What do you pay for medical insurance?

[WarChild]

I moved to Bermuda in the last 6 months or so from Canada. In British Columbia I had to pay the highest rate for government medical insurance which was right around $45. This is the first time I've had to purchase private medical insurance outside of Canada. I was expecting to pay around $1000 a month and was pleasantly surprised.

For a 38 year old male, non smoker, in good shape with no pre-existing medical conditions to speak of I had to fill out a brief questionaire and take a blood test.

Coverage includes Doctor's office and home visits, private ward hospital coverage, overseas coverage (don't have to purchase travel medical), treatement in the USA for anything not available in Bermuda (including Mayo clinic and other well known facilities) and prescription coverage. Total cost Just a hair over $300 a month.

The media would have us believe that Americans get fucked right over on this. How do your costs actually compare?

[Fat Panda]

Decent price. A healthy non-smoking male with no pre-conditions could get the same price or lower in the states.

[smutnut]

I am actually about to sell my organs. It's too expensive to keep them anyway and I can get a good down payment LOL

[LauraLee]

$424 a month.

[Grapesoda]

Originally Posted by WarChild

I moved to Bermuda in the last 6 months or so from Canada. In British Columbia I had to pay the highest rate for government medical insurance which was right around $45. This is the first time I've had to purchase private medical insurance outside of Canada. I was expecting to pay around $1000 a month and was pleasantly surprised.

For a 38 year old male, non smoker, in good shape with no pre-existing medical conditions to speak of I had to fill out a brief questionaire and take a blood test.

Coverage includes Doctor's office and home visits, private ward hospital coverage, overseas coverage (don't have to purchase travel medical), treatement in the USA for anything not available in Bermuda (including Mayo clinic and other well known facilities) and prescription coverage. Total cost Just a hair over $300 a month.

The media would have us believe that Americans get fucked right over on this. How do your costs actually compare?

same here $331 a month

[raymor]

$350 / month, up from $240 / month right before Obamacare passed. I think the deductible is around $2K, meaning it's INSURANCE against the big stuff, we still pay for the day to day stuff. That's for individual employees. Obviously entire families cost more.

[ajrocks]

45% of my income! Canada sucks!

[smutnut]

Those actually aren't bad prices. I was paying 6 bucks a week when I worked for this corporation and cobra wanted 600 dollars a month when I got laid off.

Have you guys ever used those plans like getting 6 month physicals and stuff?

[smutnut]

Originally Posted by ajrocks

45% of my income! Canada sucks!

You mean you pay 45 percent of your income in taxes, right?

LOL, they actually have the right idea but they could probably get more of the population involved and then start lowering a little

We should be doing that down here on a flat tax. It's bullshit down here how many people get away with shit on the both extreme ends of the economic ladder.

[Buff]

I don't pay anything here in Italy.

[Tom_PM]

I think if you're looking for where it could cost $1000 a month, you'd have to check for a single male, smoker, in NY city on blue cross/blue shield.

[WarChild]

Originally Posted by Buff

I don't pay anything here in Italy.

I'm going to be in Italy for two weeks in May. Can't wait!

[Jim_Gunn]

As a single male, non-smoker, I pay $187 per month with AvMed here in Florida.

[AmeliaG]

Has your medical care, up until now, averaged $3,600 a year of expenses?

[DirtyDreamer]

$0 for no coverage

[epitome]

Originally Posted by raymor

$350 / month, up from $240 / month right before Obamacare passed. I think the deductible is around $2K, meaning it's INSURANCE against the big stuff, we still pay for the day to day stuff. That's for individual employees. Obviously entire families cost more.

LOL you are getting ripped off. I am paying $237 month with a $1k deductible through ObamaCare. Guess the government does it better.

[Kelli58]

I checked into insurance packages not to long ago. $325 a month seems about average but that's only the base price for a non smoker in reasonably good health.

But there is a catch. This only covers 80% of what medical expenses you have, so you have to pay the extra 20%. In addition this only covers after you reach your deductible of $2500 a year. So in short you pay $2500 up front then $325 a month to get them to cover 80% of your *approved* medical expenses.

$3900 a year for the basic premiums plus $2500 deductible is a whopping $6400 a year just to get them to pay 80%.

That just doesn't seem worth it to me.

For the last 5 years combined I paid $1950 in medical combined. Had I had insurance I would have paid $32,390.

[smutnut]

Seriously do you guys get a physical every six months and etc.? Just curious. This sounds a lot cheaper than what I'm hearing and if you do the math it doesn't work out LOL.

[smutnut]

Originally Posted by Kelli58

I checked into insurance packages not to long ago. $325 a month seems about average but that's only the base price for a non smoker in reasonably good health.

But there is a catch. This only covers 80% of what medical expenses you have, so you have to pay the extra 20%. In addition this only covers after you reach your deductible of $2500 a year. So in short you pay $2500 up front then $325 a month to get them to cover 80% of your *approved* medical expenses.

$3900 a year for the basic premiums plus $2500 deductible is a whopping $6400 a year just to get them to pay 80%.

That just doesn't seem worth it to me.

For the last 5 years combined I paid $1950 in medical combined. Had I had insurance I would have paid $32,390.

this sounds a lot more like the real situation. As long as you don't need it, sure pay us 300 bucks a month, but when you need it, you are going to get fucked right up the fucking ass!

I worked for corporation during the Clinton administration and had the best healthcare you could imagine. I was actually getting bagged on for not using it enough. It was like a fifty dollar deductible during emergencies. 10 bucks for normal activity.

Just saying...

Oh and I used it so I know it worked, but even then they did try to bust my balls - no shit!

[WarChild]

Originally Posted by AmeliaG

Has your medical care, up until now, averaged $3,600 a year of expenses?

Hmmm, probably not. Medical insurance is a requirment for Bermuda immigration to grant my annual permission to reside, however.

[just a punk]

I pay 0 rubles a year. The medicine is free here.

[WarChild]

Health care is not free here in Bermuda but I think $300 a month is a fair trade for no income tax.

[bushwacker]

$235 a month with a $5,000 deductible. Doctor visits cost $30, and I receive a tiny little discount on visits to the dentist.

[CyberHustler]

[LeRoy]

DTI Cash hooks it up for their employees!!

Any PPO or HMO we want paid 100%

For the whole family too

[smutnut]

Originally Posted by WarChild

Health care is not free here in Bermuda but I think $300 a month is a fair trade for no income tax.

How do you guys have a government without a tax?

[smutnut]

Originally Posted by bushwacker

$235 a month with a $5,000 deductible. Doctor visits cost $30, and I receive a tiny little discount on visits to the dentist.

I guess you won't know until you get pass that 5 grand and tubes are coming in and out of you though, huh?

In other words you pay for everything until it gets to 5 Grand? Are you serious?

[Spunky]

56 bucks a month here

[smutnut]

Jesus H this shit is too complicated to even try and play with. Look at all the different prices and crappy care for those prices.

[VenusBlogger]

$100 per month, includes almost everything.

Except if you do a dental crown or an implant, you must pay the full price of it, an mplant is around 500 bucks here and the dental crown is about 300 bucks.

All the other specialities are fully covered, same as studies.

Public health here really sucks, so most people either get a health insurance plan or get one from their job.

Nobody here says anything about what percentage of discount you get with the PRESCRIBED DRUGS. Here is around 40-50% f you have health insurance everytime you get PRESCRIBED DRUGS in FARMACY.

[bushwacker]

Originally Posted by smutnut

I guess you won't know until you get pass that 5 grand and tubes are coming in and out of you though, huh?

In other words you pay for everything until it gets to 5 Grand? Are you serious?

If I ever have a catastrophic accident, and have to be admitted to the hospital, I have to cover the first 5k. Then insurance covers everything else. When I didn't have a high deductible my insurance was heading for $500 a month.

[VenusBlogger]

BTW, why do much people from USA here, states about "smoking" and "non-Smoking".

Do health insurance companies make you a special plan for non-smokers? Incredible..

Here, they make you a different plan, depending on your age. For example a 30 year old make pays 100 bucks per month for the basic plan in one health insurance company.

But a 60 year old male pays 250 bucks for the same plan in the same company.

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by ajrocks

45% of my income! Canada sucks!

45% is the marginal personal income tax rate for high income earners - for somebody with declared income of $300,000 in Canada the average tax rate is 39%. Americans making 300K a year pay 27% but most American states have their own income taxes - California and New York have state income tax rates of almost 10% on high income earners. Not a huge difference between the US and Canada income tax wise. We have the fucking GST though - the US needs a VAT/GST tax but even the Democrats won't do it because they know they'll be thrown out of office.

off topic a bit but............

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by WarChild

Health care is not free here in Bermuda but I think $300 a month is a fair trade for no income tax.

Pretty sure you have to file a Canadian income tax return until you become a citizen of another country. Same for Americans living abroad.

[Theo]

If you cant afford the insurance plans in USA look at http://mantrahealth.com/

[WarChild]

Originally Posted by Mutt

Pretty sure you have to file a Canadian income tax return until you become a citizen of another country. Same for Americans living abroad.

No sir absolutely not true. I am no longer a Canadian resident. Canada taxes on residency, not citizenship like the US does. Trust me, my girlfriend is an accountant.

There are some rules around it though. You must actually cut ties with Canada. You can't just pop in and out of residency as it's decided on an individual basis. So you couldn't, for instance, move offshore for a year and return with $1,000,000 cash. The CRA would simply deem you as having never been a non resident and tax your ass.

[WarChild]

Originally Posted by smutnut

How do you guys have a government without a tax?

Import duties. Essentially it's a tax on "consumption". There's no sales tax here either.

Bermuda is also a tiny island, only 22 square miles. This means there isn't vast areas with low populations to be supported by the more popualted cities.

[smutnut]

Originally Posted by WarChild

Import duties. Essentially it's a tax on "consumption". There's no sales tax here either.

Bermuda is also a tiny island, only 22 square miles. This means there isn't vast areas with low populations to be supported by the more popualted cities.

Do you have poor and do you treat them okay, or just shit in their mouths the way we do here? Just curious.

[WarChild]

Originally Posted by smutnut

Do you have poor and do you treat them okay, or just shit in their mouths the way we do here? Just curious.

Bermuda is a fairly rich country. The GDP per capita here is around $70,000. nearly twice that of the USA and Canada. It's kind of a funny little place. Actually a British protectorate rather than a country, really, in it's own right. There's very few homeless people here at all. Well, in fairness there's very few people at all. It's a small city on an Island, basically.

It's tough to be here. You can't just move here. You can't even become a citizen, unless you marry a Bermudian and even then it takes 10 years. You can't work in many sectors reserved soley for Bermudians and they will only let you work in other sectors for no more than 10 years unless you are a critical asset to the company (think CEO of a hedgefund).

I'm here on an annual permit to reside because my entire income comes from outside of Bermuda.

[fris]

governetment pays for it

[fris]

Originally Posted by LauraLee

$424 a month.

boo

[Trend]

Family of 4

Blue Cross / Blue Shield

$1424 / month
$1500.00 family deductible then it's 80/20
$20 co-pay for Dr visits
$20 per script. $10 if generic

[raymor]

Originally Posted by Buff

I don't pay anything here in Italy.

You don't pay anything except for 45% of everything you earn, right?

[campimp]

252/month for me and 15 month old son

[fris]

here i can

get mri, xrays, blood tests, cat scan, stay over in hospital for a month and not pay a penny, but like ajrocks says, it comes out of your taxes.

[NikKay]

$220/month, me + 2 kids, $10k deductible then 100% covered. I also get to take advantage of their "pre-discounted" prices that they're raping all the doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies for.

I look at it as literal insurance. I'm paying in case shit happens. I also save a lot by being in the BSBS network with the pre-discounted pricing. For example, my son broke his arm and I got the bills first which were around $4k. Once BCBS discounted the bills it was only $850.

[Emil]

Who knows? Financed with extremely high taxes.

[Paul Markham]

Nothing, registered as an invalid. I pay $1.66 sometimes when I visit the GP. Hospital visits for check up or even all my cancer treatment were covered by National Health.

Recently had a minor op and opted for a private room, I think it was something like $10 a night. Eva brought me my food as I can't eat the Czech food. Well more like won't.

I've paid all my life for medical cover. Covers me when I'm working, family, dental, etc. % of my income so probably paid more than some of you guys here. Or ask me to keep paying now I'm retired and an invalid.

[BareBacked]

around $2300 a year

[BareBacked]

Originally Posted by Trend

Family of 4

Blue Cross / Blue Shield

$1424 / month
$1500.00 family deductible then it's 80/20
$20 co-pay for Dr visits
$20 per script. $10 if generic

wow thats alot