Is Health Care Insurance Premium generally higher than other states? (Harvard: fit in, health insurance)

[Bos_Canucks]

My BS/BS premium next year is $706.20 per month. I know a person from California, he is a diabetic patient in his 20's, only pay $290 per month.

Are you a Massachusetts resident? How much do you pay?

[Xenos]

We have one of those high deductible w/ HSA policies. Including what we pay in premiums, in copays, and for the employer portion for the policy, we pay a total of around $18,000 per year.

I would trade that in an instant for a 10% tax increase in order to fund universal care, for whatever that is worth.

[ScituateAl]

Our health insurance is a Blue Cross Blue Shield HMO Plan offered through my employer, with approx 650 employees. We get paid bi-weekly, or 26 times per year and our cost is:
- $32 per pay period for a single employee
- $85 per pay period for an employee on the family plan (spouse, kids,)

As an HMO, Blue Cross categorizes providers in terms of 'quality' and 'cost' and offers incentives to use providers it feels offer better quality and costs. Co-pays with the preferred providers are $15, while a 'standard' provider is $25. A third 'basic' tier provider costs $50 per co-pay. Good news seems to be that our docs are in the 'standard' tier. I believe the employer kicks in around $9-10K in addition to what we pay.

[Beachcomber4]

We are in the process of renewing our health insurance for the year. BCBS has gifted us with a 28% increase in FY 2010.

From what our agent has told us, this is going to be happening with all policies as BCBS had a "tough" year financially.

[LeavingMA]

Mine was also going up from $197 a month to $236. It will only get worse and will still continue to go up even if this excuse for healthcare bill passes. I will not call it healthcare reform because it won't make anything better.

[knitgirl]

Insurance varies way too much! I live in IL, work for a company with about 20 employees. My single rate went from $204/month to $345/month for BCBS PPO. The company didn't increase what they pay. We've had some expensive health issues in the last couple of years to push our rates up.

[Ro-Dialin]

Originally Posted by Beachcomber4

We are in the process of renewing our health insurance for the year. BCBS has gifted us with a 28% increase in FY 2010.

From what our agent has told us, this is going to be happening with all policies as BCBS had a "tough" year financially.

This is precisely why we need National Health Care. If BC/BS thinks they had a tough year in '09, I'd like to see how they would fare against National Healthcare policy becoming law of the land! BC/BS is such a rip off, I think the're also preparing for some real tough times once National Health care goes through. They won't know what hit them!

[ScituateAl]

BCBS of MA pulled in $83,000,000 in profit in 2008. They also had $1,145,327,000 in cash and invested assets. Not bad for a "non-profit".

[DiJay]

Since when are they non profit?? They are a business like any other company!

[Beachcomber4]

Originally Posted by Ro-Dialin

This is precisely why we need National Health Care. If BC/BS thinks they had a tough year in '09, I'd like to see how they would fare against National Healthcare policy becoming law of the land! BC/BS is such a rip off, I think the're also preparing for some real tough times once National Health care goes through. They won't know what hit them!

Tufts and Harvard were in the same ballpark, pricewise for a similar plan.