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Also a retiree from a large corp. Self insured but uses insurance companies to administer the plans. Essentially three plans; low, medium and high deductible. Not sure how many companies are used for admin. Good insurance and subsidized to around 70% of premium. Still costs me around $5,000 out of pocket (premiums, co-pays, deductible).
Same, self insured Corp using 1 insurance Corp. to administer.
My employer has three plans to choose from and my wife's company had four to choose from. I went with the cheapest which was one of my wife's plans.
When you say plans, do you mean providers? I should have specified that. We have one or two providers, and each has a high and low option. I go for the cheaper one with the higher deductibles. It's worked for us as we have all been healthy and mostly go for free preventive visits.
1 choice. Great for emergencies. OK for docs. Awful for meds. costs me 340 a month my portion. Still better than a bronze plan. Better than I had in 2005 with another employer by a long shot. Seeing a doc is 40 bucks. Hacking off an arm is 3000 bucks. Meds are 80% by me until 3K ind/6K family deductible. Fortunately my family scripts are nothing earth shattering and mostly Walmart 4 dollar stuff.
More than three. Maybe up to five.
The way it should be. One size fits all DOES NOT WORK! Maybe in Europe or elsewhere it does.
But we as people of the United States are not the rest of the world and do not need to be to appease anyone.
I think your 80% number is flawed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OnOurWayHome
Trump & Co keep talking about choice and how people having more options make everything better. They keep saying how many counties and states only have one provider and how they need more choices.
However, I read a statistic recently that something like 80% of employers, or people covered by employers, only have one option. What are things like for you?
I work at an enormous company, and I believe we're down to two options. It might even be one. I remember years ago having something like seven or eight choices. This didn't change after ACA though - it's been this way for well over 10 years.
More than three. Maybe up to five.
The way it should be. One size fits all DOES NOT WORK! Maybe in Europe or elsewhere it does.
But we as people of the United States are not the rest of the world and do not need to be to appease anyone.
I think your 80% number is flawed.
It's definitely possible. There was a link on my Twitter feed, but I didn't save it.
Anecdotally, I know my choices have shrunk greatly over the years as companies have merged. My husband works for a small company and only has one option.
Here's a little more detail now that I'm in the office. It's basically two UHC choices and two HMO-type choices.
Within each plan my company further differentiates premiums by geographic region, by salary range, by coverage (single, children, spouse, family), by full-time / part-time / contract, and some of the choices also vary by region.
My particular plan is the cheapest one as far as premiums. For 2017 for my area, salary, single, full-time, I pay $48 / paycheck. $48 x 26 = $1248, but there's also a fairly easy way to consistently reduce that by $500 / year, so in actuality it's $748 or average $62.33 / month.
Deductible is $1500, out of pocket max is $2000, no referrals, most things look like they're 90% after deductible up to the OoPM.
I have it for catastrophic things. I've only used medical services twice in my adult life -- one long ordeal for a double-dislocated finger culminating in an extremely ill-advised surgery (I mean it was good for the surgeon but not for me) in 2009, and a fee-for-service vasectomy in 2015. I've never had a prescription to anything, never had any other medical issues so far (I'm 42). Clean livin' (well other than occasional cannabis, dissociatives, and tryptamines) and 12% body fat.
More than three. Maybe up to five.
The way it should be. One size fits all DOES NOT WORK! Maybe in Europe or elsewhere it does.
But we as people of the United States are not the rest of the world and do not need to be to appease anyone.
I think your 80% number is flawed.
No. It's correct. Most employers go with one carrier, though they might offer an HMO and a PPO option or something.
Here's a little more detail now that I'm in the office. It's basically two UHC choices and two HMO-type choices.
Within each plan my company further differentiates premiums by geographic region, by salary range, by coverage (single, children, spouse, family), by full-time / part-time / contract, and some of the choices also vary by region.
My particular plan is the cheapest one as far as premiums. For 2017 for my area, salary, single, full-time, I pay $48 / paycheck. $48 x 26 = $1248, but there's also a fairly easy way to consistently reduce that by $500 / year, so in actuality it's $748 or average $62.33 / month.
Deductible is $1500, out of pocket max is $2000, no referrals, most things look like they're 90% after deductible up to the OoPM.
I have it for catastrophic things. I've only used medical services twice in my adult life -- one long ordeal for a double-dislocated finger culminating in an extremely ill-advised surgery (I mean it was good for the surgeon but not for me) in 2009, and a fee-for-service vasectomy in 2015. I've never had a prescription to anything, never had any other medical issues so far (I'm 42).
Sounds like a pretty good deal.
I'm paying almost $400/month for a family of 3. The deductibles are huge - like $10-15K I think. I've never gotten close TG. All our primary care visits and my mammo and gyno visits are covered 100%. We've seen a few huge bills the rare times someone needed a specialist - like $300 for a 5 minute appointment, and that was a negotiated "in network" rate.
I max out our healthcare savings account($2500) to cover glasses, extra dental, and possible copays. And we can pretty easily get $1500 more or so by having annual physicals and completing some training.
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