Sorry, I thought KWIM was a commonly known abbreviation. It stands for “know what I mean”
And “going bare” was at one time a term used by physicians and other professionals who did not have malpractice insurance.
Anyway, that was my sister’s experience with Kaiser back in the day.
There’s also another issue - my insurance card says “UHC” on it. I’ve never had a problem getting something approved , I have out of network coverage and there are even participating doctors in other countries. BUT - I don’t actually have coverage through UHC. I have it through a plan that covers states and some local government employees- the plan is self-insured and pays UHC to administer the medical (other companies administer hospital, prescription, mental health. Which means that my experience isn’t relevant to most other people who might be considering UHC.
Only if you would actually have to pay that half-million. My mother’s 84 years old and has basically outlived her money - if she gets a half-million dollar hospital bill (after whatever Medicare pays) the hospital isn’t getting paid anything more than the couple thousand she has in the bank. It would actually be cheaper for her to skip the $600/month Medigap policy.
Good point. I had to almost (not quite) empty my mother’s small estate to pay her bills, but once it hit that magic inflection point it would have been over for her creditors. The reason I spent so much time and effort negotiating discounts is that as sole heir it was essentially my money circling down the drain 
. As it was I salvaged so little of it I might as well have avoided that hassle and just paid the bills straight until it ran out and declared it over with. The only problem with that tactic is I no doubt still would have been fielding calls for a year and having to produce paperwork to prove the estate was broke and could no longer pay.
I knew KWIM.
Malpractice insurance and medical/dental insurance are not the same thing.
We’re not medical professionals (or most of us aren’t) but we ALL need insurance. Or fat bank accounts.
It’s a foolish person who is not insured.
My mom has UHC. She’s on the Ford Retirees program. I think they’re relatively new to UHC. Possibly they were on Aetna before. Or BCBS.
She’s been through two back surgeries, maybe 3, with them. Surgery, hospital stay, home PT, on site PT and follow ups have all been covered. I’m not sure that she has even had any co-pays.
Mind you she also has Medicare. I don’t know how it’s split.
However - a big HOWEVER - Ford health coverage has always been the cream of the crop. Even the retirees. She’s not even paying for it (and the actual retiree has passed). If she has an issue she calls the Ford rep, not UHC directly. So I don’t think she has any experience with their website or their billing.
Also another caveat we live in the Cleveland area which means there is an abundance of quality health care to be had. YMMV if you have to carefully seek out providers.
I do think maybe UHC did drag their feet on covering her PT after her last surgery. But once it got going she’s had a lot of appointments.
I only had Aetna for Medicare prescription coverage, and they were fine, but for some reason I got kicked out of it when CVS bought them.
For work I usually had UHC but sometimes had BCBS, and UHC was much better. Seldom a problem, but work was basically self-insured, being a Fortune 50 company. My wife was covered under my plan, and BCBS would always spend the first few months when we were put onto them asking again and again if she had her own coverage.
I have UHC for Medigap, branded as AARP, and never a problem.
Kaiser Permanente is used for our school district, so I know lots of people on it. They killed two of them. No thanks.
I’ve had UHC for a long while & never had a problem, though I’ve sometimes wondered if having a large employer w/some leverage helps. I also have a friend struggling with Aetna, they suddenly did a massive increase in one of his prescriptions, and when he switched to a generic they denied it. He had to go back to his PCP and get them to provide additional documentation that he needed it.