quote:
Originally posted by b50m:
quote:
Originally posted by seeweed:
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Originally posted by b50m:
Seeweed,
I pay that much for family coverage.
Who do you have?
I have Blue Cross . After leaving TVA, I could keep my insurance, but I had to pay the full price. It is currently around $1025 a month for me and my wife.
I was talking to another retiree just last week about the cost of our insurance. He had been to a meeting with BX a month or so ago, and they had stated that roughly 50% of the cost of our insurance was due to 5 (five) script drugs that are heavily advertised. I don't know what they are, but he is supposed to e-mail them to me.
I have had a lot of discussion on this forum down through the last few years with a lot of people blaming the "trial lawyers" for the large cost of our health insurance, but from what Blue Cross always tells us, it is the cost of script meds that cost 5 times more than the rest of the world here, that account for the high cost of our insurance. NEVER have they mentioned tort cases. I can believe that adds to the overall cost, and there was a government study showing our sue-happy society did raise the cost because doctors run more test to CYA, but it is a small percent.
(all that was probably way more than you wanted to know wasn't it
)
You must have the 80% coverage. We have the CDHP. It's $527 for family but has a really high deductible.
I don't know why they blame the cost on drugs, they refuse to pay for most brands names, charge penalties and expect you to mail order. I have had to change meds because of that. Canada has the best prices for drugs.
You are correct, I do have a 80% with a $300 deductible. My wife has pre-existing conditions, and now I do also with our age so changing insurance plans is not really an option at this point.
I have had no problem with getting the name brands of script, but I have to pay a lot more if there is a generic available and I choose not to use them.
In short, my insurance plan is very good, but very expensive. The total cost during the '90s was $450/month, but it has risen to the current level since Clinton left office, not that I blame Bush for that, just a time marker.
If my friend that I mentioned earlier does find those 5 drugs and sends them to me, I'll post them. The last time I attended one of those meetings the drug of choice for TVA was Prilosec , still script at the time, and it cost $5 / pill. The rest of the world paid $1 / pill or less, and that was back in the 90s.
I think they blame the cost of scripts because that is what is causing the insurance cost to be so high- simple as that, at least in the case of my Blue Cross.
AS long as politicians are in the pockets of big pharma, and they refuse to regulate the cost of drugs, and in addition , make it illegal to obtain them from another country , like Canada, then greed will continue to drive our cost up.