Can you recommend a few good health insurance carriers? (Howe: how much, purchase)

[andiamodfw]

we are looking into a few health insurance carriers for our family of 4. Can anyone recommend a health insurance with good coverage,that they are happy with?

thank you!

[Debsi]

The carrier with the biggest network in the area is Blue Cross Blue Shield.

[texahoan]

check out Mega Life... they have some different types of plans... works for me and few others in my office, but some people with larger families found Blue Cross/Blue Shield to be the better route.

[nsumner]

I have had BCBS and United Healthcare... I absolutely have no complaint about UH. Highly recommend them.

[mckinneydeb]

Your post implies that you will not be obtaining coverage through an employer which means you must purchase an individual plan. Not cheap and varies widely depending upon what you want. Most major companies do sell individual policies. If you are self employed and own your own business, are you a member of a chamber of commerce? Many chambers have a program where you can purchase insurance through a group plan (means lower premiums). If not, there are still groups out there that you can join in order to get better premium prices. PPO, EPO, HMO, POS are all different and the premiums can be all over the page depending upon deductibles, co-pays and how much out of pocket you are responsible for. Please spend time reading policies carefully so you are not shocked later when something isn't covered. While the language can be confusing, mistakes can be very costly.

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

When I lived in Texas I had a PPO policy through BC BS of Texas. For Texas they are good but if you live here in Florida BC BS is someone to stay away from.

The best insurance I have ever had was with United Healthcare.

[kaykay]

Originally Posted by nsumner

I have had BCBS and United Healthcare... I absolutely have no complaint about UH. Highly recommend them.

Originally Posted by mckinneydeb

Your post implies that you will not be obtaining coverage through an employer

Originally Posted by Lindsey_Mcfarren

The best insurance I have ever had was with United Healthcare.

Don't know about cost because ours has always been through an employer, but my husband and I have had quite a few over the years, and I have to agree I think United Health Care was best of the ones we had.

[KantLockeMeIn]

Talk to an independent agent about FSA + Catastrophic insurance. It's typically around $200 a month for a family of 4 with a 5k deductible and 0% coinsurance. Then you have an FSA to cover typical expenses you expect through the year.

With regards to specific companies, I had UHC and many of my coworkers complained about doctors switching away from UHC in other regions, leaving them with few choices. I use Cigna now and have never had a problem. My father went through operations and chemo for cancer using Cigna about 15 years ago and they didn't give him a hard time about anything.

[mckinneydeb]

OK, I'll come clean about something. I worked for United Healthcare for 5 years full time and another 2 as a contract worker. I have United Healthcare through my husband's employer. A long time ago we had Aetna. In my current position, I work with dozen's of health insurance providers in TX, FL and LA. From a provider point of view, United Healthcare is OK to work with, Aetna about the same with BCBS being the easiest. FL has a lot of smaller health plans which are not so easy to work with and frankly, Florida healthcare providers and insurance providers can be more difficult to work with than TX. However, basically all seem to cover about the same things. From a consumer point of view, United is easy to work with but certainly has it's share of problems.

I can not stress enough the importance of fully reading your policy. You can't just assume that everything is covered just because you have health insurance. The way things worked at UHC is that there are basic plans that employers can pick from. They pretty much all cover the same basics, it's when employers want to cut costs that certain things get "excluded". Typically the more liberal the plan the more it's going to cost the employer and the employee. HMO plans are usually more restrictive and therefore the cheapest. Some of the larger employer groups did have specific language that was out of the norm, but those were companies that had been around for decades. Unions also played a part in some of the language/coverage but even so, the plan was still based upon one of the few basic policy templates.

The insurance business can be pretty complicated for most lay people but if you just take time to read your policy you should come away with a fairly clear understanding of what your costs are going to be, what is covered, and what's not. If given the option of several plans, you have to take time out to decide what is more important to you (lower premiums, less out of pocket, higher deductibles, coverage for particular treatments...)and then compare each plan to see which one best suits your situation.

[BrendaE]

As far as which plans are the best, I have had a very bad experience with Blue Cross of South Carolina. When we moved here I made sure to get my son insurance. The problem is they would NOT pay for a SINGLE medical bill. My son now owes over $25,000 dollars in medical bills. I can't recommend Blue Cross of South Carolina.