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Strategies & Market Trends : ahhaha's ahs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JayPC who wrote (4018)	2/27/2002 9:56:10 PM
From: Ahda	Respond to of 24758

Jay to me that is very reasonable but the conversion is what makes it so darn costly. A friend of mine had a child who had a large problem medically speaking this was several years ago, the cost of insurance was $12,OOO a year. I dont have any disrespect for the Canadian system. You have Doctors who care and our problems here are not much different than yours are there. Our emergency rooms are as filled as yours and the wait is equal. If you have massive cardiac failure i bet you a nickle you will get equal care there to here. When a life is in need of saving, mechanisms I believe are the same, the difference is the non life threatening problems do take longer. I am not too sure on the length anymore as we are primarily HMO oriented and that is called for profit and ever so much paper work that drives many in the medical area close to the brink paper service in conflict with people is the state of our system. I am glad for you as the sense of comfort you wished is major and the cost in comparison is minor.

To: JayPC who wrote (4018)	2/28/2002 4:27:13 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24758

Until last quarter my health insurance for myself and my husband cost $3000/year (we're both late 40s) and that is with a $500 deductible and an 80/20 co-pay with maximum out of pocket cost per plan year of $2500 (plan year can be 14 months in situations where you have an illness that straddles the end of the calendar year). These premiums stayed level for 7 years and the rate increase brings it up to $3680/year for the two of us. This is the rate I got as a self-employed individual, its not an HMO and I can visit any doctor I want, emergency care is covered 100% without a deductible as are some regular preventative diagnostic tests. There's no waiting to see a specialist unless the specialist you want to see has a back log. If I have one of several major medical problems like a major back injury I have to have a case manager, but the choice of who I see and what tests are taken are pretty much between me and my primary care physician. They sometimes refuse to pay above a certain price for services, but the doctors then have to lower their rates to me if they are participating and I've never found one that wasn't a participating doctor yet. Every year I find more and more services are covered under the plan, while very few are limited or excluded. This is in contrast to what I hear from my friends who have HMOs. The good news is that the IRS allows for a large portion of this premium to be deducted because I'm self employed. Of course, both of us have never had any kind of serious medical condition so I've never tested the limits of this insurance. My husband's job offers a similar plan by the same carrier and it is a lot more expensive (the job wouldn't pay any of the premium) and it wouldn't be deductible on our taxes. My plan doesn't include prescriptions, but the friends of mine who have plans that include prescriptions are simply pre-paying in most cases because its a dollar swap. Especially if you are reasonably healthy and manage to avoid doctors like we do.