Holy shit Blue Cross Blue Sheild is fucking me!

[tical]

Raising my monthly rate to $463 from $383... they just raised it to $383 no less than 4-5 months ago.

Anyone else know of a better provider in the Vegas area?

[Barefootsies]

DAYUM!!

I hope mine didn't go up that much. It's due next month. Mine was around that (35)

[Spunky]

Damn..thank God I only pay 55 a month here in Canada..sucks man

[TheSenator]

I that the EPO Plus???

[96ukssob]

I hate them myself. They cancelled my plan a few months ago by accident because some high scholl drop out they have in their billing department never recorded my payment. Then when they restarted it i had to jump thru hoops to get them to cover blood tests i had.

im looking for someone different myself

[Trixie]

Is that just for you or for your whole family?

I *just* got on their 70/30 plan with a $3k deductible: $111 a month just for me.

[Sosa]

my blue cross plan rocks and it only went up $20 when they hiked up prices a month ago. Luckily for us my wifes is through her work place and they cover everything.

[jaysmoke]

Come move to Canada for free Health care. We can always use talented webmasters like yourself.
Plus you wont have to wait in line at UMC to get treatment.

[Fap]

i left them for oxford over a year ago

[MetaMan]

Originally Posted by jaysmoke

Come move to Canada for free Health care. We can always use talented webmasters like yourself.
Plus you wont have to wait in line at UMC to get treatment.

"free"

[lazycash]

Originally Posted by jaysmoke

Come move to Canada for free Health care. We can always use talented webmasters like yourself.
Plus you wont have to wait in line at UMC to get treatment.

Lol, yeah right, sure Canada is free, but plan on waiting for any specialty care. Watch this, http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3593523

[jaysmoke]

Mmmmmm....(burp-burp) Ok im full of the ABC news bullshit.
Tastes great.

[Corona]

Don't you just love Americans that tell Canadians how things are in Canada.

[jaysmoke]

Originally Posted by Corona

Don't you just love Americans that tell Canadians how things are in Canada.

Cheers to a 100 dollar band-aid in some ghetto hospital south of the border.
Long live ABC news stories. I think ABC needs to look into the US govt looking after the returning injured soliders. That may be a better start.

[lazycash]

Originally Posted by Corona

Don't you just love Americans that tell Canadians how things are in Canada.

Lol, this board is filled with Canadians who love to tell Americans whats wrong with their system.

[jaysmoke]

Originally Posted by lazycash

Lol, this board is filled with Canadians who love to tell Americans whats wrong with their system.

So hows the economy in Mexizona doing. I heard on ABC news things are looking up for u guys in the near future.
Dont spend that $300 that George is giving you all in one place
That should be good enough for three band-aids

[BradM]

CDN system = bullshit. This from A Canadian American.

I have Tonik and it fucking sucks. They try to get out of paying for antibiotics. When I was on Blue Cross awhile ago they raised my premiums from 95 to 110 to 150 to 200. I finally said fuck it. There was NO reason to double it, I never go to the doctor.

[lazycash]

Originally Posted by jaysmoke

Cheers to a 100 dollar band-aid in some ghetto hospital south of the border.
Long live ABC news stories. I think ABC needs to look into the US govt looking after the returning injured soliders. That may be a better start.

Funny how you think the abc story was bullshit even though they were interviewing Canadian doctors. My buddy in Canada waited 5 months and still couldn't get an MRI on his hurt knee, so he flew down one weekend to get one performed in the states. I would love to not have to pay my monthly health insurance premium for me and my family, but at least I feel I have the confidence in knowing if I need to see a specialist for any reason I'm not going to have to wait forever and put my health or my family's health in jeopardy.

This from Wikipedia:

One of the major complaints about the Canadian health care system is waiting times, whether for a specialist, major elective surgery, such as hip replacement, or specialized treatments, such as radiation for breast cancer. Studies by the Commonwealth Fund found that 57% of Canadians reported waiting 4 weeks or more to see a specialist; 24% of Canadians waited 4 hours or more in the emergency room.[18]

A March 2, 2004 article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal stated, "Saskatchewan is under fire for having the longest waiting time in the country for a diagnostic MRI ? a whopping 22 months." [14]

A February 28, 2006 article in The New York Times quoted Dr. Brian Day as saying, "This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years."[19] In a 2007 episode of ABC News 20/20, host John Stossel cited numerous examples of Canadians who had difficulty accessing health care.[20]

According to the Fraser Institute, treatment time from initial referral by a GP through consultation with a specialist to final treatment, across all specialties and all procedures (emergency, non-urgent, and elective), averaged 17.7 weeks in 2005.[21][22]

[~Ray]

state farm insurance quoted me $144 a month for up to 6 million hospital coverage

[Jace]

we have united health care and are pretty happy, $420 for both my wife and I

we used www.ehealthinsurance.com to compare everything, pretty handy site

[Zayne E.]

The thing about BCBS is each and every state is an independent company. So what happens in Nevada is unlikely to also happen in, say, Florida. When insurance rates go up that sharply it usually is the company reacting to the state allowing an "across the the board" rate increase for ALL carriers. So it's likely your problem is a Nevada issue as opposed to a BCBS issue.

[DatingGold]

I have both blue shield and kaiser....

Blue shield is like $400/month and kaiser is like $130.

So I guess I have cascading insurance lol

[The Sultan Of Smut]

Originally Posted by lazycash

Lol, yeah right, sure Canada is free, but plan on waiting for any specialty care. Watch this, http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3593523

LOL haha what a slanted view! Of coarse to create a good propaganda story on Canadian health care you'd HAVE to show a Toronto hospital which have the worst wait times in the country.

I've had a purely diagnostic MRI in BC and my wait was 3 months but a few years ago I needed to get an emergency MRI and I was in the next day.

Whoever mentioned their buddy had to go the the US for an MRI is kinda weird since I'm sure he could have gotten one done at a private MRI clinic for cheaper here in Canada. I know when I asked one clinic here in Vancouver it was going to cost me $800 if I wanted to pay for it. Who knows maybe there isn't a mix of private and public MRIs in Ontario I dunno...

[Barefootsies]

There should be a two tier system. (free n premium)

I know I would still PAY for my insurance to get in faster, and have dr's who speak mother fucking ENGLISH.

[Mutt]

that ABC news story is absolutely the truth - the Canadian medical system is fine when you've got broken bones, a cold, appendicitis, mental illnesses - but if you've got something life threatening, you're playing the universal healthcare lottery of who lives and who dies, depending where you live and what the wait times are for state of the art diagnostic procedures, surgery and drug treatment.

[jaysmoke]

Originally Posted by Mutt

that ABC news story is absolutely the truth - the Canadian medical system is fine when you've got broken bones, a cold, appendicitis, mental illnesses - but if you've got something life threatening, you're playing the universal healthcare lottery of who lives and who dies, depending where you live and what the wait times are for state of the art diagnostic procedures, surgery and drug treatment.

You cannot say that that is the truth. It happens everywhere but we are better off and dont have to worry about getting huge bills.
Or being worried about what insurance companys we have to use or HMO's.
Think about it.

[lazycash]

Originally Posted by jaysmoke

You cannot say that that is the truth. It happens everywhere but we are better off and dont have to worry about getting huge bills.
Or being worried about what insurance companys we have to use or HMO's.
Think about it.

Why don't you tell us what part about the story isn't true, since it seems to coincide exactly with wait time statistics given by Canada's own numbers. I agree with you about not having to worry about huge bills and dealing with occasional private insurance bs. Most decent private insurance policies have a yearly out of pocket max, so I know I'm protected financially if something serious occurs.

I've had two acl reconstruction surgeries on my knees from serious sports injuries. In both instances the surgery was done no more than two weeks from the time of the accident, which included evaluation, the MRI and then the scheduled hospital stay. I can't possibly imagine having to wait six months to get an MRI before the doc can even tell me what course of action needed to be taken. My life would have been completely disrupted and my injuries possibly worsened had I had to wait that long for care.

[BlackCrayon]

Originally Posted by lazycash

Why don't you tell us what part about the story isn't true, since it seems to coincide exactly with wait time statistics given by Canada's own numbers. I agree with you about not having to worry about huge bills and dealing with occasional private insurance bs. Most decent private insurance policies have a yearly out of pocket max, so I know I'm protected financially if something serious occurs.

I've had two acl reconstruction surgeries on my knees from serious sports injuries. In both instances the surgery was done no more than two weeks from the time of the accident, which included evaluation, the MRI and then the scheduled hospital stay. I can't possibly imagine having to wait six months to get an MRI before the doc can even tell me what course of action needed to be taken. My life would have been completely disrupted and my injuries possibly worsened had I had to wait that long for care.

I can't say i've had to deal with anything life threatening and yes, you will wait a good while if you come into emergency but overall, from what i've experienced its pretty decent. My father needed an angioplasty and went from making the appointment to having it done a month later which involved getting an angiogram first and then the plasty a week or two later. It would of cost him somewhere around $25,000 in the states. I can't imagine paying $400/month for something i've only used once in the past 5 years. Its not free though, i really don't know how much i pay in taxes each year that goes to medical but when you're dealing with lives and health working with a profit based system isn't always whats best for the patient.

[over38]

I've had BLUE CROSS/BLUE SHIELD in three different states over the years - they all will raise your rates as time goes on and most policies that are not in a group will raise your rates based on your age.

Mine went from $175 mo. to $575 mo. over a 8 year period!

[TheSenator]

CLICK HERE FOR THE TRUTH ON YOUR HMO HEALTHCARE.

Anybody with HMO healthcare in America is getting screwed. Wake up people! When a company makes money for a profit they are beholding to the shareholders. Less healthcare = more profit.

Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege.

If everybody in the develope world can have universal healthcare so can the USA.

[TheSenator]

Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege.

[Tom_PM]

Just to add some perspective, I have no insurance and I picked up my prescriptions yesterday. 1 month supply = $359.95.

[TheSenator]

Originally Posted by PR_Tom

Just to add some perspective, I have no insurance and I picked up my prescriptions yesterday. 1 month supply = $359.95.

Was that the generic version?

Walmart has a list of generic version drugs that you can bring into your doctors.

Most of the time the doctors don't know they exist.

[Tom_PM]

Plavix = $150 for 30
Lipitor = $150 for 30

The others are fairly generic and not very expensive compared to those two monster name brands with no generic equivalent.. I may be able to get off Lipitor eventually. I've been on free samples of it since May of last year, but I ran out.. gonna visit the doctor soon and they'll give me more hopefully.

[lazycash]

Originally Posted by PR_Tom

Plavix = $150 for 30
Lipitor = $150 for 30

The others are fairly generic and not very expensive compared to those two monster name brands with no generic equivalent.. I may be able to get off Lipitor eventually. I've been on free samples of it since May of last year, but I ran out.. gonna visit the doctor soon and they'll give me more hopefully.

Wouldn't it be wise to just get some low cost health insurance with a prescription copay. Although I'm guessing by your medications your premiums would be high or you would get denied.

[Peaches]

My BCBS went up also and has every year. I have no problem with that. They pay bills on time and so far have covered every medical issue I've had. I recently had over $200K in medical bills. I paid the $5K deductible and approx. another $1K. That's a lot better than selling everything I own

I've read horror stories about some of the cheap unknowns who don't respond to claims quickly and the patient ends up getting reamed by collections and it damages their credit. I may pay a little more for BCBS but their actions have showed me it's worth it. I've had my personal policy with them for about 11 years now.

[Peaches]

My BCBS went up also and has every year. I have no problem with that. They pay bills on time and so far have covered every medical issue I've had. I recently had over $200K in medical bills. I paid the $5K deductible and approx. another $1K. That's a lot better than selling everything I own

I've read horror stories about some of the cheap unknowns who don't respond to claims quickly and the patient ends up getting reamed by collections and it damages their credit. I may pay a little more for BCBS but their actions have showed me it's worth it. I've had my personal policy with them for about 11 years now.

[Peaches]

Sorry about the double post - tried to edit but things are moving so slow it said I went past my time I'm not even sure how it double posted. I got an error page then hit the back button, nothing there, refresh and there were two. Gotta love GFY ;)

[Tom_PM]

Originally Posted by lazycash

Wouldn't it be wise to just get some low cost health insurance with a prescription copay. Although I'm guessing by your medications your premiums would be high or you would get denied.

"Low cost health insurance" "new york state"... I know all these words and phrases, but they just dont exist all together

Yeah I think they would tend to auto-deny a heart attack patient on expensive drugs, lol. They'd have a net loss right out of the gate, and that's assuming I stay healthy.

[TheSenator]

Originally Posted by Peaches

My BCBS went up also and has every year. I have no problem with that. They pay bills on time and so far have covered every medical issue I've had. I recently had over $200K in medical bills. I paid the $5K deductible and approx. another $1K. That's a lot better than selling everything I own

I've read horror stories about some of the cheap unknowns who don't respond to claims quickly and the patient ends up getting reamed by collections and it damages their credit. I may pay a little more for BCBS but their actions have showed me it's worth it. I've had my personal policy with them for about 11 years now.

I hope you never run into hard times and fail to pay your monthly premiums.

[Peaches]

Originally Posted by TheSenator

I hope you never run into hard times and fail to pay your monthly premiums.

I hope I never run into hard times and fail to pay my mortgage, car, food, etc. payments either Thanks!

[Tom_PM]

All I found in general was for new york city area (where I dont live) it's $836.88 a month. And thats for an HMO plan which I would never join. A more normal plan is $1398 a month, lmao. That'd allow me to keep the same doctors. And relieve my wallet of excess weight.

Gotta say to the OP, you're in fine shape there. $463 a month sounds amazing to me.

[Xrated J]

they fuck every body. i only pay 130 a month though

[TheSenator]

CLICK HERE FOR THE TRUTH ON YOUR HMO HEALTHCARE.

[TheSenator]

Originally Posted by xratedJ

they fuck every body. i only pay 130 a month though

What plan is that?

[Peaches]

I don't have HMO, I have PPO.

Tom, have you looked into finding the least expensive, least coverage policy that you can upgrade later? That's what I originally did with BCBS. They wouldn't cover my migraines for 24 months so I got their bottom of the line catastrophic only policy just to get that 24 months started. Once the 24 months was over I moved into the full PPO and was more than happy to pay the premiums since now they were covering the migraine expenses.

My last hospital bill was $142K. BCBS has a contract which brought that down to $37K and I paid $67 and change. From what I've heard from people who have used that same hospital, if you don't have insurance you are charged approx the same rate as the insurance companies, i.e. the $37K. Personally, I'm REALLY, REALLY glad I didn't have to pay that, but $37K for all they did wasn't really a high price to pay, IMO.

And of course, if I didn't have a house, savings, etc. I probably wouldn't have had to pay anything. Oy.

[The Sultan Of Smut]

Originally Posted by lazycash

I've had two acl reconstruction surgeries on my knees from serious sports injuries. In both instances the surgery was done no more than two weeks from the time of the accident, which included evaluation, the MRI and then the scheduled hospital stay. I can't possibly imagine having to wait six months to get an MRI before the doc can even tell me what course of action needed to be taken. My life would have been completely disrupted and my injuries possibly worsened had I had to wait that long for care.

That's not what happens here. Timeline:
A) Fuck up your knee (pray to God you're not in a province with crappy health care).
B) Go to emergency room.
C) Get referral for specialist (during ER visit).
D) Depending on degree of tear appointment will be 48 hours - 2 weeks away.
E) Again depending on the injury surgery to be anywhere from 1 week to 2 months.

For ACL surgery an MRI is not required but rather a CT scan or even a simple xray. I had my acl repaired in my left knee and when I was living in a small city that had only two orthopedic surgeons and my wait was 1 month.

I suppose you can argue that my wait was twice as long as yours but in the interim my Doc had me fitted for a $1500 brace (also included in the package) to keep my knee together while I waited.

[lazycash]

Originally Posted by The Sultan Of Smut

That's not what happens here. Timeline:
A) Fuck up your knee (pray to God you're not in a province with crappy health care).
B) Go to emergency room.
C) Get referral for specialist (during ER visit).
D) Depending on degree of tear appointment will be 48 hours - 2 weeks away.
E) Again depending on the injury surgery to be anywhere from 1 week to 2 months.

For ACL surgery an MRI is not required but rather a CT scan or even a simple xray. I had my acl repaired in my left knee and when I was living in a small city that had only two orthopedic surgeons and my wait was 1 month.

I suppose you can argue that my wait was twice as long as yours but in the interim my Doc had me fitted for a $1500 brace (also included in the package) to keep my knee together while I waited.

Thats a reasonable timeline, but after everything I've had done with my knees, there is absolutely no way I would have anything performed without an MRI done first. A simple xray or ct scan offers very little to no detail to the depth of ligament tear and/or meniscus damage. If you had an ACL reconstruction done without an MRI you must have torn it good for the doctor to manually self assess and determine that a reconstruction was needed. Often people partially tear the ACL and need the reconstruction done, but without an MRI the doctor is unable to tell. I also had extensive meniscus damage and the doctor via the MRI was able to pinpoint the damaged area and where the pieces of broken off meniscus had gone. The orthopedic specialist that I used had an MRI machine in his office, so I was able to get it done the same day as my initial visit.

On a side note, how is your knee holding up now? I too had a custom brace made and have been able to resume competitive bball in the last few months. I had the cadaver replacement and it seems to be holding up nicely.

[Dynamix]

Originally Posted by Jace

we have united health care and are pretty happy, $420 for both my wife and I

we used www.ehealthinsurance.com to compare everything, pretty handy site

Agreed. I have it through work and they cover all $$, but had they not it was less than $200.. great coverage also, except they don't cover dental - or at least the plan we're on doesn't.

[The Sultan Of Smut]

Originally Posted by lazycash

If you had an ACL reconstruction done without an MRI you must have torn it good for the doctor to manually self assess and determine that a reconstruction was needed.
On a side note, how is your knee holding up now? I too had a custom brace made and have been able to resume competitive bball in the last few months. I had the cadaver replacement and it seems to be holding up nicely.

Yup I fucked it up good. My ACL was 90% torn through along with a partial tear to my MCL and cartilage damage. LOL I guess the surgery was really a no brainer...

Before my injury I had done a lot of leg work in the gym so my recovery was rather quick and I'd have to say my knee regained about 90% of it's original strength.

I get a little nervous when I'm getting off the chair lift with a board strapped to my weaker knee but all in all tip top