Another reason to stay healthy
One consequence of quitting our jobs for Ballhype is that we’re on our own for health insurance. We’ve both always worked for companies that had generous health plans, which I’d never fully appreciated until now. Since COBRA is ridiculously expensive, I looked online to do some research and ended up on Health Insurance Plus. Shopping for insurance was very difficult despite the helpful services of Morgan, one of the sales reps. The definitions were not intuitive to me, and the only way I was able to figure out which plan would be best was to create an excel model with scenarios of different incidents that would land our kids in the hospital. Thinking about our children being sick was depressing, so I had to reassign the catastrophic illnesses to Jason and me, leaving the kids in the hypothetical situation of having incapacitated parents.
In the end, we chose an Aetna plan. Here’s our experience so far:
- The fact that our son has been treated in the past for eczema is going to cost us an additional $14 per month. I’m not opposed to insurance companies making a profit but it makes you wonder what they do to families where someone is really sick.
- Our cards haven’t come in the mail yet even though our coverage is effective April 1.
- Aetna sent a letter saying I could print temporary cards from their web site, but when I logged in, the links in the header were not visible, there was no search box, and no indication that you could even view your card on the site.
- The customer support phone line is only open 8-5pm EST.
And so, I’ve paid for two prescriptions out of pocket this week. At least they weren’t that expensive. The pharmacist told me if the cards arrive in the next week or so they can reimburse me at the store, otherwise if it’s later I’d have to go through Aetna. Looking forward to that one…
Posted by Erin 
10.Apr.07
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Thanks for detailing your experience. I’m going to have my parents (both now independent like you guys) look at Aetna, as well.
My brother and I are a bit too old to be covered by the parents’ insurance, but close-to-seniors have a rough time with independent insurance as well (apparently Blue Cross/Blue Shield is a killer payment-wise).
Maybe one day Pre Pro Sports will need to support some folks on a health insurance plan, but we aren’t quite there, yet.
Good luck - don’t say I didn’t warn you about Aetna! I called them yesterday to try to track down my member/group ID numbers, an ultimately unsuccessful attempt. Meanwhile, our son has an odd rash on his legs but I have no proof of insurance so he’s taking Benadryl shots. That’s it - we’re moving to Canada!
Aetna has always been good to me as a provider. Follow all their rules and they should be OK. If you think Aetna is bad, you ought to take a look at Medicare! Yikes….don’t ever get old!
Try Costco. May sound cheesy, but they have killer rates on med/dental/pharm.
Also good for credit card processing.