health insurance help please?

[alanab 0]

so i've had a job with benefits for the past year and pay about $84 a month for my health insurance. well... i quit my job and my last day is the 23rd. i am moving from ohio to cali starting in july! i can get cobra from my work for the low price of $400 a month. OR i can get some kind of individual plan somehow. i only need pharmacy and hospital coverage for the summer (i think), or until i get a new job with benefits out in california in august/sept. i will be traveling all sumer long and will just need some kind of individual short term plan that covers injuries and pharmacy (because of birth control).

my questions are:
who do i go with?
how do i go about it?
what are the costs involved?
pros?
cons?

any info you guys have would be helpful! THANKS!

[kelel01 1]

ehealthinsurance.com

You can get any kind of individual plan you want. I elected no preventive care (can get at school for free), high deductible, and high limit.

Just don't get one of those $15,000 maximums. What a waste of money.

[d_squared431 0]

The higher the deductible the lower your rates will be monthly. As far as RX coverage if you talk to you doctor now they should be able to write a script out for you to get 3 months at a time so you can mail in for your OCP.Then you don't have to have RX coverage. That will save you a few dollars. What ever you do make sure the insurance will cover you in your summer activities.

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[Opie 0]

Alana I have an individual plan that costs $150. a month and includes pharmacy. I would guess you could get it cheaper then that since you are young and cute, I mean healthy If you go with an individual plan make sure you're covered for skydiving as alot of companies won't cover it. I "think" BlueCross will cover skydiving but double check.

[kelel01 1]

FYI, my plan is $60 a month. Granted, it has a $3500 deductible, but a $2-5 million max (can't remember). I figure I can pay off $3500 in a year or two if need be. Especially since it would probably mean that I wouldn't be jumping for a while.

It's all about how much risk you're willing to take onto yourself. And if anyone says, "ALL", I will smack them.

[alanab 0]

who are you with?

this is all new to me... i've never had to even think about this stuff before. i guess i should started sooner than a week before mine ends!

[alanab 0]

kelly... i went to that site and put in short term coverage thru the end of november to be safe, and selected to pay all at once and got this as a result:
https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ehi/Quote.fs;jsessionid=GRh8NW1pTfxwTCzD7Y4GynpsXZ43tq4dVBpHqT8pxh8l6xWG0yv9!-921725215!-26326356
the top one looks good and CHEAP! is it too good to be true?
i dont know what coinsurance is??
some of the plans say an office visit is 30% or 20% after deductible... doe that mean if the deductible is $2000, then i have to pay that? how do i figure out this stuff?
can i talk to someone or is it all done online?

[tetra316 0]

Quote

I "think" BlueCross will cover skydiving but double check.

I think so too. I'm looking at getting an individual plan once I go back to school since it seems to be a lot cheaper than both going cobra and the schools plans. After talking with the rep he said bluecross has no exclusions for extreme activities like skydiving. Just got the info in the mail so hopefully I'll be able to figure it out myself.

[Opie 0]

I am with Pekin Life Insurance Company they were comparable to BlueCross but a little cheaper at the time I last looked into it and they didn't exclude skydiving.

[weegegirl 2]

As an Independent Contractor I have to handle my own health insurance, etc. I just reinstated my old policy, a PPO through Blue Cross Blue Shield, and it costs me about $120/month. You can start and stop anytime. The problem you will run into is that it takes about 4 weeks for them to issue you a policy. The coverage is very good and the deductable isn't bad at all.

[EricaH 0]

I asked my bluecross rep specifically if they excluded injuries from any extreem sports. She said she'd never heard of anyone being excluded for anything. I said if i break my leg skiing, snowboarding, motorcross, mountainbiking, bungee jumping, skydiving, race car driving, durby racing, horse back riding - any of those would be covered & she said yes, an injury in any of them would be covered.

Alan, one other thing to consider is to make sure you have continuous coverage. If you have a break, once you get coverage they can basically not cover you for something like 3 or 6 months incase whatever you're asking them to pay for could be a 'pre-existing condition'... that would suck.

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[Paige 0]

Anthem blue cross blue shield is affordable and covers skydiving. Their PPO plans (I think) range from $50+ a month. I believe I pay $90 or so for their most expensive PPO plan. They have HMO plans but those cost more esp. if you are a woman. Mine would have been about $265 a month w. the HMO plan.

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[monkycndo 0]

I have a personal plan as well. They only excluded coverage for extreme activities if it was a job.

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[kelel01 1]

Alana,

Call me later to discuss. I can explain it all to you.
But I can tell you, if it says "after deductible" and the deductible is $2000, yes, you will have to pay the 2k before you get any kind of benefit that says "after deductible".

PM me if you don't already have my number.

[alanab 0]

you're in cali? right? who are you with?

[Chrissay 0]

Quote

Alan, one other thing to consider is to make sure you have continuous coverage. If you have a break, once you get coverage they can basically not cover you for something like 3 or 6 months incase whatever you're asking them to pay for could be a 'pre-existing condition'... that would suck.

I use to work with health care benefits, and just to clarify this part. If you have a break in coverage of more than 63 days, the health insurance has the right to not cover you for a pre-existing condition - for I think 18 months. If you do choose COBRA, you do have 60 days after your coverage ends to elect it. You just have to go back and pay any back premiums.

Honestly I am very surprised at how cheap some of you are all finding health coverage on your own, especially blue cross blue shield. I have worked with various policies before where they [not blue cross though] exclude hazardous activites, so just watch out for that.

[kelel01 1]

I read my UHC policy backwards and forwards, and there is no "hazardous activities" exclusion. Just the typical "we will not pay for any injuries incurred during the commission of a felony" stuff.

So now I know, when robbing banks, be extra, EXTRA careful.

[NWFlyer 2]

Unless you have a lot of prescriptions you take on a regular basis, look at the difference in cost between a plan with prescriptions and without. You may be better off just paying out-of-pocket for your prescriptions for the summer.

And at your age, if you have no health issues, insurance should be really cheap. If you buy COBRA, your risk is all bundled up with all the other people at your company of various ages and health conditions; individual is based entirely on you and your age/health.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[Chrissay 0]

Quote

I read my UHC policy backwards and forwards, and there is no "hazardous activities" exclusion. Just the typical "we will not pay for any injuries incurred during the commission of a felony" stuff.

So now I know, when robbing banks, be extra, EXTRA careful.

That is way cool then. Also the fact that you took the time to read your policy and be familiar with it. I use to have to tell people all the time that their claim was denied because it was not a covered benefit

[kelel01 1]

Yeah, me too. I enrolled people in their benefits plans for 3 years. I learned A LOT in doing that.

[freeflir29 0]

Why did you have to go and remind me of this. now that the company I work for decided to "end" my contract early. I'll be with no health coverage for about 30 days or so. I'll probably just go with something like an Assurant plan that only covers major medical since I SHOULDN'T need anything else.

[pirana 0]

Quote

Alana I have an individual plan that costs $150. a month and includes pharmacy. I would guess you could get it cheaper then that since you are young and cute, I mean healthy If you go with an individual plan make sure you're covered for skydiving as alot of companies won't cover it. I "think" BlueCross will cover skydiving but double check.

Health insurance is regulated (for the most part) at the state level. Companies that do business in more than 1 state must offer plans in each state that meet that states requirements. Blue Cross is a brand mark that is licensed to different companies in each state, though many companies now own the mark in multiple states. (There are about 40 distinct companies using the Blue marks). As far as I know (definitely true in this part of the country) you can not be denied coverage or excluded from benefits for specific activities like skydiving. Unlike life insurance, they are not even allowed to ask those kinds of questions. You can be screened for pre-existing conditions and/or ridered for certain conditions, but skydiving is not one of them.

EDIT: Big emphasis on the state level of regulation. Careful of the general answers from people that live where you don't. Some states are guarantee issue, which means you can not be turned down. Some require no gap or a maximum gap for coverage to be guaranteed issue or continuous. Some include gender in rating, some don't. You are not rated on your own, even with an individual plan. You are always part of a pool, and the rating factors are limited by law; i.e. - age sex, smoking status, coverage chosen. You can not be singled out and rated up because of claims. The rules are way different than auto or life.

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[monkycndo 0]

No, I am in CALIFORNIA. Cali is in Columbia, SA. (Sorry, just of of my pet peeves.)

I have HealthNet. I have no health issues so I got a plan that is geared towards a major incedent, not day to day care. Less than $100/month. Got it through www.EHealthInsurance.com. Applied on line, piece of cake.

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[freeflir29 0]

Quote

Cali is in Columbia, SA. (Sorry, just of of my pet peeves.)

Then spell it correctly. C-O-L-O-M-B-I-A.

[monkycndo 0]

OOOPS. Typed it while I was carrying on a conversation and not paying attention to my fingers. Sorry to all the ColOmbians that I may have insulted.

When you get back stateside, come to the west coast and make some jumps in NorCal. We got cool kids out here too.

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