Health insurance (Atlanta: broker, professionals, moving)

[Britishintown]

This is something I have never needed before but what should I be looking for in health insurance, I have been looking at all the alternatives and it is incredibly confusing, are there any professionals on this board in this field? I would appreciate some advice as I will be moving there before to long, are there certain things that are more important to have in Atlanta or is insurance the same all over the U.S.?

[sweettea1]

Depends on a few things. Are you paying for insurance on your own or will your job take care of it? Policies differ vastly. Big two companies here in Atlanta are BCBSGA (Blue Cross Blue Shield of GA) and Kaiser. Kaiser is a big HMO with their own hospitals and clinics. You see their doctors only. Some like this; some don't. Has a decent reputation. My husband has Kaiser and hasn't had any problems.
BCBS has different plans where you can pick docs "in network" (Similar to Kaiser's HMO but no inhouse clinics) or "out of network" (called a PPO). PPOs are a bit more expensive as you can pick your own specialists. Lots more on this but I don't want to take up too much space!

This is really a very condensed version of insurance here. Do you have any pre-existing medical conditions? If so, you may find your premiums more expensive or plans more limited. You should check out the websites for both BCBSGA and Kaiser as well as contact a place like ehealthinsurance.com which is an insurance broker nationwide and doesn't have any particular ties to a certain company. You'll get some good advice from their professionals.

[Britishintown]

Thanks, I will check those out.