Kaiser HMO in Maryland.. good idea or crazy? (Baltimore, Bethesda: health insurance, debt)

[Baloo]

We are moving to the Bethesda and Grosvenor-Strathmore area from Europe and I've been researching the US health insurance options rather carefully. But, honestly, I am still rather confused. I thought we had found a pretty good option in the Kaiser Permanente HMO but now I am reading in various forums that Kaiser varies greatly from area to area.

So, please, anyone with experience of Kaiser in the MD-VA-DC area or with good suggestions for insurance for a family with 2 young kids I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks

[koofie]

I was born with Kaiser and been with them most of my life. They are pretty good as far as paying for procedures and they have a huge amount of "centers" in the DC area. You do have to stick with their doctors and they aren't into alternative treatments or anything. I have not had many problems with them, but I tend to ask questions and research things and I don't always agree with them - for instance I have receive some flack form them for forgoing vaccinations for my 11 month old so far. But as far as being covered for illnesses, they are great! when I was little I had persistent headaches and they sent me to neurologists, had a CAT scan and was even sent to NIH for an MRI (This was almost 20 years ago).

I was not so happy with my prenatal care, but mostly because I preferred a home birth and they were not supportive of that.

You are welcome to PM me with more specific details. I went to the Kensington center for most of my life, and have been with Kaiser in the Baltimore area for only the past year and a half.

[dkf747]

The insurance we have"

MAMSI: Main

Don't know which is better. Just giving you another one to heck out.

[myselfdotcom]

most kaiser is in DC region

[KRB97]

A friend of mine had cancer and her HMO was Kaiser and they covered a lot less than anticipated and she had to spend THOUSANDS out of pocket. She recovered but will be in debt for a long time.

[edrock]

We've been with Kaiser in Rockville for about 3 years. The center is in our community and that is great and there is one within 20-30 minutes that has weekend hours, which has been helpful with our small child.

Our 10 mo. old son has had to go to Children's Hospital and therapy and Kaiser hasn't given us any issues with paying for that, even when he was going weekly. We paid $25 for our entire prenatal care and delivery (at Holy Cross Hospital...my issues were with the hospital, not the Kaiser doctor). Even times when the referral was wrong (it said physical therapy instead of physical medicine)and the children's hosp. doctor saw him, Kaiser covered it retroactively.

Both my husband and son have been to the ER in the last year and they've given us no grief...we've just paid the $50 deductible and all has been covered. Overall, we've had a good experience with Kaiser, but I have heard some horror stories from various areas of the US of Kaiser not paying.

Update: They did give me some flack when we wanted to switch around the vaccinations and put some off at this time, but I wasn't sure if that was our individual doctor or not. Sounds like it might be a Kaiser push.