Here it is again, that time of year that used to be a simple tradition that’s turned, in the past couple of years, into a week of anxiety and trepidation: Open Enrollment.
I am really grateful that my husband’s employer provides healthcare, and we haven’t been thrown onto the Obamacare Exchange. And looking at the choices we have this year, I can tell that the company worked really hard to come up with plans that both the company & the employee can afford. But there have been changes, and a bigger squeeze on both. I call it the Obolacare Effect.
In our case we get a choice of two traditional health insurance plans, one better and more expensive than the other, and “the new trend in healthcare benefits” – a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP).
Since I was looking at family coverage, I’ll talk about family rates here.
HDHP is where you pay all the costs until your deductible is met, then insurance kicks in and pays their part (80% in network, 60% out of network). How much is the deductible? It depends. In network it’s $3,000, out of network it’s $6,000. There is an out-of pocket maximum, again with different levels: $12,000 in-network, and $15,000 out of network.
To sweeten the deal, the HDHP comes with some incentives – a tax-free Health Savings Account that you can rollover yearly, anyone in your family can contribute to, goes with you if you change jobs, and can be bequeathed if you die. Also you get free preventive care: annual physical, well-woman & well-child care visits, immunizations, and mammograms & colonoscopies.
So if a family were to pick the HDHP, they can expect to contribute monthly premiums slightly lower than the cheaper traditional health plan (for us it would be around $30 cheaper per month) and sock away a bunch of money in an HSA. How much money? The family would have to budget to spend a minimum of $3,000 (in-network deductible) plus the 20% above that, up to a maximum of $12,000, if they were careful and lucky enough to be able to stay in-network. Otherwise they could be on the hook for up to $15,000.
Who would this plan work for? At a guess, healthy young individuals who hardly ever go to see the doctor because they are sick and are careful about not getting into accidents. They can use the HSA to save for when they get older & sicker. I don’t see how this would work for us as a fairly typical family, specially with lab tests for chronic conditions. For us we will go with the lower end traditional health care plan. Even with higher co-pays, it still will work out for less money, fingers crossed and the skies don’t fall.
On the bright side, at least we get the “tobacco-free” rates on our premiums. Heaven help us if they ever start a “chocolate-free” rate.
Open thread.
does obamacare cover ebola?
That is an excellent question, seeing as insurance companies are writing Ebola exemptions.
Even for regular health insurance, I wonder if I could even get an in-network hospital or doctor to treat me if someone suspected me of having Ebola.
The woman was his mother, so it’s just domestic violence…….nothing to see here move along.
WTF? It’s like these folks think Game of Thrones is a how-to manual.
speaking of health issues. just read this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11192385/Sex-with-21-women-lowers-risk-of-prostate-cancer-academics-find.html
Now here is a new line for a guy to use.
not too sure about STDs though
🙄
😆 I can hear one now.. Please I only need one more and it is you. 😆
I saw that yesterday, many of the comments are priceless. That study fits right in with the one done several years ago where they found that men who ejaculated frequently had a much lower rate of prostate cancer. My husband and all his buddies jumped on that earlier study insisting they needed daily BJ’s for their health……..sure.
I think the bottom line for men is to keep the pipes clean. I don’t think it really matters how or if they’ve slept with 21 women or what have you……just keep the pipes clean.
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/10/29/us-ambassador-to-iraq-wh-was-warned-early-on-about-isis-did-almost-nothing/
interesting. all voters should see this
This is on topic:
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/28/obamacare-sends-health-premiums-skyrocketing-by-as/#ixzz3HXjycT4a
Speaking of special Ebola snowflakes:
http://www.jammiewf.com/2014/heroic-ebola-doctor-lied-to-nypd-of-his-whereabouts/
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/10/more-on-the-obama-administration-scandal-that-the-washington-press-corps-tried-to-bury.php
executive office computer down for several weeks. hacked by foreign power
Dandy a little bit of insight on this please
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/10/is-the-washington-press-corps-covering-up-another-obama-administration-fiasco.php
more on this.
a serious breach
The Obamedia at it’s finest. :Shock:
They learned from an ally that the Russkies hacked them.

I hope she is in lots of hot water. 🙂
My old neighborhood! Keeping it classy!
I’m not really here. I just got up to feed the beasts.
I need more beauty sleep.
I really do not understand health care. I was told two years ago I had weeks to live. Still going and much better off on my own. My 6000 dollar deductible does zip for me. If I go into the hospital again I am going to die. I can control my blood work when I can see it. Diet makes a huge deal. I can go online and find what foods work. Two years ago that was fine my insurance covered it. Once a month full panel. I went from very high on liver transplant to almost a healthy person. Fucked up thing is I cannot get my own blood scrips through my doctor once a month. I can get them from a transplant clinic but still have to pay 6000. I walk an hour per day when I was on the transplant list I could not walk up my stairs without sitting down. I had so many EGD’s colonoscopies tests. No thank you. I chose to ride it out insurance was not worth it. 300/month to get an IV and scary protocols from a hospital. No thanks. I was told no one lives after three periocentisis I had six. I have been told by doctors no one lives 44 years with pig valves and heart walls made out of Teflon. That sucks because I am still here and doctors have become slaves to what the computer tells them. Punch in stuff and follow protocol no room for humanity or gut. Medicine in America has become an insurance form doctors do not make decisions companies do.
Custody hearing — judge denied him unsupervised visitations but said if he agrees to psych test she will revisit. He has never had a home or a phone for 6 months he has several adult criminal charges and countless juvenile. No money is asked of him. Never bought her a coat but illegally used her for welfare fraud. I believe in parents rights unless they are an asshole and then they should be held accountable. He can file again and cost thousands of dollars that just bleeds her college fund.
Is this guy charming the judges or something? He always seems to get off lightly …
http://allenbwest.com/2014/10/4-symptoms-ebola-fubar/
4 symptoms of ebola FUBAR
Even his friends don’t like him.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-begich-obama-20141029-story.html#page=1
they dare not speak his name
Immunizations are not fully covered as I just received a bill of $345.00 from the doctor’s office. Oh my, – who would have imagined that the gubmint would lie to an a senior citizen.
Also business must be declining as I recently received a call from the doctor’s office asking if I would like to make an appointment for a health check-up. My response – I’ll call when I’m deathly ill not a minute before.
Ugh. Any chance of calling and finding out why?
The run-around about certain immunizations are covered while others are not. Also, the office visit was $299.00 for a 5 minute session with doctor who asked some questions, typed responses into computer and listened to my heart.
OMG!!!! 😯
http://weaselzippers.us/203910-whiny-kacihickox-still-whining-now-refuses-to-follow-maines-home-quarantine-plans-to-sue-maine-christie-calls-her-complaints-in-n-j-malarkey/
I do like Christi, he does not sugar coat
Didn’t he realized that she was a special gubmint employee with carte blanche.
http://weaselzippers.us/203934-breaking-hagel-orders-mandatory-quarantine-all-u-s-troops-returning-from-ebola-countries/
Troops who served this country quarantined without gripe.
whiny nurse who would be a bigger threat cries and pouts and needs a good smack in the face
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/10/193216-guys-use-services-lawsuit-happy-ebola-nurse-listening/
quite a difference between someone who serves their country and a whiner
OT. Just found out that Hubby is getting me a fancy blender that HE has been lusting after. (He’s a health nut & always falls for gadgets). Okey-dokey then, we all know what this means – he’s getting MY favorite chocolates for Christmas. LOL.
Haha! You should go for something bigger for Christmas like a trip to your favorite spa or something.
😀
Juice is not always good. Pulp is key. Slows down absorption. I spent a lot of money going to high end nutritionists. Screw everything you have ever heard but do it all in moderation. Celiac is whack. HIGH PROTEIN IS whack. Juice is sugar so juicing is whack. Being a strict vegan is whack. Simple rule do not deny the body knows what it needs and will respond. DENIAL of a sweet leads to cravings.
I love Beloved by Toni Morrison. It is the best ghost story I have ever read. Sugar and self sating are a huge theme in the book. Control of calories in school and fast food I think is just flat out stupid. Fat kids eat t o fill a need. Kale in grade school does not fix that.
I was thinking a really swanky diamond ring. He’ll love it!!!!!
just explain you were thinking of his health as you eat them
Exactly! LOL
A recent NY Times article said that chocolate can help with short-term memory and also fends off dementia symptoms. So you *are* being health-minded by consuming as much as possible and insisting upon always having chocolate in the house.
I bought a fancy-schmancy one recently (blendtec 725) and have yet to use it. I got it for er… cocktails. Hubby finally used it last week, and now he’s allllll over it and using it daily (he too is a kitchen gadget nut). I knew that would happened, and I’m ok with it. It justifies my spending a small fortune on a glorified Piña Colada maker.
Enjoy your new machine!
you will love this one
If you are an American citizen living in a foreign country and a couple from that country ask you to be a surrogate mother, that child becomes an American citizen at birth. new idea floating around in today’s government
How much are the ChiComs bribing them to pass this?
Bet they’d love to have their own puppet POTUS
Not necessarily. Even if you ARE an American citizen, your child born abroad is not entitled to U.S. citizenship unless you meet residency requirements. When my daughter was born here, I had to provide extensive proof (and was turned down the first time I went to the embassy) that I had lived in the U.S. for something like 14 consecutive years. My US-born, US-citizen children likely will not be allowed to pass their citizenship on to their children (unless they move back to the US for a long period of time). The law is very complicated.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/29/la-raza-promotes-washington-post-guide-on-where-people-can-vote-without-an-id/
LaRaza publishes guide on where people can vote without ID
do you think there will be illegals voting in this election?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/28/its-time-for-american-jihad/
I like this idea an American jihad
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/10/29/netanyahu-responds-to-anonymous-white-house-bombshell-look-whos-calling-who-a-chickensht-155483
Bibi responds.
Do not think I would want to go against this MAN. and he is a man not an overaged frat boy
He is also very sexy. The timbre of his voice contrast to Obama.
It’s hard for Obama to recognize chicken shit when he is inside the chicken’s asshole. Sure to get it wrong every time.
This day is not starting auspiciously. When I woke up I thought for a second that some Halloween pranksters had TP’ed my hallway. Then I realized that the kittens had discovered the toilet paper roll.
I’m not sure if they shredded it before or after they unrolled it, but they were very thorough.
The TP was looking suspicious. They protected you.
HAPPY DAY. Judge ruled permanent custody goes to my parents. GREAT grandparents almost never win. So bad his fiance had a pretend seizure in the court room. Ambulance and total shut down of the court house. He is so bad really awful person and surrounded by liars. My dad who has COPD but is a softball coach went back to work driving for the railroad. We had huge legal expenses protecting the brat. Fuck no was she going to end up being trash and pregnant at 13. Not on my watch. Love my monster Eight years of nurturing. Anyhow it gets even worse my dad took a job picking up railroad workers and driving them to a job. He only did it because the legal bills were so extreme. I gave him my phone three months ago so he could use it for the job. I have not even seen it in months but my sister called it right after the judge ruled and said she was just returning a call. Then a cousin called . No way she could have my number. She left a whacko message about the power of family. YEAH I hear her but for me love of family does not include punching or raping.
Again I have to say speak out when you see something. I spent some cash making sure my baby was okay but it was worth it. Trust me every time I ate a penalty to put money towards an attorney it sucked but the reward is amazing. I can live in sweats and tees but I would writhe in pain if I WALKED away from my brat.
Congrats!
what a doll
Adorable!
That’s my grand-niece Mercy
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on White House’s discussion of Israel: ‘When the president discusses Israel and Iran, it is sometimes hard to tell who he thinks is America’s friend and who he thinks is America’s enemy’ – @NBCNews
End of alert
OUCH
New post up
I have been watching a series from the BBC on Hulu called The State Within. It is great. makes you wonder who runs the world. Governments or Big International business. I am up to episode 6 and still interested in how it ends
New York State now has NO out-of-network coverage whatsoever. My current insurance plan is kaput as of January 1 and the closest equivalent is a “bronze” plan that costs $65 more per month, with a $6K deductible (and no coverage whatsoever until that is met) and an extremely limited network. If I want to keep my doctors (yes, plural – I am accumulating them as I get older LOL), the only plan that includes them is a “platinum” plan for about $1200/month (they have got to be kidding). I don’t qualify for any subsidies either. I keep reading plenty of feel-good stories, full of praise for Obamacare, about people who are paying $35 a month for better coverage than I have (I pay over 10X that amount). What about me, and people like me? I guess I am supposed to drag myself on over to Zeke Emanuel’s old folks farm and be put out of my misery.
We should make Zeke an honorary 75 and deny all medical care are per his utopia.
Late on the open post as usual. I have the kitten blues. 7 years after my kitten died, and 6 months after my kitten-loving mom died, I really, really want a kitten. Husband basically said, I won’t interfere, but you are on your own taking care of it. So I said OK. Well, last night Husband emailed me about an “adopt a kitten” event that is happening this weekend and sent me a picture (and video!) of the most adorable kitten I have ever seen in my life, “Uma.”
So I asked him to call the foster family (because he speaks French for real). Sadly, he did not get around to doing that and when I went to gaze at Uma again on the pet association website, I discovered that she has now been spoken for.
I have the sads. And I didn’t even get to meet her. How silly!!!!! Now I don’t even know if I want to go to the event this weekend. : (
But really, this is because after six months of eating and overworking my feelings, it finally hit this week that Mom is gone. Every time I start to think about Xmas presents or what to do for this kids this holiday season I start crying.
(((Jadzia)))
Holidays can be so hard if we lost someone . I hope you do get a kitten soon.