Jonathan, Since being introduced to Humble Dollar about a year ago, I am a steady reader and I look forward to reading your newsletters on Saturday mornings. I agree with SCao that using a SurveyMonkey or similar survey/polling questionnaire may provide much better insight to you than relying on people taking the time to leave a comment. You could include questions about topics, time of year that might encourage/allow people to attend, range of costs that might be affordable, whether or not they would want to stay at a conference hotel, etc. For now, count me as a "maybe". I would probably get more out of the opportunity to meet others and learn from them as opposed to the formal sessions, so please include plenty of time for that.
My father had a good company insurance plan which operated very similarly to the way Richard describes (though not a high deductible plan). My father was convinced it was a great deal and the monthly premiums were a little lower than what Medicare plus a good Medicare Supplement insurer would have charged, so he never seriously considered dropping his employer coverage. Reimbursements for his medical treatment were always excellent, although his 2 or 3 copays for service and drugs each month more than made up the difference for his share of the cheaper monthly premiums. But my mother had several issues typically requiring 6 to 8 monthly appointments that always required co-pays and frequently required my father's interaction with one or more of the providers to get coverage for service and for drugs. One of her favorite providers was "out of network" so my parents had to pay more for her visits to that one. And her coverage was often denied or limited, so my parents' annual out of pocket cost was always very significant. His employer changed primary insurers at one point, and that led to a great deal of aggravation as the two insurers argued over which one was responsible for some of my mother's pre-existing conditions. Neither company was willing to pay for her usual appointments in January and February that year, and my mother had to pay out of pocket to continue her treatment, though by March or April that all got sorted without extra cost to my parents and several thousand dollars was eventually reimbursed to them. When my father died, my mother was not eligible to continue in his plan and she was terribly upset that she was forced to go on to Medicare. She was very worried that her coverage would deteriorate significantly and she would be forced to change physicians. We chose the plan F supplement insurance for her. Every physician happily accepted Medicare, including the one who had been "out of network" for my father's insurance. The mountain of paperwork arriving in the mail almost every day grew significantly as Medicare seems to need at least twice as much paper to explain the same thing as an insurance company does, and then the supplemental insurer would duplicate that paperwork showing that it had topped off the payments for each service, but at the same time there were no more co-pays and very few bills that were not covered in full with no need to beg for coverage. Her annual costs aside from the standard Medicare and Supplement monthly premiums were negligible. As a result of this experience, I strongly recommend to my friends that anyone covered by retiree medical insurance plans should look more carefully at Medicare rather than dismiss the Medicare option without a close comparison.
Comments
Jonathan, Since being introduced to Humble Dollar about a year ago, I am a steady reader and I look forward to reading your newsletters on Saturday mornings. I agree with SCao that using a SurveyMonkey or similar survey/polling questionnaire may provide much better insight to you than relying on people taking the time to leave a comment. You could include questions about topics, time of year that might encourage/allow people to attend, range of costs that might be affordable, whether or not they would want to stay at a conference hotel, etc. For now, count me as a "maybe". I would probably get more out of the opportunity to meet others and learn from them as opposed to the formal sessions, so please include plenty of time for that.
Post: A Difficult Year
Link to comment from January 7, 2023
My father had a good company insurance plan which operated very similarly to the way Richard describes (though not a high deductible plan). My father was convinced it was a great deal and the monthly premiums were a little lower than what Medicare plus a good Medicare Supplement insurer would have charged, so he never seriously considered dropping his employer coverage. Reimbursements for his medical treatment were always excellent, although his 2 or 3 copays for service and drugs each month more than made up the difference for his share of the cheaper monthly premiums. But my mother had several issues typically requiring 6 to 8 monthly appointments that always required co-pays and frequently required my father's interaction with one or more of the providers to get coverage for service and for drugs. One of her favorite providers was "out of network" so my parents had to pay more for her visits to that one. And her coverage was often denied or limited, so my parents' annual out of pocket cost was always very significant. His employer changed primary insurers at one point, and that led to a great deal of aggravation as the two insurers argued over which one was responsible for some of my mother's pre-existing conditions. Neither company was willing to pay for her usual appointments in January and February that year, and my mother had to pay out of pocket to continue her treatment, though by March or April that all got sorted without extra cost to my parents and several thousand dollars was eventually reimbursed to them. When my father died, my mother was not eligible to continue in his plan and she was terribly upset that she was forced to go on to Medicare. She was very worried that her coverage would deteriorate significantly and she would be forced to change physicians. We chose the plan F supplement insurance for her. Every physician happily accepted Medicare, including the one who had been "out of network" for my father's insurance. The mountain of paperwork arriving in the mail almost every day grew significantly as Medicare seems to need at least twice as much paper to explain the same thing as an insurance company does, and then the supplemental insurer would duplicate that paperwork showing that it had topped off the payments for each service, but at the same time there were no more co-pays and very few bills that were not covered in full with no need to beg for coverage. Her annual costs aside from the standard Medicare and Supplement monthly premiums were negligible. As a result of this experience, I strongly recommend to my friends that anyone covered by retiree medical insurance plans should look more carefully at Medicare rather than dismiss the Medicare option without a close comparison.
Post: Who’s on First?
Link to comment from March 30, 2022