[at-l] Re: health care/insurance

[jmayer@rochester.rr.com (Jim Mayer)]

One other recommendation is to look very closely at any policy you are
considering (or currently have).  For example, I recently switched to an HMO
after my trusty old fee-for-service plan was butchered.  My HMO is run as a
"preferred provider panel," in that the doctors are generally not employees
of the HMO.  Choice of doctors is not a problem as virtually all doctors in
the Rochester area are members.  Furthermore, I do not need pre-approval for
emergency room care.

I'm not arguing that HMOs are all reasonable, just that there is a lot of
variation out there and you have to read the fine print.

-- Jim

P.S. My HMO is the "Blue Choice" program run by BC/BS of the Rochester Area.
It has been rated as having among the highest level of customer satisfaction
in the country, so I doubt that my experience is a typical one.

----- Original Message -----
From: "W F Thorneloe" <thornel@attglobal.net>
To: "Dufresne, Aimee" <adufresne@carnegiehall.org>
Cc: <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 3:10 PM
Subject: [at-l] Re: health care/insurance


> That would be my recommendation. Use of an HMO or other highly
> managed/mangled care system could leave you high and dry getting approval
> for ER evaluation of fractures and such. A catastrophic or major medical
> policy is probably the best way to have some security and assure of access
> to care.
>
> BTW, there is no such thing as health insurance in the USA. We only have a
> scheme called underwriting, which tilts all risk onto the "insured" and
> maximizes profit from premiums for the so-called insurer. There is no
> concept of shared risk as is core to the concept of insurance.
>
> OrangeBug
>
> BTW, another bit of insurance is to never cook inside your silnylon tent!
> (inside joke for those on BPL)
>
> At 10:46 AM 3/21/2001 -0500, Dufresne, Aimee wrote:
> >i'd love tips on health insurance for the thruer.  i'm thinking about
simply
> >getting catastrophe insurance (affordable plan through my alma mater).
> >thanx!
>
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