Medical Insurance madness and Babies
Mar 1st 2008, 4:12 am
#32
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,397
Re: Medical Insurance madness and Babies
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?
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?
Last edited by Tootsie Frickensprinkles; Mar 1st 2008 at 4:16 am.
