More Health Insurance Premiums

I have not decided just how i feel about this yet.

 

 

 

How about- Atrium will give their employees a choice. You can stop smoking and pay a lower share of your health care premium per month, deducted from your paycheck--- OR- you can continue to smoke and you will absorb the difference of a non-smoker's health care rate versus the average insurance charge of a smokers monthly premium from your paycheck. IE- you will pay the higher premium rate for smokers as Atrium will no longer absorb the additional insurance costs for smokers and will only pay the non-smoker rate. Why does it always have to be all or nothing with employers?

Hermes- car insurance companies are a classic example. You pay your car insurance premiums for years with no claims and you are a valued customer UNTIL you file a claim. Then, overnight, they cancel you, or, at best, raise your premiums so high you can no longer afford them and are forced to find another carrier. They exist only to make money with little to no expeditures. On the other hand, I can attest to the monetary payouts by Anthem for my wife's medical expenses. They have paid 100% of her costs which are approaching $150,000. They have been tremendous and have provided protection from overwhelming financial charges.

You want to hear a good one about the insurance business....my wife was told by her employer provided insurance company that it would cost her an additional $100 per month if I refused or declined insurance from my employer. Now this is not to add me to my wifes plan it is simply because I wouldn't have insurance.

randy wrote: ...statistics from a 2006 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicated 60 percent of health-care costs in the U.S. go toward treatment for tobacco-related illnesses.

At the risk of sounding like a vulture, I must say that this "government statistic" is highly suspect.

Hermes- Your wife's insurance company is trying to protect itself from being the primary insurance for both of you and having to pay the premiums. They want your employer to pay the premiums for your insurance and don't want to pay the premiums for both of you if you have the option of acquiring coverage where you work. They want to be the primary insurer for your wife and the secondary coverage for you with your primary insurer at your work paying your medical bills. You can't ride on your wife's insurance if you are offered coverage at your place of employment or you'll be penalized- ($100 bucks per month) They gotta make some money off of this if you opt out of your employer offered coverage. If your out of pocket will be less than $100 per month, it's cheaper to get your own insurance, right?

We have a little different situation. My wife has Social Security Disability and has Medicare- Parts A and B. I have Anthem Advantage where I work and am paying an extra $75 bucks per paycheck for the best coverage they offer. (Got to due to her medical issues). ALL of the medical bills are paid by Anthem. Little to nothing is paid by her insurance- Medicare. Reason- she is 58. If she were 65, Medicare would be the primary insurer and pay what Anthem is paying now. We never get a Medicare EOB- the EOB's always come from Anthem. When she turns 65, Anthem will stop being her primary coverage.