[bfa]

Originally Posted by deckardc

Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!! A $2500 deductible! Is that a family deductible or individual? Yuck! Your husband works for BCBS and that's the lousy deductible they give their own employees?

I used to work for a company in FL that used BCBS of Alabama and we had great coverage through them. We certainly didn't have an ugly deductible like that. We currently have a $300 individual deductible and a $600 family deductible. I guess I won't gripe about it anymore.

To the original poster - will you be working in Florida? If so, they might provide health insurance for the employed and you will have to pay extra for a family policy. It's cheaper if you are in with a group. The bigger the group, the less you pay. I've never worked for a company that didn't provide health coverage but I understand a lot of companies are starting to drop it. There are a lot of Americans who have no health coverage because it is so ridiculously expensive in the US.

I have BCBS of Florida, family plan is only $405 per month, with $300 individ deductible, $600 family. We have no pre-existing med conditions, though, maybe that's why it was pretty cheap. And we are in late 20s. Oh, pharmacy is $25 for generic, and dr. co-pay is $25.

Also, I worked in the insurance field before, it's not really true that insurance is cheaper in a group plan, because in a group plan the insurance company HAS to insure everyone, without exclusion, so the insurance is actually higher. It just seems less, because many times, the company pays the majority of the costs.

You are right, insurance costs in the US are crazy, and it's because of the lawsuits that have been filed by the likes of ambulance chasers like John Edwards. But I digress...

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by bfa

insurance costs in the US are crazy, and it's because of the lawsuits that have been filed by the likes of ambulance chasers like John Edwards. But I digress...

Good thing that you digress, because I'd be more than happy to show you how you're wrong.

[Southlander]

We have a $3,000 deductible...getting ready to go higher. Try being a small business and find health insurance for your 3 or 4 employees...it's ridiculous.

[Strel]

Originally Posted by bfa

You are right, insurance costs in the US are crazy, and it's because of the lawsuits that have been filed by the likes of ambulance chasers like John Edwards. But I digress...

Naturally it has nothing at all to do with the insurance companies themselves.

[LingLing]

Originally Posted by Southlander

We have a $3,000 deductible...getting ready to go higher. Try being a small business and find health insurance for your 3 or 4 employees...it's ridiculous.

Do you try BCBS? I hear BCBS is offering something for small business. Also during one of those meetings, I hear that joining a PEO would help. Do you belong to a PEO?

[Ten]

Originally Posted by TriMT7

Good thing that you digress, because I'd be more than happy to show you how you're wrong.

OP, on this note I'll point out that the majority of the US health care industry is already socialized. Government sets fees, regulates care, and has an inefficient hand in every facet of US medicine. Private practices fold up shop all the time and the reason is that they're regulated out of profitability. The oppressors are equally the government and the insurance companies. The former, once socialized, is a mess and the latter simply buys it off: We call it lobbying.

The US vs Canadian health care argument typically avoids that inconvenient fact, and it also avoids the facts that US medicine is world-leading in terms of research (and the results that research bring to the rest of the planet) and, excepting insurance companies, that the US private sector is dramatically more benevolent and charity-minded than the government.

I have a typically fatal blood condition and no insurance. The State was of zero help, twice, yet I get approximately ten thousand dollars of emergency care a year by way of the generous donations channeled through my local hospital, bless their private-sector hearts.

Socialized US medicine is an unqualified disaster. Get a good job with a good employer and enjoy the best coverage on the planet. Looking to the mess that is US government for your medical best interest, thanks indeed to the John Edwards and other US socialists out there, is a pipedream.

TCS Daily - Socialized Medicine Is Already Here