Hellobee Boards

@snowjewelz: @JenGirl: I once called my insurance company with a question and kept pressing for clarification. The worker finally got so flustered that she said, "This should all have been in a packet you received." I realized she didn't know what the deal was either.

@snowjewelz: I'm sorry you're in this situation. I'm going to be in the same boat in October, luckily after baby #2 arrives. It's going to be a big hit to start paying for our insurance. I'm bookmarking this to refer to while we sort things out!

@JenGirl: I swear you need a PhD in medical billing to make sure you're not getting screwed. It's insane. I consider my husband and I to be intelligent and financially savvy people, and it's a struggle for us to make sure everything is billed properly. I tell him all the time that I can't imagine being able to advocate for myself if I were less educated/financially sophisticated.

@snowjewelz: I felt a lot of what you wrote last year as we went through open enrollment. I felt like we were getting a lot less coverage for a lot more money and I felt frustrated, sad, worried, you name it.

I took some time to understand the worst case scenario and it kind of made me feel better about the whole thing. I still have my moments of panic where I am worried one of us is going to have a catastrophic illness and we have to mortgage our house to pay for it, but for the most part, I have made my peace about it. I hope you find a good solution, there's got to be an easier way!

@Truth Bombs: I am dealing with this now as I fight with my insurance company to cover a bill from a provider at the hospital (in-network) who was out of network. They are telling me that I'm on the hook for the entire bill because I have money left toward my deductible, and I'm pretty sure that I should not be on the hook for the entire thing because if they processed it as in-network, they would cover a higher percentage of it. I will gladly pay, but I've dealt with them with this particular emergency room before and they had no problem reprocessing the claim as in-network and mailing me the difference to pay them.

OP: This really sucks and I'm sorry you are going through this. Next year I am coming off of my husband's really awesome insurance because the company is now charging $150/month for spouses who can be covered by their employer and choose not to be (his insurance has awesome maternity coverage, mine is awful).

@snowjewelz: We chose the option for higher payments and lower deductible. I feel like no matter what we chose, we'd be paying a lot.

That sucks : (

We have a $12,500 annual family deductible on top of premiums. It sucks!

Can you use an HSA to pay for your premiums?

It sucks...I'm here to commiserate with you! We have ok coverage that runs us about $800/month for the 3 of us, but I have a fairly high deductible, that we end up having to meet practically every year since DS. It's insane. It's almost as much as our mortgage!

@snowjewelz: wow that premium sucks. Is it a HDHP? If so, you can open a HSA to pay for expenses with pre tax money.

@snowjewelz: even if your employer doesn't offer an HSA, you can still open one on your own if you have an HDHP. The biggest benefit to having an HSA through your employer is that they often contribute some amount of $$ to it. You can shop around and find your own and contribute up to the max ($6750 for 2016) so that you still get the tax advantage.

@snowjewelz: that makes no sense! The HDHP premium should be way lower than the non HDHP plan premium.