Monday, June 6, 2011

just in case something really bad happens to you-urance.

insurance.

such a joke.

we don’t really call it insurance here.  merrill and i refer to it as, “just-in-case-something-really-bad-happens-to-us-urance”.  because seriously, that is the only time it helps.

let me complain for just a minute.

(okay, maybe more than a minute.)

we have health insurance.  i really shouldn’t complain because there are a few people who don’t have it.  but having insurance puts me in a situation where i am tempted (repeatedly) to pull out my own hair.

because we have health insurance, we also have a monthly draw on our bank account to pay the monthly premiums that only continue to grow.  every year, there is the anticipation, waiting for the letter, telling us how much that premium is going to rise.  (it is really less exciting than i am making it sound.  i promise.)

in previous years, we have been able to re-apply, have our premium drop to the rate that a new customer would get.  there have been years where we have saved ourselves $60 (!!!!).  that particular year earned me a dinner at maddox.  if you don’t know what maddox is, well then, i am sorry.  you just don’t get how awesome saving $60 on your health insurance is.

the only problem with re-applying is that once you do it, you can’t for another two years.  so last year, as our premium expectantly rose, we searched out if it would be worthwhile to re-apply.

we would have saved $4.

that would have earned me a happy meal.

(whoopee.)

so we decided to wait for this year, see if re-applying would save us more money.  (the whole two year deal..) 

this year, that letter comes and our premium rises $62 and change.  we are nearly to a house payment (an old house payment) for a monthly premium.

this would be fantastic if our insurance actually did anything for us.  we get to pay 100% of just about everything.  well, until we reach our deductible, which has never happened.

so basically, we shell out a butt-load of money to health insurance premiums every month, but try our darndest not to have to go to any sort of doctor because, well, that is more money, out of our pocket, you see?

(surely you must…)

so, thinking that we would be able to save some money re-applying (certainly we would!) i call our agent to crunch some numbers for me.

it was laughable.

in a crazy “you are taking all of my money” sort of way.

we could save $6.

$6!?!

well, there are other options to consider as well…

raise our deductable?

drop that “supplemental accidental coverage”?

(which costs $39 a month, but i will go into more on why that isn’t going to be dropped.)

and then there’s other companies we could switch to….

so there was a firm “no” to the first two options.  who wants a higher deductible?  and that accidental coverage has covered our bum more than once.  think of every time that peyton has dislocated her elbow (twice that we have had to take her in for that, once at lake powell, and i fixed it.) and her broken arm?  the time ashley fell out of the cart at joann’s..  or our latest incident with the bowling ball/hand sandwich.  that’s right.  all covered 100% because of our accidental coverage.

i just got an itemized bill from our mother’s day/bowling ball hand sandwich er visit…  just a few dollars short of the one thousand mark.

that will all be covered because it’s an accident!!! 

(see, we won’t be dropping that…)

i have thought many times of arguing how the girls didn’t get sick “on purpose”.

“it was an accident!”

you know, just to see if it can work?

so we moved on to the possibility of a new company.

the first one, same plan, same deductible, $10 more a month, and restrictive as to which doctor we could see.

the second one, same everything, different hospital, $150 more than what we are paying.

it’s laughable..

(again, in that crazy kind of laugh..)

and i thought obama fixed health care? 

9 comments:

Tiffany said...

Obama is only "fixing" healthcare that is government run. Go on medicaid then you can be part of his awesome healthcare plan. :) And it's an even bigger mess after the fixing, hence the quotes.

We've been very lucky to have employers who support using HSAs (health savings account). For us, that's has been the most cost effective option. One great thing about an HSA is that I can buy perscriptions and pay for doctor visits but I can also buy things like tylenol with it. Another awesome thing is that if we don't use all the money toward health expenses it becomes retirement income. So no matter what, that money is ours to use.

We also have a co-insurance with it that we have to pay a small premium for but it covers all those accident things so it's worth it.

Ally's Corner said...

I feel the same way about insurance, so I understand girl!!

anniebobannie said...

I am so sorry! Now I understand your email the other day. I love you! I know things like this suck and you want to punch the stupid company in the ovaries!

BookwormMom said...

Obama tried to fix healthcare. There is just too much opposition to do what really needs to be done. It sucks, all the way around, and I'm sorry you have to deal with it.

Sheri said...

There are some huge sacrifices with being a military family, but the healthcare is one of the many benefits.

I can understand your pain and frustration though as we have not always had such great coverage.

Bits and Pieces of Me...Emily! said...

The health care industry needs an overhaul. Talk about sticker shock, and seeing a bill. My echo was over 700 dollars and we had to shell out five hundred of that. Not to mention how much they charge for medicines like Tylenol, which was ten dollars a pill. When we were paying for insurance, it was well over three hundred a month, and we barely used the insurance. It isbso frustrating. My sister who has RA cannot get on any insurance because of her pre-existing condition. On the other hand, I have a sister who just doesn't pay her bills, and we are all left paying it in the form of over priced care. Something needs to change...

Claudia said...

Mindy, if you want Obama "Health Care Then I suggest you go live in England for a few months and see what kind of care they get.You have to wait in line. the was a brother in our ward over that that had been in terrible pain for months. Their solutions give him morphine. When he was finally able to get an MRI on Wednesday he died on Friday of Bone Cancer. He was 62 years old.
England and Canada are socialists medicence. To pay for that kind of health care the british government taxes them to death.
we have paid insurance premiums for so many years When I turned 65 my premiums for myself and my husband dropped $450, but we still have to have a supplement to go along with medicare. They get you going on was or the other. I just want the peace of mind if something drastic should have. I am 65 and my husband is 70 --he had had three major heart surgreies
Thank goodness for health insurance!!

Mindy said...

oh, i do not want obama care, i don't want obama! ;)
i know that we don't want socialized medicine, i have heard too many horror stories. i want help for everyone who is stuck playing this game.
we pay our premiums, have been for 11 years, and try our hardest to not go to the doctor because the rest of that cost comes out of our pocket. well, unless we reach $1000 for each of us, then we get help. like we can afford $1000 for each of us. our premiums have gone up every year, and there have been a couple where is isn't much, but once merrill has his birthday it goes up more. it is a system that we have been paying into for over a decade and the only benefit we see is that it is there if something major were to happen to one of us.
then there's my parents. my dad was employed by the government for years, first as an officer in the air force, then as a civil engineer in the private sector. he had wonderful benefits, but as he neared retirement age, he was forced out, pre-maturely, and lost coverage. now they are playing games with his retirement benefits. they have nothing in the way of coverage. cobra is more than his meager income is now, retirement wouldn't even cover it. seems like a great "thank you" for all the years of work he put in. they pay for everything out of pocket and hope that nothing happens.
i am not saying that the government should step in and re-structure, take over a system that isn't working, but that would surely fail if they were at the helm, but i am saying that they can at least make regulations that would benefit us as citizens. make it possible for families to breathe a little easier.
i am thankful we have it, but sometimes wonder if the money we put into it would be better spent if it sat in a savings account, you know, just for those "just in case moments". but then there is the underlying fear that something bigger than we could ever imagine would happen, and then where would we be without our insurance?
it is just a game i am more than sick of.

Rachael said...

I complained to Jesse every year our insurance changed during the years I had Hayden and Kimmy we had and still have a $5000 deductible for the family.

I was so thankful we had that deductible when I was prego with Kimmy though because I was $900 away from meeting it before I went into the hospital with her. I am still thankful for that because her hospital stay was almost $100,000 and all we ended up paying was $64.00 out of all of it.

Even though we still have the high deductibles I am totally thankful that we have insurance.

It was a pain to deal with Cobra when Jesse changed jobs in '08. I somewhat know your parents pain, though I only had to deal with that for 90 days. I guess after reading this I can't complain anymore. :)