[TriLUG] OT: NC insurance options

[Roadrunner]

My experience with BCBSNC has been similar to Michael K's. Me and my son are covered under BlueAdvantage, at a similar pricing level. As a high deductible plan, it has paid off a few times as well. 

Someone else posted that they got paid insurance from their state employer, but they would not cover his wife. We are in the reverse situation... My wife's employer's insurance could cover us, but their family rate was hundreds of dollars higher than our BCBS plan.  Don't know who negotiated that deal, but it could be because the employer has a poor risk rating as an insured group (it is a medical practice with many overworked nurses and older doctors).  So we opted for a higher deductible plan separate from her employer, and it saves quite a bit.

- Mitch 


Sent from my iPad

On Mar 30, 2012, at 10:04 AM, Michael Kimsal <mgkimsal at gmail.com> wrote:

> To elaborate on my earlier pricing, yes, I found similar numbers with
> BCBSNC.
> 
> Our $5400 deductible has to be met before BCBS covers anything, and then
> it's an 80/20 split (IIRC) where we pay 80% and they pay 20%, up to (IIRC)
> $15k, then they cover everything after that.  So my $15k might be your
> $12k,
> but the slicing and dicing of payment options was similar.
> 
> 4 years earlier, I'd been to the doctor re: heartburn and had one course of
> prescription medicine.  That counted as 'pre-existing condition', and
> jacked the price about 25% higher than 'best case' pricing I'd initially
> received.  It's now even more years since then.  Our premiums actually went
> down slightly (were $310 or so 2 years ago) so maybe my heartburn stigma
> rolled off?  I doubt it though :)
> 
> On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 9:53 AM, Abhi Muthiyan <abhivm at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> 
>> What I found was, for my family BCBS wanted about $12,000 per year,
>> before they would pay for visits and medications. This $12K is split
>> up between deductible, premium and co-pay.
>> - $10K deductible, $2K in annual premium, $0 co-pay after deductible
>> - $5K deductible, $7K in annual premium, $0 co-pay after deductible
>> BSBS presented about 10-12 different variations, based on the same $12K
>> number.
>> 
>> Found similar calculations for friends who got their own insurance.
>> The number $12 varies depending on the individual situation.
>> 
>> Sometimes minor conditions raise premiums significantly. For example,
>> if you have history with certain medications like blood thinners or
>> anti-diabetic, the penalty levied is pretty heavy, even for a one time
>> event. Even if that event was 10 years ago. My wife's individual
>> premium is about double that of mine. Both of us are healthy and visit
>> the doctor once a year. She was prescribed one of the anti-diabetic
>> drugs 8 years ago.
>> 
>> --
> Michael Kimsal
> http://michaelkimsal.com
> 919.827.4724
> -- 
> This message was sent to: Mitch Amiano <mamiano at nc.rr.com>
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