Health Insurance

[HemaOncoDoc]

Has anyone thought about health insurance? I know there are many plans out there including the university plan, SOMA, AMSA, etc. What do you plan to use? For those who are using or plan to use SOMA, do you know the copay for a visit to your primary care physician? Thanks.

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[DrMom]

I would strongly advise against SOMA's policy (and last I checked, AMSA used the same company, so same with theirs). MEGA Health and Life is an awful company. They denied virtually every claim my family submitted, even though they were covered by the policy. We wasted a ton of time fighting with them to get them to pay & then they'd pay at a discounted rate (based on what they felt the Dr should have charged).

That all said, it is a group policy and if you are already on a group policy and you (or your family) have any kind of preexisting medical condition you probably want to stay with a group policy to maintain current and future coverage for that condition. If you do need to go with anything through MEGA, I recommend their most basic policy. They first offered that my last year of school & it saved my family a ton on premiums and got us nearly the same coverage as the next step up.


If you're young & healthy or you're not already on a group policy, check out other individual policies from Blue Cross, etc.

 

[scpod]

I know there are many plans out there including the university plan, SOMA, AMSA, etc. What do you plan to use?

My school bills us for their BlueCross BlueShield program automatically each semester unless we provide proff of a similar plan. It's actually quite good:

Office visits $10
Specialists $15
ER $50

$5 and $10 drugs.

I'm 42, so I pay more than the younger folks, but it costs me $1008 for six months. It'd be hard to get that on my own anywhere.

 

[HemaOncoDoc]

I would strongly advise against SOMA's policy (and last I checked, AMSA used the same company, so same with theirs). MEGA Health and Life is an awful company. They denied virtually every claim my family submitted, even though they were covered by the policy. We wasted a ton of time fighting with them to get them to pay & then they'd pay at a discounted rate (based on what they felt the Dr should have charged).

That all said, it is a group policy and if you are already on a group policy and you (or your family) have any kind of preexisting medical condition you probably want to stay with a group policy to maintain current and future coverage for that condition. If you do need to go with anything through MEGA, I recommend their most basic policy. They first offered that my last year of school & it saved my family a ton on premiums and got us nearly the same coverage as the next step up.


If you're young & healthy or you're not already on a group policy, check out other individual policies from Blue Cross, etc.

Blue Cross seems to have many plans, but they seem to have either a high deductible or extraordinary premiums. If I were to go with any of the aforementioned plans, it would be the basic one since I am unmarried and under 30.

My school bills us for their BlueCross BlueShield program automatically each semester unless we provide proff of a similar plan. It's actually quite good:

Office visits $10
Specialists $15
ER $50

$5 and $10 drugs.

I'm 42, so I pay more than the younger folks, but it costs me $1008 for six months. It'd be hard to get that on my own anywhere.

Now that sounds like a solid BlueCross plan, but it's only at LECOM-BR. The ones around the areas I'm looking at are a bit more costly. Options, hmm...

 

[MaximusD]

i have mega life health insurance...covered minor soft-tissue injury ER visit for a football injury to my arm... and covered my wisdom teeth extractions. Overall, a solid PPO, IMHO.

Obviously my experience has been different than the aforementioned, albeit less severe and more common.

 

[mshheaddoc]

forewarned that some of the individual plan have a one year waiting period for preventive health (such as yearly physicial etc). Found out the hard way for a crappy plan.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

I began looking around because I have a family to think about. Since my wife is self employed, she would be getting the insurance. You really need to hunt far and wide and if you have a spouse that can be employed, all the better.

 

[mshheaddoc]

Oh and my plan is with assurant health. I wouldn't suggest them.