Have to change from Aetna to Kaiser or United Health.......any input from medical people?

[tmckay2]

its really apples to oranges. it all depends on your medical history, how you like to use money, dependents, etc.

kaiser is having some pretty major financial problems right now and have been doing large hiring freezes. so its possible they may be even more understaffed than normal. a prescription can sometimes have a VERY long wait time, like 4-5 hours. we have people come to our pharmacy and pay out of pocket that are kaiser members because they don't want to wait and sometimes our cash prices are lower than kaisers covered prices. thats not ALWAYS the case though. my wife had kaiser for our first kid. we didn't have to pay a lot of out pocket, but she was a teacher and had a pretty good individual deal, had she needed to cover me as well it would have been super expensive.

i have UHC. i like it because it is a high deductible, HSA plan. in my opinion unless you KNOW you are going to have some fairly expensive medical costs, this is by far the best way to go. my company pays 1000 in each year, it always carries over, i can stop paying into the hsa when i want, its tax free and can be used as a 401k once you retire. it always goes with you if you leave a company. my deductible is 4500 for my family, so not chump change but even if i didn't have the hsa it wouldn't bankrupt me. right now i have 9000 in my hsa as i pay in the max per month so i am fully covered for at least two years. if i wanted i could stop paying in and my total health care up front cost for the year for a family of 3 would be about 1100. the nice thing with the high deductible hsa plans is your premiums are generally quite low so you really only pay for what you need. however, if you have a major accident before you had time to put into your hsa it can be tough.

kaiser isn't all bad, but it can be slow, and they don't let you go anywhere. when my wife was pregnant we had two hospitals as options and neither was closer than 30 minutes. with UHC we have been able to basically go anywhere. i feel the uhc high deductible hsa plan is the best for a young, healthy family with low medical costs. you are covered for catastrophes and the hsa lets you have some tax deductions and another form of savings. but if you are going to constantly run through your hsa account or have a really high out of pocket max, kaiser might be a better option.

[Dave_L]

My wife is a union employee with Kaiser, so we have a pretty sweet deal.

Same here. I had a deviated septum and had surgery last year on it. Zero complaints. Was very easy and no issues. I actually really like my doctor too. They go out of their way to check EVERYTHING if something is wrong. Maybe that's because my wife works there? I dunno. But their "one stop shop" model is great for men. Lol. Simplicity is beautiful.

[Gman]

Thanks for the info, guys! My company is switching from Cigna to UHC next year.

[cableguy11]

We switched from UHC to Cigna last year. When we swapped to Cigna we opted for the HSA. We also had UHC at my old job for several years. Never had a problem with either. This year our Cigna premiums went up, but not by much.

[colorider]

My mom and dad are with kaiser and they are always happy and impressed with their service and care. My father is a retired medical malpractice lawyer, so he's pretty damn picky.

[CHA-LEE]

I have had Kaiser Health Insurance for many years now. I don't have any major complains about the healthcare service they offer. With any HMO you need to be comfortable with being treated like a "Number" and be ok with getting service from whatever resource is available at the time. Sure, I have a primary care doctor that I would prefer to work with all the time. But the way I see it, my health record is clearly documented in my chart and anyone within Kaiser providing me service can reference the same chart. So I really don't care if Doctor X or Y ends up fixing me. In the end YOU the patient need to take ownership in understanding your healthcare needs and objectively assessing any treatments offed. The more educated you are about YOUR healthcare situation the better treatment you will get because you can call bullshit when needed.

[gnihcraes]

I've had United for many years now... no complaints. I know one thing, the wife is not bitching all night long trying to figure out the entire screwed up billing of some service we had somewhere. Previous insurance providers have always jacked up the billing I believe on purpose to get extra $'s. United has paid for my services properly. Unknown from me if Kaiser billing is accurate or not?

Kaiser, people love em, people hate em. I believe in the medical professionals, I know some of them, they do good work. It's the system that some dislike. One location, One stop shopping. Great, but if it takes me 8 hours of vacation time away from work in one sitting, that doesn't help me much. United, I go see who I think is best, spend a hour or two away, plan for the next visit or specialist if required. If I also look at it this way, not all of the Kaiser locations can actually handle everything at that time. Not all of them have an MRI available or a specialist. They will have to refer you out to another location or Doctor anyways. (Kaiser or other)

A family member works for Kaiser on the business side of things. The place has issues, but I'd also assume United or any other provider does too, we just don't see it unless you're involved with it.

Just have to make the best guess on what care you need for the cost $. If it doesn't work out for you, change when the time comes up. I'm not happy at the moment because of our United Plan doesn't cover the medications until we've met the out of pocket. This hasn't happened yet, and my most recent medications purchase was $1700 for 90 days. F*CK. o'well. might have to make a change on something next time around. Decide where I want to pay, monthly, up front, in the back.. still going to pay, just figure out where it feels less painful. lol

[Gman]

...my most recent medications purchase was $1700 for 90 days.

It's not hard to do as you might think. I have 2 scripts that cost me over $600 per month.

[gnihcraes]

Ouch.

...

[fitz19d]

Bump for knowledgeable people. Wife finally let me make some choices with her healthcare stuff as she doesn't do well figuring it out. Already got her from highest to medium plan last year. Now working on dumping premium dental plan when she doesnt even go but somehow thinks 360/yr for that is trivial to pay.

Anywho, wondering about out of pocket maximum. Seems too good to be true. On her cheap plan under ACA it was added. To boot it is also the lowest out of pocket of the 3 plans. If we are going to have a kid c-sect. We know cost would be over any plans out of pocket, why would you not do the cheap plan? No way carrier can force us into family plan since we are married if I'm doing my own companies ins. right?

Cheap plan 73/month, 1700 deductible, 5,100 out of pocket.
Mid grade plan, 170/m, 1250 deductible, 6,250 out of pocket.