Exprience with member/prof org group plans

[ymidt]

Anyone have an experience to share with a member group plan such as through AAA auto, or a professional org like IEEE, or an alumni assoc?

 

[Martha]

Looking at the IEEE website, it appears that it has closed their comprehensive plan to new enrollees, but may still have a catastrophic plan with a $25,000 or $50,000 deductible. IEEEInsurance - USA

If anyone has contrary information, let us know.

By the way, ymidt, I like your avatar.

 

[TickTock]

Also posted on the ER Healthcare thread:

"The IEEE group policy was closed to new applications on 1/1/2007. Also, rates have gone up and services decreased. The insurer showed IEEE that the previous levels of rates and services were not sustainable.

That does not bode well for non-company-based insurance..."

 

[TickTock]

link to explanation of IEEE comprehensive medical plan status and changes. CLick on Heathcare and then Comprehensive Healthcare.

 

[ymidt]

scams

After doing more research on the net I see several articles over the last 10 yrs which claim that many associations are just scams created by insurance companies.
Also, it seems that many associations stopped offering group plans because their buyers were predominantly folks with expensive medical conditions and this caused rate explosion.
I have yet to locate any good news about this subject!

 

[Martha]

There isn't any good news. In a lot of states associations can't even sell plans because they can't get approved by insurance commissioners because they don't meet state minimum requirements. These plan have a reputation for not offering much and capping out at very low levels.

Many entities, like AAA you mentioned, as well as AARP, offer insurance plans but they are underwritten, individual, plans that are just using AAA or AARP for marketing the plan. Generally, the price is no different than if you bought directly from the insurance company.

 

[RunningBum]

I had joined IEEE in anticipation of ER a few years ago. It's a real organization for engineers/techies, though not too interesting to me. I joined it to be able to get a group health plan.

As I got closer I realized their rates and plans weren't very good, and saw how much they had cut their plan at the start of this year. I didn't renew IEEE this year. I'm in good health, so I plan on lining up a private policy when or shortly before I retire.

If there's a better way to go for a 46 yr old, I'm all ears.

 

[NotSoonEnough]

I had joined IEEE in anticipation of ER a few years ago. It's a real organization for engineers/techies, though not too interesting to me. I joined it to be able to get a group health plan.

As I got closer I realized their rates and plans weren't very good, and saw how much they had cut their plan at the start of this year. I didn't renew IEEE this year. I'm in good health, so I plan on lining up a private policy when or shortly before I retire.

If there's a better way to go for a 46 yr old, I'm all ears.

I looked at both IEEE (used to be a member) and ACM (am still a member) a couple of years ago and the rates were no better than what I could locally get through BC/BS.

Insurance Programs — Association for Computing Machinery