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How do you buy health insurance? Anyone in the Health Insurance industry?

No, but if you or your wife have any pre-existing conditions premiums are gonna be high especially if you have something that's gonna cost em' a lot. As far as I know Kaiser Permanente is the ONLY insurance in obamacare that's available in Ga. and it SUCKS.
Actually I have Obamacare and it's Ambetter. And it still sux
 
Bsbs is the only insurance you can buy in Georgia. It's expensive unless you qualify for assistance. It also SUCKS. I could have a really nice house on the lake for what I pay a month for 3 people. I HATE the bastards at bcbs but I have no choice. Use a credit card for the payment because the cock suckers can't be trusted with your bank information. They'll take a payment whenever they want and deny they did. It took me a couple months to get the money back and they lied over and over about it. Also when you need a doctor you find none take your plan. Check with your dr before buying a plan to be sure they will take it.
 
Someone asked for some information on the medi-share companies. Here's my understanding. Please do your own research and talk with all the companies. More people are doing medical sharing, and I DO NOT work for any medical-sharing company. We looked at Liberty, Samaritan Ministries, Medi-Share, and CHM (Christian Healthcare Ministries )

My understanding is that your pay a "share" of health care expenses for everyone in your family, but with all the plans we considered the maximum "share" is 4. So a family of 6 still only pays four "shares". Think of a share as a payment to someone's needs, or similar to an insurance premium payment.

In some companies you send your "share(s)" directly to someone who has a legitimate health care expense, for example: if the Smith family had a child break their arm and the total hospital bill was $2500, you might send your shares to the Smith family for a month. The next month you may send your shares to the Jones family who just had a baby.

Other companies act as a holding company for the shares and needs. With Liberty the Smith family would submit their bill to Liberty, Liberty would then act as a negotiator with the hospital to get the lowest cash payment. You and I would have been sending our shares to Liberty, and after the negotiations, Liberty would send a total payment check to the Smith family to pay off the bill. Some companies may pay the hospital directly.

Some share companies do the negotiating for you, and some ask you to do it. Some companies have a yearly out of pocket maximum (like a deductible) and some have a minimum cost per even that you have to cover. For example, company "X" may say that any bill less than $500 is not eligible for sharing (meaning you pay the entire bill and still send your "share" to the company or someone else), while company "Y" says you may have to pay $1250 out of pocket for the year (inclusive of the entire family, not $1250 per person), then they pay part or all of the bills.

Of note, each Share company has different "levels" like an insurance company that pay various amounts of the bills their members receive. You may choose a very inexpensive plan that covers 80% of all expenses, or you may get a more expensive plan that covers 100% of expenses. And each "plan" may have a different "maximum" they pay for any incident. A broken bone may only have a total bill of a few thousand dollars (ER fee, surgery, office visits, rehab, etc all rolled into one "event"), while a major trauma could cost $100K.

Working in healthcare, I can say that hospitals love cash payments, and almost always give 40-60% discounts if you are a "cash" patient. Some of the share companies give you a member ID that lets the hospital know you are a "cash" payor and thus the bill should be lower. Some hospitals want part or most or even all of the money up front, so do bear that in mind.

For me, most of my colleagues have some form of health share since we're mostly 1099- contract employees. I was a W2, and even though we're all really REALLY healthy, my family's insurance was $1200/ month. With a $6500 family deductible, and then a 20% co pay. So, before insurance ever "kicked in" for a major bill, we'd have paid $20K! And still have had to pay 20%.

One of the young women that works with us had her baby just a few weeks early, but the little girl spent several days in the NICU. The parents pay about $500 / month in shares to Liberty, and only paid $1250 for the NICU stay. The bill was over $20,000. So their out of pocket for the year is about $7250.

If you are comfortable negotiating with hospitals and docs, and can cover routine expenses then I think Christian Healthcare Ministries is what another co-worker uses.

If your spouse will be the major "user" of the medi-share (taking kids to docs, etc) and you don't want to negotiate yourself, Liberty might be better.

There are a couple of other plans, but after speaking with people I know who use them, and calling Liberty directly to answer my questions, I did choose Liberty. I haven't yet had to use it, and if I do I'll post my experience.

Most plans, as religious based, do ask you to follow Christian principles of living: moderate alcohol use, no smoking, no illicit drugs, etc. And there is some honor and trust involved.
 
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