Florida BCBS

[joe8012]

Has anyone else looked at Florida's Blue Cross Blue Shield website? They have underwritten plans through 12/31/13 and ACA compliant plans beginning 1/1/14. I compared the nine cheapest plans offered before and after. I know they are apples to oranges. But I think this might be the sticker shock so many were talking about. I used a sixty year old couple in my search.

 

[donheff]

All those plans on the left sound like they don't carry the benefits of the ACA (e.g. predictable cost, surgical plus, etc). If you get comprehensive coverage, no cap, no preexisting condition, etc) you pay more and get more. If you are low income you get a subsidy and end up getting more for less.

Or did you evaluate the plans and lay equivalent plans side by side? Right..

 

[MichaelB]

Took multiple tries over a couple of days but I finally got a quote from BCBS. Looking at their 12 HSA options, all are less expensive than what we are currently paying.

 

[joe8012]

All those plans on the left sound like they don't carry the benefits of the ACA (e.g. predictable cost, surgical plus, etc). If you get comprehensive coverage, no cap, no preexisting condition, etc) you pay more and get more. If you are low income you get a subsidy and end up getting more for less.

Or did you evaluate the plans and lay equivalent plans side by side? Right..

I did state that these comparisons were "apples to oranges". The point I was trying to make was the very low cost plans that many people budget their world around will no longer be there on January 1st. Coming up with an additional $6000 a year for coverage you don't want or need can be very difficult for a couple with a MAGI of $62050

 

[easysurfer]

I went poking around looking at a BCBS HSA compatible bronze plan compareable to my current BCBS HSA and it looks less expensive.

 

[joe8012]

I also noticed that United Healthcare (Florida & Ohio) posted their rates for plans through 12/31/13 and there was no increase on October 1st as many were expecting. However, the policies will only be good through the end of 2014.

 

[donheff]

I did state that these comparisons were "apples to oranges". The point I was trying to make was the very low cost plans that many people budget their world around will no longer be there on January 1st. Coming up with an additional $6000 a year for coverage you don't want or need can be very difficult for a couple with a MAGI of $62050

Fair enough. If people accept the risk and budget for inadequate (in the opinion of the ACA architects) health insurance they may get budget shock.

 

[ERD50]

Fair enough. If people accept the risk and budget for inadequate (in the opinion of the ACA architects) health insurance they may get budget shock.

Right, and that is an important point for those people. We were all told many, many times - "if you like your plan, you can keep it". That doesn't seem to be the case, does it?

-ERD50

 

[diehard1997]

I checked our BCBS FL plan and it will more than double starting in 2014. We pay $311 per month now for an HSA-compliant plan with 10K MOP. Staring next year the deductible goes up to 12.5K and the premium to $756. Tough pill to swallow - paying an extra $5340/year, higher MOP and no apparent increase in coverage. Sigh....