The holidays are over and life is back to normal so now it's time for me to complain! I've mentioned my feelings about my health insurance coverage a few times in past posts. Well today I'm going to go off on it! Ready?
When I had Brooklyn, I worked for the State of Utah and I believe my total cost to pay for her and everything related to having a baby was $250. Incredible, I know! I was very fortunate at that time.
Now I have possibly one of the worst insurance coverages ever! You think with a company like Zions Bancorporation who owns a series of banks all over the country, that they could come up with as good or close to what the State offers, but no! They only offer High Deductible plans with deductible options of $5,000 or $2,200 a year. That would be ok if we didn't pay so much every two weeks just to have coverage. Here's what we paid in 2008, we paid $114.50 every two weeks just to have a deductible plan of $2200. Of course we met our deductible in 2008 because we had a baby, but then we have to pay 25% of all bills after the deductible. Now the bills are pouring in. Mental note: never have a baby in November again because the bills come as Christmas presents!
We received our bills from IMC very fast. It was like as we walked out of the hospital, they placed a stamp on our bill. Hospital bills are outrageous! My bill was $4980.63; they charge $705.52 for the room each day. Man, I could stay in an extremely nice hotel for that price. AND, they wouldn't come in every hour and wake me up! ARGH! And that's just my bill, Eliza's bill was $1400.93 and her room charge was $250 a night. My doctor said I could leave the hospital after the first day, but I was worried something would go wrong and then I'd be at home. I could have been discharged 24 hours after having my baby and that worried me so I stayed another night. Now I wish I hadn't since the cost is so much. Luckily, our insurance covered some of these charges, but we still have a large portion ourselves. And I'm not mentioning doctor visit charges and lab work, etc. It's very overwhelming.
I know you're all thinking I'm glad this isn't my problem, but I think there is something seriously wrong with our society. How can a doctor charge $145 to check your child for 10 minutes? How can IMC charge $705 a night? Very extreme if you ask me! But what can I do to change this? That is my problem.
Then I called to set up a payment plan and I can get 0% interest if I pay it off in 90 days otherwise it will be 4% or 8%. Sadly, I won't be able to pay it off in 90 days so now I'll have to pay interest on a bill I can't afford to pay already. Something is seriously wrong there. They should just allow you to make payments with 0%. They should be glad I'm paying if off period. I could be like countless numbers of people with no insurance and who get their bills written off. Again something is seriously wrong with our society. Maybe I'll claim I'm a single mom with no job so I can get on Medicaid and have my bill paid off for me. (Sorry, I can say that because I used to work with these people), but I think I've drawn the line.
I really could go on and on, but I'll stop. It's just depressing me. Does anyone else have horrible insurance?
Monday, January 5, 2009
Complain, Complain, Complain
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
![Our Family](<a href="http://s252.beta.photobucket.com/user/angienowling/media/Christmas/Nowling%20Christmas/DSC_0128_zps9a559ffd.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh35/angienowling/Christmas/Nowling%20Christmas/DSC_0128_zps9a559ffd.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"/></a>)
8 comments:
We have great insurance! And I think we'd better start counting our blessings. You should definitely get 0% interest. And I'm sorry to say that there's a reason doctors get paid as much as they do, but you don't want to hear that now. Maybe with my next child I'll leave after one day and stay at my parents' which is five minutes from the hospital in case anything goes wrong. Complain away!
Angie- we had good insurance, but like so many other insurance companies they are lowering the premiums this year (yeah) but also lowering the coverage and the benefits (not yeah) so I am a bit leary to see what the future holds. I know they are not lowering the premiums for our benefit, it's for theirs, but it dramatically decreases many of our coverages. They took away our eye insurance completely (I can't think of the right term currently)and just knowing that bit of info. this will be the year me or Frank will need glasses. Luckily, I don't see any major medical situations (surgeries or babies), but you never know. I also am disgusted with how much the hospitals/doctors charge. I got a bill for a couple hundred dollars (luckily not what we had to pay) from a doctor who stepped in for a brief minute to ask how I was doing- I think it was some assistant to the Anesthiologist or something weird. It's ridiculous.
I so understand what you are saying about hospital bills. A baby and 2 surgeries and we have paid the big old IMC an awful lot too. Our insurance changed in July so we had to meet our deductible twice in 2008. It stinks something fierce. Sorry you have to deal with it too.
I am right there with you. Because we are self insured we don't get a group plan. Our plan costs more and covers less. Our deductible for Maternity is $5000. And that is pretty much what Aaron cost us. Our total for Aaron came to about $4,800. And our monthly costs for insurance just went up to $380. When we had Joseph we were on Medicaid. He cost us nothing. I would almost go back to the poor college days to get that price again.
At least you are blessed with a normal birth. My bill was over $11,000 and that was just me. Tyler's was over $7,000. So, over $18,000 and that is just the hospital. The isn't the guy that gives you a shot in the back, my actual doctor, or the pediatrician. I hear you all the way. Sorry, and I do know how stressful it is, because I just am barely done paying for ours.....BLAH! Hang in there and come play......it is free here. HA HA!
I got bills in the mail for Christmas too!!! So bad timing! Our insurance costs us more here in SC but it is good coverage. Only a $500 deductible then we pay 10% of the bill after. Which is a very good thing when paying for a c-section. I agree though, health care costs are messed up!
I got charged for using the emergency c-section room, even though I ended up pushing Owen out under my own power...
it cost an extra $300 to give birth in that room...without surgery. My IUD was over $800 out of pocket... we have DMBA (Scott works for the church) and they do not cover even a cent for birth control! We have great insurance otherwise, they covered 90% of my L&D, can't complain there, but I definitely hear you on this one.
$800 for an IUD? Holy crap!!!! Sorry, Angie, that was to Mindy, not to you.
It's a racket. That's all I can say. When I was a student at BYU, my friend almost had me convinced that if/when I got pregnant I would just need to claim I had no insurance because it would be cheaper than to pay our portion of the insurance. Meredith was an expensive baby, and we pay huge premiums every month because Jeremy works for a small company. Don't get me started on the big bill from the anesthesiologist who "conveniently" had to place my epidural twice....
Post a Comment