"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...


I agree. If I need an x-ray and money's tight, I can put it on a credit
card. And, there's never a problem with $60 office visits to the
internist. Meanwhile, I'm paying $300 a month for Blue Choice, for medical
needs which may never happen. I'd love to have a policy that covered
everything over X amount - $2K a year, or some such thing.


A few years back (mid 90's) I worked briefly for a company that was big
enough to self-insure. They offered several HMO and PTO type plans (which
the majority of the employees signed up for) along with a major medical plan
similar to those that existed before HMOs became the rage; which I opted
for. The major medical plan basically kicked in after $2,000 was paid by
the insured on an annual basis, unless in the event of a catastrophic injury
or illness in which case the insurance kicked in immediately. That year my
wife had a bout with breast cancer, had biopsies, major surgery,
chemotherapy and weekly, then monthly extensive follow-up exams. The
insurance paid for everything. If I recall correctly, my premium
contribution to this plan was about 8 bucks a week.

I've mentioned it here before, but when I was running my company I did a
survey to determine how our Blue Cross/Blue Shield HMO was being used by the
employees and their families. Based on the premiums that we were paying at
the time (the company paid 80%), I determined that it would be cheaper for
the company to simply pay for all the well baby checkups and visits for
coughs and colds and 100% pay for a major medical (non HMO) type plan for
everybody for catastrophic injury or illness. The problem was that no plan
was available in MA, nor would the state allow such a thing for a company of
our small size.

Eisboch