far it's worked out okay.

Deedee13

25 to see a doctor!!! 100 for ER!!! and u PAY HOWMUCH A MONTH??? THIEVING SODS!!

jumping doris

I'm still trying to understand our insurance.
We have a $15 copay and a $500 per person per year annual deductible and I think the out of pocket maximum is about $5000.
We still pay a % of things and thats where it gets me because I can't understand the rationale for applying that. Sometimes we have to pay 10%, sometimes 20% and occasionally it has been 40%.

Eg..... my youngest was seeing a specialist. We would go to the hospital and first pay the $15 copay at the reception desk.
Then for weeks after the bills would roll in.....so much for the person that did the scan, so much for the Dr. we never actually saw but who read the scan, so much for something else and so it went on. We would have to pay a part of some of those or sometimes we wouldn't.
We never received a breakdown of costs so it was impossible to tell if we were paying for what we got and when we asked for an itemised bill ,the hospital would tell us to get it from the insurance company, who tell us the exact opposite.

Neathborn

I was amazed at this. Granted, it was some 8 years ago, but the hospital I gave birth in gave free pre-natal classes and a tour of the hospital. When I was expecting baby #2, the hospital (different one this time) gave free sibling classes. It seems especially cheeky to charge for a hospital tour -- a bit like charging you to go into a shop before you buy something

Deedee13

my hubby was rushed to hospital in December with a suspected heart attack! were getting the bills in slowly, but one that I flipped at yesterday, one just one of the docs that was seeing to him, this is one out of a total of 7 in the course of his stay was apparently an "out of network" Apart from the fact that we have no restrictions on who we see thank god it has been cleared up now, but just say we didnt have that bonus. What about the poor sod who is lying there, and has to verify that every frigging doc that sees to him is "in network" and if not tell them to go away because of the bill that they might get!!!!! makes no bleeding sense to me.

jumping doris

We get shafted for out of network. We can see who we want to but ..out of network costs dearly.
When my daughter was in hospital with the cyst/appendix thing I was having to ask everyone if they were in network before they touched her!

Deedee13

exactly my point. Its crazy! They should have one of their many forms that you fill in before ur admitted that states only willing to be seen by IN NETWORK docs.
And to make matters worse we got billed 775$ for discharge!! We now pay to leave the hospital??

chicagojlo

I also have the 'see who you want to' plan but then you read in the fine print that it's really 'see who you want to in our network'!
My doctor's office charged a lab fee for having me stand on the scale! I would have preferred to not stand on it anyway!

tamms_1965

Mine went down by $10 a month.

c17age

OK guys
Just watched Michael Moors' SICKO.
As someone still in the UK, Jen and I were nearly brought to tears by the HMO debacle/ Criminality of it all.
I know MM puts his spin on it but there has to be a huge debate/ CHANGE (as Barak) puts it.
I do hope BO gets in and socilaises the whole thing. It can only get better.
Having watched the film, my USC wife is now getting UK citezenship just in case!

See ya
AP

chicagojlo

I haven't watched that movie for fear that I'll end up throwing something at my tv and breaking it. I've seen Super Size me and I suspect Sicko will have the same effect, which was basically me making this face :curse:!