Ags

Career change is going to force me onto the open market for Health Insurance for me and my family. Anyone have any insight in best options for the Texas Market? Besides searching blindly on the internet anyone have suggestions for good coverage with limited out of pocket cost.

Thanks in advance

Also interested in this. My mom is 63, retired and is paying about $800/mo for health insurance. Is this prety standard and, if not, any idea where to start to look to shop around? Thanks

It will vary by county. Unfortunately Obamacare has nearly eliminated quality individual market insurance plans in most counties.

Check out Takecommandhealth.com. Started by an Aggie (AgAttack). They can help you sort through the options.

www.TakeCommandHealth.com

hodgesco said:

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Check out Takecommanhealth.com. Started by an Aggie (AgAttack). They can help you sort through the options.

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Thanks for the feedback hodgesco!

hodgesco said:

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Check out Takecommanhealth.com. Started by an Aggie (AgAttack). They can help you sort through the options.

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I went this route and highly recommend.

Switched to Christian Healthcare Ministries. Paying less than half of what BCBS was.

The Wonderer said:

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hodgesco said:

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Check out Takecommanhealth.com. Started by an Aggie (AgAttack). They can help you sort through the options.

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I went this route and highly recommend.

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I too recently went this route and AgAttack has been a tremendous help.

Thanks guys for the reference!

Cypress, happy to help out! Feel free to send a pm or email at jack@takecommandhealth.com.

Christian Medishare

BCBS is about all you have for a choice in TX and it is HMO and not PPO in most areas. Medishare is not all it is cracked up to be. I have my younger daughter on it because I only need catastrophic insurance for her. My wife cannot get on it because of preexisting conditions for breast cancer she has not had for 3 years. I looked at getting on it but since I have prostate issues (who does not over 50 years old) they would not cover you if you happened to get prostate cancer down the road or any other treatments.

We have a severe insurance problem in this country and as long as DC is involved get use to it. There is no reason why individuals cannot get into a group within the state or the USA and have preexisting conditions covered. If you go to work for a company that has medical coverage no one ask you about existing conditions for you are your family. It is insane. Sen Paul does have a plan for such things, but no one wants to listen.

blazer18 said:

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Also interested in this. My mom is 63, retired and is paying about $800/mo for health insurance. Is this prety standard and, if not, any idea where to start to look to shop around? Thanks

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I pay $750 a month for my wife and she is 57. It has a deductible of around $3500 and out of pocket of around $7000 if I remember. It pretty much sucks being that it is a BCBS HMO. We use to have pretty good coverage with UHC in Texas for years until they left last year.

You have to face it ... we are paying for the ones that don't and many coverages that most don't want. Your Mother is like me she is waiting on Medicare in a few years. Another government program gone awry.

drill4oil78 said:

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BCBS is about all you have for a choice in TX and it is HMO and not PPO in most areas. Medishare is not all it is cracked up to be. I have my younger daughter on it because I only need catastrophic insurance for her. My wife cannot get on it because of preexisting conditions for breast cancer she has not had for 3 years. I looked at getting on it but since I have prostate issues (who does not over 50 years old) they would not cover you if you happened to get prostate cancer down the road or any other treatments.

We have a severe insurance problem in this country and as long as DC is involved get use to it. There is no reason why individuals cannot get into a group within the state or the USA and have preexisting conditions covered. If you go to work for a company that has medical coverage no one ask you about existing conditions for you are your family. It is insane. Sen Paul does have a plan for such things, but no one wants to listen.

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This is incorrect.

The Wonderer said:

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drill4oil78 said:

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BCBS is about all you have for a choice in TX and it is HMO and not PPO in most areas. Medishare is not all it is cracked up to be. I have my younger daughter on it because I only need catastrophic insurance for her. My wife cannot get on it because of preexisting conditions for breast cancer she has not had for 3 years. I looked at getting on it but since I have prostate issues (who does not over 50 years old) they would not cover you if you happened to get prostate cancer down the road or any other treatments.

We have a severe insurance problem in this country and as long as DC is involved get use to it. There is no reason why individuals cannot get into a group within the state or the USA and have preexisting conditions covered. If you go to work for a company that has medical coverage no one ask you about existing conditions for you are your family. It is insane. Sen Paul does have a plan for such things, but no one wants to listen.

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This is incorrect.

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Exactly what is incorrect.

There are many more than just BCBS available in Texas. There are several plans available of HMO, PPO, HDHP types. They may not be on the OCare exchange, but they are out there. I have an HDHP play from Memorial Hermann for ~$325/mo. I know Scott&White has a decent plan if you're in their coverage area as well. Using Takecommandhealth shows tons if plans.

Depends on which county you are in. That's not true state-wide.

LostInLA07 said:

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Depends on which county you are in. That's not true state-wide.

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He said statewide. I wasn't going to argue county by county. I hinted at such by referring to S&W's coverage area.

What the problem is you don't have the same choices state wide. I stated "about have" not only choice. I live in the Dallas Region and you have only HMO's and it is BCBS if you want to try and keep most of your doctors. You should have more than 2 choices and we use to have at least 3-4. I don't use Obama exchane either.

Everyone should have the same choice state wide and it is pure BS that we don't. We live in a NE TX rural county in the Dallas region but use doctors in Dallas and Tyler areas. You should not be restricted.

The entire medical insurance structure is totally screwed up thanks to the clowns in DC.

Forget region, we moved 10 miles and lost most of our options.

My wife got a notice recently in Harris county memorial Herman is getting out in December. At least her plan(ppo).

Yep and that was the last PPO is harris county.

Yep. PPOs are pretty much going away everywhere in the private markets. Welcome to the worlds of HMOs and HDHPs.

I have no problem with HDHPs if they are paired with a PPO network. In fact, I think that's the best option to bring more pricing transparency and awareness. HDHP PPOs are most similar to every other form of insurance.

That would be nice. I like HDHPs because I'm young and relatively healthy and never see the doc. And the 3x tax benefits of the HSA.

Try having kids under your HMO policy these days that are going to school out of state. Good luck with that. Again a totally screwed up system, One reason I had to approach Christian Care for my daughter.

I just lost my personal Humana hsa plan here in central Texas. It sucks bc I've only used the plan one time in 7 years on a shoulder surgery. Last month I go in to get a few miles removed and had a second shoulder surgery scheduled and I supposedly got a letter in January with them telling me they were doing away with personal health in Texas. Big time suckage. I scrambled to find a s&he ppo, where I was able to keep my primary doc, and thankfully my dermatologist takes S&W insurance. Only negative other than everything doubling in cost is I lost my ortho doc, who was awesome on shoulders. And I'm guessing now I'm going to have to move my HSA to an IRa and loose the benifits of that vehicle. Thankfully my wife is a doctor(pediatrician), so when I get a sniffle she takes care of me, but for the big stuff this just plain sucks..

Your HSA account is independent of your insurance policy.

I have a quick and probably dumb question that I also need to ask my accountant about. For those of you that own your own business and do Medi-Share, do you pay for the premiums from your company or personal accounts? Is there an advantage using either or can I even use the company account to pay for them? From my understanding, these are not tax deductible like my BCBS premiums were that we ran through the company. We are an LLC taxed as an S-Corp and about to switch due to a big increase with BCBS and crappy deductibles.

Email AgAttack. He can answer that for you.

I will pay the premium through my LLC (I'm an S-Corp too) unless my accountant says otherwise. Even if I can't and it becomes "out-of-pocket", it is still a better option for me versus getting it on the open market.

Hi gigem,

I'd be happy to help! My email is jack@takecommandhealth.com. I'm not a CPA, but we've seen this a bunch and I can help connect you with my legal team or share some notes with you and your CPA.

Thanks Colin for the reference!

AgAttack.

Thanks for the responses. I will be getting with my accountant and will email you AgAttack if we have any questions. I am just curious to see what others have done in this situation so that I can have as much perspective as possible.

I noticed medishare was brought up in this thread and it is something I'm currently looking at.

We are a healthy (thank God) family of 4 with no preexisting conditions. I spent $12600 on insurance last year through BCBS ($5k deductible, $13k totalfor family) and right now by account show that I received benefits for $260 (a single Dr visit and a prescription).

I am purely looking at not throwing over $12k / yr away by subsidizing families not as fortunate as mine. I would rather do that through church or other volunteer means. That being said, I still want catastrophic coverage in the event something out of our control happens. Meaning, I want the traditional concept of insurance - true catastrophic insurance. Medishare is $300/mo, and I am out of pocket our first $5k for my entire family.

So, if I have an accident or a higher ticket deductible, is medishare stable enough to cover me and have it be true catastrophic insurance? My understanding is that contractually they are not obligated to cover everything, but claim to have a 100% pay rate.

We must have had the same plan. It's infuriating.