What's the best health insurance plan in the US?

Factual Questions
1

OK well I’ve spent maybe 10 hours looking for health insurance and I’m left feeling about as confused as when I first started out. I live in Phoenix, AZ and I’m looking for an individual plan, since I’m not employed I will basically pay on the plan for myself (I’m not a member of any group that allows me group health care).

Now, I’m willing to pay up to $200 a month but obviously the more I pay the more I expect in the way of no deductable, full coverage, little co-pay, etc.

I’ve checked so far into Healthnet, Cigna, Aetna, Humana, Blue Cross. Those are the only major ones I know of. What am I missing? Major groups? Smaller groups?

Also I tried to find some comprehensive sites that have a comparison of insurances using recent rates and deductables, etc. compared in a table. I wasn’t able to find much out there. It would be nice to compare every single insurance side by side… But how?

Does anyone out there have a really good plan for themselves that they are happy with, at a good price? Or know how a person can fight through the nightmare jungle of picking out a good health plan? Please let me know this is getting stressful!

2

Um, Principal and Kaiser…

Actually, I believe Consumer Reports did a comparison of national health insurance plans not too long ago. Try checking their website – if you want at the real content, you’ll have to pay, though.

3

The one Congress has created for itself, that we taxpayers pay for.

4

There is no one best health insurance plan. It all depends on what you want & need.

I did many hours of research last fall to get health insurance for Mr. Athena and I. With Weirddave’s help (thanks, Dave!) I managed to figure out the basics. Most health insurance plans break things down into sections - for example, hospitalization, prescriptions, ER visits, outpatient services, wellness plans, etc. etc. Of course, none of 'em call each thing the same name, making it a bit harder to compare, but you oughta be able to figure things out.

On top of that, most have co-pays, deductibles, top limits, and shared fees up to a certain amount. For example, it’s common to see something like “Hospitalization: 80/20 to $10,000, $200,000 max benifit, $200 deductible.” What that means is that on the first $10,000 of a hospital visit, you pay 20% of the costs and a $200 deductible. The max the insurance plan will pay out is $200K.

Another thing to keep in mind: each person has individual health insurance needs. Mr. Athena and I are both reasonably healthy & have no kids. We opted for a program that is fairly inexpensive on a monthly basis, but we pay the first $1500 of everything - doctor visits, hospitalization, etc. We have no “Wellness plan” - ie, if we want to go to the doctor for a physical, we pay for that. After the first $1500 a year, the insurance pays 100% of everything.

Obviously, if we were going to the doctor a lot, this plan would end up costing us a fair bit of out of pocket money. But we decided that given our health history, this plan made the most sense for us. Others choose different plans depending on what’s important to them.

5

I’m not sure about AZ but here in MA there’s nothing for $200/month that would actually cover anything worthwhile. We pay more than that for the HMO Blue that hubby gets through work.

I just wanted to second what Athena said and suggest you figure out your health care needs/priorities. If you have any ‘preexisting conditions’ there are a lot of health plans that won’t take you or that will charge you extra because of them. We ran into problems switching insurances because of this and I had to provide all kinds of documentation that I had insurance beforehand and that it covered my condition. ugh healthcare is much easier to get when you are healthy!

Also see if your state has an insurance program you could qualify for.

Oh and my husband’s company used to be based in Tucson with a small satellite office in Cambridge so we all had Cigna. Apparently in AZ Cigna is a great plan… out here there are about 4 doctors on the plan and none of them accept new patients. If you never travel a smaller local plan might be the best fit for you but if you end up away from home often you will probably want to look into the portability of your plan.

Do you have a doctor now? You may want to talk to someone in the office there about insurances they accept and coverages, referrals and fees. The people who deal with it from that end can often give you insight.

Unfortunately because of the variety of options involved it is difficult to do a straight comparison of insurance plans. You need to find the one that best fits your situation.

6

Good answer from Athena & advice from tanookie.

I worked for a group health insurer for the last 12 years. Only thing I can add is that it might help to take a quick look at your state’s Dept Of Insurance website, just so you know your rights & such. A # of states have made it illegal for insurers to refuse you because of pre-existing conditions (if that’s an issue for you) & the DOI would probably spell that out for you.

I have no experience with individual health insurance so that’s all I got for you.