Economic fallout ....

[ejb]

Yikes..60G in medical bills...wouldn't want to pay that out of pocket/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Then again at 9K per year, even with 60G in bills, you still come out ahead in 7 years if that was the only major expense...guess you just don't ever know...its a gamble either way.

 

[scruffy]

ejb, the whole point is, you don't know what lies around the corner, and once a situation occurs, it is too late to get coverage to help out. I have no guarentee that this year those expenses won't be duplicated, or if they do the bone marrow transplant, quadrupled! No matter what, under the circumstances, I am locked into the corporate job, because I cannot get medical insurance anyplace else (now), nor could I even begin to find life insurance! In order to protect my family, I will maintain the job, medical insurance and half mil. life insurance policy through the company.
I was more than guided in that fortunate decision to re-enter the corporate world by a gentle nudge or three (not to mention an outright push) through answer to prayers.

 

[DVerbarg]

ejb,

I dropped all coverage for about 4 years. No out of pocket expenses, what a savings, but a gamble.

If you do this you might want to get some sort of stop-gap coverage or catastrophic coverage. I considered a couple of these plans back when I did not have coverage (now have coverage through an employer) and they were about $150 per month for our family of 4. They typically were PPOs with a deductible of $4000 to $5000 per year. This is much more reasonable and allows you to coverage for large expenses, such as Scruffy's, and still save a huge pile of money (which would allow for more tractor goodies /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif).

 

[DVerbarg]

RE:<font color=blue>Now what do you folks know about healthcare insurance profits and their G&A. Do the big insurance houses have a lot of overhead, bonus programs, and large underutilized staffs? We all know that bigger is not necessariliy better.</font color=blue>

Working for a strategy consultancy that specializes in healthcare I see some of the inside workings of healthcare companies. Many of these companies gobbled up others the past few years but did not adequately think through their aquisitions. Their combined size did not need all those people. One particular example I'm thinking of is a large national carrier that just laid off 6000 people (or was it 9000?). Over the past few years revenue growth was marginal but employee counts doubled. Hmmm, what's wrong with this picture?

Yes, as a general rule they have large staffs which are underutilized, not necessarily without work, but just not managed well. Most of these companies bought into the Amazon.com mentality during the 90s - "Its Ok to lose money on each transaction as long as you make it up in volume." (yes I know Amazon just announced a profit, but don't expect it next quarter) The insurance companies took any business they could get despite the profitability of the business.

This is not to say that some people should not be insured but rather that a company that tries to insure everyone cannot properly structure their company to efficiently deal with all types. For instance, insuring a large company, such as Motorolla, is typically not insurance (Motorolla is self-insured) but the insurance company would just be providing administrative services only (ASO). Or a small professional services company (who cares about providing great benefits to retain top-notch employees) is more concerned about great network coverage (how many doc and hospitals) and great customer service when dealing with claims.

Another wrinkle in insurance is that many states regulate the price differentials allowed. There is alot of regulation concerning employers with less then 50 employees. The insurance company cannot give a really low rate to a bunch of computer programmers (low risk people) then charge a super high rate to a bunch of silver miners (high risk). Laws govern how much the company can vary their price (a percentage, but this is too simplified), thus they price higher to protect their bottom line and the low-risk guys have to shop around.

Feel like I'm beginning to babble again and am not making any sense. This is a fun conversation and of course a problem to which there is no easy solution.

 

[TerryinMD]

Dave,

No, you're not babbling on. I think that what you're passing on is good information. Most of what you just said is probably true for a lot of the recent corporate acquisitions and mergers. What you're saying in a nutshell is that the larger portion of planning is in the execution of the "deal" to bring the companies together. The actual merger of the company cultures are left to the operating managers plan and execute. Now, from my perspective, this is not happening. I believe that a lot of the corporate executive officers and middle management do not have the operational knowledge to be successful at melding large operating units coming from different corporate cultures. These management teams are young, having their MBA's with no practical business knowledge and no personnel skills. The bottom line is all that matters without thought of how these mergers affect all of the worker bees.

Terry

 

[MikePA]

Even when they do have operational knowledge, personnel skills and business knowledge it can take a long time. Just changing a corporate culture within a single company, using commited managerial staff, can take 5 years. Mix in companies that are geographically separated. Oy vey /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif BTDT.

 

[ejb]

catastrophic policy..now that would do it. I have been searching and so far have found no one that will write a policy in Massachusetts. [censored] state government imposes so many restrictions on insurance companies that most won't even do business here...very few choices for health and car insurances.

I'll keep looking though cause I could handle a 5 or 10 or maybe even a 20K hospital bill, but its the *really* expensive things that scare me.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[DVerbarg]

Terry,

Your point about MBAs and lack of practical experience hits home with me. No that does not describe me but is rather the exact opposite of my personal experience. Despite my lack of formal education, no PhD, no MBA, no Bachelor, no Associate, not even a formal high school diploma (home schooled) but experience in running a couple of my own businesses, worker bee in a corporation, middle management, and now management in a consultancy. Everyone I work with has MBAs (except the receptionist and powerpoint specialists) and am amazed at how many of our clients in large corporations can talk corporate/MBA mumbo jumbo yet execute so poorly. Don't know how they miss the most obvious issues that stare them right in the face! /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

They all seem paralyzed out of fear of upper management that they don't do anything, with the exception of those who generally do dastardly deeds. Of course there are exceptions to my overgeneralized rule but they are too rare. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

 

[square1]

Wrong thread </sheepish grin>