All Posts by Date or last 15, 30, 90 or 180 days.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases @AMAZON

Designed for the most demanding needs of photographers and videographers.
The fastest, toughest, and most compatible portable SSD ever with speeds up to 2800MB/s.

Off topic: Insurance Goes Insane

If you buy your own health care as I do, be sure to scrutinize any 2014 proposal from your health insurer. Don’t assume!

In summary, the proposal I received from Blue of California:

  • Doubles the premium to nearly $19,000 per year for a plan that is so awful, it’s really only for emergency room visits and similar.
  • Raises the deductibles substantially.
  • Raises the annual out of pocket maximums substantially.
  • Raises costs after deductible to 40% from $0.

Observe that it’s not just twice the price, it’s far lower benefits. Well, essentially zero benefits as a practical matter. If that’s affordable, I’d hate to see expensive health care. And this is for the purgatory plan one step above the don’t-even-think-about-getting-sick plan. I’m not talking here about the “silver” or “gold” or “platinum” plans. Hell, those are “heaven” plans I can’t even contemplate.

It gets uglier for small business. Like many small businesses I am an S-corporation, and health care premiums my S-Corp pays are taxable as income on my personal return. Which means the earnings needed to pay for it are far higher, meaning $19,000 really means at least $30,000 in earnings if not more (California and federal income taxes). Very affordable for successful attorneys I suppose. By the way, employees working for big companies are not taxed on health care premiums paid on their behalf, a gross inequity for the self employed.

If the goal is to break the family’s budget, the Affordable Care Act has succeeded brilliantly with me and my family. I make just enough to pay my bills—but too much to get the juicy tax credits. Funny thing is, I don’t see how plans like this one help anyone with routine medical care (the $4500 deductible is far too high for most Americans, and then there’s the 40% hit on top of that even after it’s met).

I’ve already inquired with a health insurance broker about an alternate plan: it seems that I might be able to get the premium down to “only” an 80% increase over last year. With the CoveredCA.com California exchange site, the cheapest Bronze plan for my family comes with a 85% hike in price and very high deductible. As if cutting off three fingers is better than cutting off four fingers.

As a “worst case” concern: that 40% after-deductible whack is limited to the $6350 per individual cap, or so one might assume. Otherwise, it would mean personal bankruptcy for any serious visit to the hospital or emergency room. But I wish it were spelled out: if I get hit by a bus, and exit the hospital alive (or dead) with a $200K hospital bill, am I liable for $6350 or $80,000? I’d assume it’s $6350, but I wish this were made explicit.

Red annotations below call out key points. The scan is of the flyer received from Blue of California.

Blue of California proposed 2014 medical plan
View all handpicked deals...

Voigtlander MACRO APO-LANTHAR 65mm f/2 Aspherical Lens for Sony E
$999 $849
SAVE $150

diglloyd.com | Terms of Use | PRIVACY POLICY
Contact | About Lloyd Chambers | Consulting | Photo Tours
Mailing Lists | RSS Feeds | X.com/diglloyd
Copyright © 2020 diglloyd Inc, all rights reserved.
Display info: __RETINA_INFO_STATUS__