Maybe it is finally time for consumer-directed health plans...as a married, father of 4 myself, we are now moving ourselves in to a high deductible health plan - most carriers have products available whether HRA or HSA, BUT it is important to look closely at prices...for example Aetna loves the products, has had its own employees in them for many years now, and publishes annual trend in the middle single digits and in some cases close to zero. Other carriers like Empire Blue Cross, Horizon Blue Cross, Cigna, Health Net and Oxford have not caught on with pricing, YET. I do feel there will be a race to the products with the recent economic meltdown. We must all remember that insurance carriers INVEST your premium, and we all know what happened to investments over the last 4-6 quarters!
Anyway, get savvy, and research CVS's generic drug program as well Target's and Walmart's....lots of my family's day-to-day healthcare needs are things like non-sedating antihistamines, generic thyroid meds, etc...so if we move to a high-deductible plan with say a 5,000 deductible for our family annually (even meds go towards deductible) but save 40-50% in premium for our family, and save 1/2 to 2/3 of the 5k deductible each month in an investment vehicle like a health savings account, we could save all the way around. In addition we can have this HSA tied to a debit card and bank of our choice, and at the point-of-sale we are just transferring pre-tax medical savings amounts.
I urge everyone, especially in an area like metro-NYC, to take the time and speak to specialists about these plans. Obama can only do so much with all of the "hands in the healthcare pot", as such, single payer healthcare is a LONG WAY OFF. Insurance carriers on the other hand are going to be given ultimatums to find ways to make health plans affordable. They have smart actuaries, they can do it....
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A quick comment on the Obama COBRA subsidy....it appears insurance carriers are billing terminated employees only the 35% premium, and in turn billing the former employer the 65% subsidy amount. As such, the responsibility is falling on both the employer and insurance carrier. That is good news for employees who have either been terminated, laid off etc as they will be able to carry their current coverage for a period of 9 months, as long as termination occurred between September 2008 and December 31, 2009.
ReplyDeleteTerminated employees must not be eligible for group coverage under another employer in order to secure the subsidy, but this is terrific news for folks struggling with how to pay for insurance upon job loss.