Eisboch wrote:

"BAR" wrote in message
...

My wife's former company, a federally chartered communications
corporation, was self insured. They did hire a management company to
administer the health "plan".

I worked briefly for a fairly large company here in MA that offered
self-insured plans. They also had a professional health management
company that managed it.

I opted for the Major Medical plan. It was reasonably inexpensive, we
were covered for any serious problems and the deductable was $2000 per
year. Of course, we had to pay for routine doctor visits for
non-catastrophic issues (up to the deductable).

It happened to turn out that Mrs.E. had a bout with breast cancer during
my employ at this company. All the tests, surgery and six months of
chemo were covered, along with almost weekly doctor visits. Our cost:
$2000.

We had a premature baby. Wife cost about $50,000 for the 3 1/2 weeks she
was in the hospital before the baby was born. Once the baby was born at
28 weeks the bill jumped to about $500,000 for two months in the
neo-natal ICU. My wife and I kept our respective single coverage
insurance because it was cheaper then switching to a family plan with
either company. Once the baby was born she was covered by both of our
policies with my wife's as primary, this was the self-insured company.
My insurance kept putting up a fight about the $80,000 they were on the
hook for. They finally shut up and paid when I told them they were lucky
they were not paying the whole $550,000.