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I certainly understand that reaction, but I don't think it's crazy. I just joined one. My primary care physician recommended it. It's about 28% the cost of the
by gunapologist99 5y ago
I certainly understand that reaction, but I don't think it's crazy.
I just joined one. My primary care physician recommended it. It's about 28% the cost of the regulated ACA plans in my area for my size family. Read that number again. And, it covers everything (except no pre-existing conditions) except for things like cosmetic surgery.
The list of things that the ACA plan didn't cover at all was confusing and pretty lengthy, and it had a $9k deductible (or more, many of the cheaper plans had $15k deductibles) per family member, and double that (two family member's worth) for a max family deductible. To me, that is crazy. And, for the cheaper plans, they required coinsurance, so if I had a disease that would cost $200k, I would owe $67k.
Most amazingly, there's no deductible except for the $400-per-visit deductible. (There's no free maintenance or co-pays or anything like that.) Everything is covered after the $400-per-visit deductible, and there's virtually no maximum. Go to the ER, max of $400. Go for a checkup, probably pay it yourself (unless it exceeds $400).
(One could argue that they should cover an annual checkup, but if it was just a matter of adding $150/year to everyone's plan, what's the point; that's an arbitrary amount that can be budgeted in once you know to expect it. Since it's people of that religion only, some built-in pre-qualification occurs to eliminate people who would just abuse the system.)
These health share non-profit organizations have paid out billions by cooperating and coordinating among their members, and you negotiate with the hospital directly as a cash patient and make your own choice of care and providers.
It's somewhat akin to how a credit union is dissimilar to a bank.
I personally find the idea fascinating and certainly prefer it to forced socialized medicine.
- slumdev 5y ago> $400-per-visit deductible $400 is pretty close to the cost of an office visit, physical exam, metabolic panel, lipid panel, and EKG, which is what a primary care doc is going to order annually on something like 90% of Americans after a certain age. It shifts the expense of routine care and checkups to the patient. If you view insurance as indemnification against unexpected loss, it shouldn't be paying for expected, routine costs.
- srtjstjsj 5y agoIt should because those routine costs prevent disasters. That's also why car insurance pays you to install LoJack and homeowners insurance pays you to install fire alarms.
- gunapologist99 5y ago> That's also why car insurance pays you to install LoJack and homeowners insurance pays you to install fire alarms. But this isn't true -- at least for any car insurance or homeowners insurance that I've purchased. You often receive a small discount, but the discount alone doesn't cover the cost of purchase/maintenance.
- slumdev 5y agoThose are small discounts against a large premium. A health insurance analogy would be: Customer A pays $100/mo because he gets an annual checkup and takes the medicines the doctor prescribes. Customer B pays $200/mo because he hasn't seen a doctor since college. Customer B could reduce his total out of pocket by $800 per year if he paid for the $400 visit.
- lolc 5y agoDiabetes is a pre-existing condition for many. I'm lucky I live in a place where I can change insurer, despite my diabetes.
- fra 5y ago> And, it covers everything (except no pre-existing conditions) You're foisting the sick and the elderly onto government programs, and patting yourself on the back for pulling yourself by your bootstraps.
- arcticbull 5y agoI watched in one breath a former president explain to a group of AARP members that socialized medicine was evil, medicare was the best, and he'd do whatever it took to preserve medicare. I had a full on shocked pikachu face.
- marwatk 5y agoRead the plan very carefully. The reason these plans are cheap is usually because they can and do take advantage of things the ACA specifically outlawed -- rescission, lifetime caps, claim denial, the aforementioned lack of preexisting condition coverage, etc.