[TriLUG] OT: NC insurance options

[Michael Kimsal]

To elaborate on my earlier pricing, yes, I found similar numbers with
BCBSNC.

Our $5400 deductible has to be met before BCBS covers anything, and then
it's an 80/20 split (IIRC) where we pay 80% and they pay 20%, up to (IIRC)
$15k, then they cover everything after that.  So my $15k might be your
$12k,
but the slicing and dicing of payment options was similar.

4 years earlier, I'd been to the doctor re: heartburn and had one course of
prescription medicine.  That counted as 'pre-existing condition', and
jacked the price about 25% higher than 'best case' pricing I'd initially
received.  It's now even more years since then.  Our premiums actually went
down slightly (were $310 or so 2 years ago) so maybe my heartburn stigma
rolled off?  I doubt it though :)

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 9:53 AM, Abhi Muthiyan <abhivm at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> What I found was, for my family BCBS wanted about $12,000 per year,
> before they would pay for visits and medications. This $12K is split
> up between deductible, premium and co-pay.
> - $10K deductible, $2K in annual premium, $0 co-pay after deductible
> - $5K deductible, $7K in annual premium, $0 co-pay after deductible
> BSBS presented about 10-12 different variations, based on the same $12K
> number.
>
> Found similar calculations for friends who got their own insurance.
> The number $12 varies depending on the individual situation.
>
> Sometimes minor conditions raise premiums significantly. For example,
> if you have history with certain medications like blood thinners or
> anti-diabetic, the penalty levied is pretty heavy, even for a one time
> event. Even if that event was 10 years ago. My wife's individual
> premium is about double that of mine. Both of us are healthy and visit
> the doctor once a year. She was prescribed one of the anti-diabetic
> drugs 8 years ago.
>
> --
Michael Kimsal
http://michaelkimsal.com
919.827.4724