cheryl said:
Any suggestions for a private health care company.
Hello Cheryl:
I hear you about rate increases.
? When I first became self employed (mid eighties) I got a great policy with State Farm. Unfortunately, the rates increased at such a rate I had to continually drop services so I could afford the payments. It got to the point I was only able to cover catastrophic stuff. Was able to finally get in the Kaiser Permanente plan and am very pleased with the current coverage and care I receive.
Some items I like is that I can choose my primary care physician and "he/she" makes all decisions on treatment. I don't have to have treatments approved by an administrator of the plan. Also, they keep up with on-line technologies. If I have a blood test in an AM, I can go to their secure website and see the results by NLT then next AM. Can also communicate with any doctor I am seeing, technicians, or administrators of the plan on-line or order med refills. While on the road, it has never taken more than 5 days to receive a refill regardless of my location -- including General Delivery, QZ, AZ.
The downside of Kaiser is location. They are only in certain States. If they communicate and find that your residence address has changed to a non-Kaiser state, they automatically drop you.? As a full time RVer and as someone who would love to change residence from CA - I am stuck unless I change to another plan or am very careful during my travels out of state or out of a state that has Kaiser coverage. Several years ago I had an event in Houston and spent time in a local ER. They billed Kaiser and I only had to pay the co-payment for an over nite stay. Kaiser has a "travel kit" for just such an emergency. There are other full timers in Kaiser and as far as I know have also been able to travel as much as they want out of Kaiser States. My wanting to move out of CA deals more with other issues such as State taxes, sales tax laws, and dumb politics (IMO).
One can also travel to a Kaiser facility from another State if the trip is not too far. For example, if in Yuma, AZ, there is a Kaiser facility not too far into California. If in Central Texas -- that's not good.?
