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Pittsburg, Kansas | I attended a breakfast locally sponsered by one of those things in the mailbox. My wife and I ended up being the only ones turned up and the local insurance agent that represented the company (as well as other companies as he was an independent agent) bought our breakfast at the local resturant. or maybe the company reimbursed him, I don't know.
Anyway he was pretty knowledgible and helpful. After giving his little talk we ask some questions. I had been studying the situation for a couple months and had a good idea what I wanted to do. Just thought we would see what he had to say. After he was done he ask what we thought. I gave him my ideas and why, gave him some information about our prescription needs. He thought I had thought it out pretty well and kind of agreed with my reasoning. He said it didn't matter to him either way, he got paid for the consultation with us whatever we decided. I never felt any pressure from him to go some specific direction. There was a couple of companies that fit our needs on the PPO and we finally decided on the one that had the most in network facilities in our area, although both at the time were adequate.
We have had them pay for some dental stuff, our very minor prescriptions, eye glasses and a couple of sets of hearing aids. All at a zero cost policy (other than what they take out of our SS checks like they do everyone). Couple of minor claims and one major one with the motorcycle accident. Had to pay 300 a day for the 5 days in hospital (they would have paid thereafter) and a few minor copays for specialists visits after leaving the hospital. We are around 20-25 thousand ahead because of the money we saved not having to buy supplemental insurance but having one hospital bill that took some of it. I think our maximum out of pocket can be around 7 thousand in network and a little over 10 combined in and out of network. Emergencies are considered in network no matter where we are (but they make you move to an in network hospital as soon as you are able or make you pay the out of network billing). So if my wife and I get suddenly sick with multiple hospital stays and for multiple years it could eat through that 25 grand pretty quickly.
It is a crap shoot. If we are lucky we may come out ahead with the PPO. If unlucky we will not. But to me at least the PPO covers the devestating potential bills that could come from being uninsured. We can affor ten or twenty thousand a year and not be a big issue. That doesn't worry me. It is the half a million or million dollar bills that might put a kink in our lifestyle.
It all depends on how much risk a person wants to take and what they can afford to take. i didn't get where I am by taking no risks. The risk involved saving money by doing the PPO instead or regular Medicare and supplemental insurance may or may not work out to our advantage ten or twenty years from now. But the more important issue is we will be fine in either situation. The catastrofic level bills are still covered.
Health is a crap shoot. I try to insure for the things I can't afford to replace. The things I can afford I am willing to take on some of the risk for benefit. Not much different than when I was farming. Same logic applies. | |
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Medicare supplement
