South Dakota Health Insurance....UGH!!!!

[Barbaraok]

Group plans are a whole different ballgame. If the group is big enough, BCBS is contracted to process the claims, but is not the insuring company because the group self-insures. I know that is what U. of Texas system does (that we get our secondary insurance through) and if doesn't matter where we are, our claims get paid.

This is entirely different from an individual policy where BCBS is the insurer.

Barb

[Smitty77]

We are SD Domiciled, and our only option was to remain with my former companies Group Retirement Insurance, which is from BCBS of NC. Now, the costs spiked tremendously post ACA, so much so that people I know that had retired several years ahead of me, have had to go get second jobs to cover the unexpected spike. (I know three, that had used between 10-15% yearly cost increase in their planning, to get them to 65, and two of them have one of the spouses back at work now.) We used 20% in our planning, as this was before the actual numbers came in, and we should have used about 60% for the first year, with about an 18% increase the 2nd year. All for lower coverage with much higher out of pocket costs not included in those percentages.

Each company, or government entity, have differences in how much they've increased their Group Retirement Insurance plans. So for sure many have had no, to little impact - happy for them.

Best,
Smitty

[RonandBee]

Probably my best bet would be to just call BC/BS and see what they have to say. We are not full-time yet. We don't even have our S&B on the market yet, but we are trying to pre-plan as much as we can, and health insurance is important, even though neither of us has any medical issues, but you never know.

[saydiver]

Originally Posted by RonandBee

Probably my best bet would be to just call BC/BS and see what they have to say. We are not full-time yet. We don't even have our S&B on the market yet, but we are trying to pre-plan as much as we can, and health insurance is important, even though neither of us has any medical issues, but you never know.

OPM is who you would call, not BCBS. OPM determines the rules for FEBH, not the BCBS companies. As a retired federal worker with FEHB, you can move where ever you like.

Sue

[RonandBee]

Saydiver, thanks. I will call OPM and explain what we want to do and see what they have to say. It couldn't hurt, right?

[missourijan]

We've been fulltime for 9 years, domiciled in SD. We had the same dilemma, before ACA went into effect. We've purchased 6 month temp policies through ehealthinsurance.com. They can be purchased for no more than 6 months and most are high deductible policies, like $5 to $7k. We are healthy and take a few medications that we can usually get at Wal Mart on the $4 plans. We have found these plans to be a great alternative, we have coverage in an emergency illness or accident. We have had our physicals every year and usually pay cash, you can find clinics that will give you cash discounts. Even labs will give cash discounts. October is breast cancer awareness month, I have paid as little as $65 for a mammogram in Oct. It has worked well for us, if you pay the entire 6 month premium up front you get a 20% discount.

[glennwest]

Have you considered Liberty Health Share? We have this and are not limited to any network or state. It is a heath Care program, not insurance.