[Borregokid]

With all the accidents mountain bikers have who can afford to be without insurance. My wife and I are no strangers to mountain bike accidents, when I knocked myself way past "silly" and was scrapped off the road up by Rat Pac the bills went past $30,000. Not too much later my wife broke her arm and that was another $2000. My insurance covered my accident, everything except $1.11 which was kind of funny.

For my wife we paid everything out of our pockets. We had insurance but we carry a high deductable. Under this plan we could pay as much as $6000 out of our pockets for an accident. After that Group Health picks up the rest of the tab. $6000 is still a lot of money but its no worst than wrecking a car with liability insurance only or a nice uninsured stolen downhill bike of the same vaule. Incidentally with my wifes accident I was able to negotiate the bills down. The hospital took 25% off for a cash payment and later doctor visits were 50% off. I computed the accidents into mountain bikes hers was a nice stumpjumper, mine was 16 nice stumpjumpers.

For insurance I think its pretty hard to beat Group Health Cooperative. They have quite a few options including a $5000 deductable with rates as low as $53 a month. What you get for $53 is peace of mind. You know you can go over any crazy jump and if you wreck, it probably wont bankrupt you. The $53 is actually a bargain because youre in a pool of people who hopefully arent involved in high risk activities.

If you got this far I apologize for the boring topic and no I dont work or get paid by GHC. Go over to GHC.Org and you can find a little more out about insurance.

 

[Gex]

Blue cross blue shield silly newbies....

 

[geargrrl]

lifewise of WA offers some really great programs also, high and low deductible options. They do not use the "group" set up, here on the East Side Group Health is commonly referred to as Group Death.

If you get a high deductible program with an HSA option, you can pay for all of your out of pocket expenses with a health share savings account: use pre-tax dollars for everything that is not covered, and you can invest the pretax dollars to earn a return at the same time. This is also a more traditional PPO plan where you can choose and stay with the same drs, it's the Premera network.

I"m almost certain group health does not offer the HSA option.

http://www.lifewisewa.com/

http://www.hsabank.com/flashindex.asp

just more options. I've been down the insurance road more times than I care to mention.

 

[Heidi]

lifewise of WA offers some really great programs also, high and low deductible options. They do not use the "group" set up, here on the East Side Group Health is commonly referred to as Group Death.

Lifewise of Oregon can suck my left......I'm soooo getting the run around for the MRI and xrays I had last October!!!!!! They still haven't paid the bills and now I have to or the hospital will send me to collections. I HATE DEALING WITH INSURANCE COMPANIES!!!!!!

rant off

 

[geargrrl]

yeah, well they all suck but that may be a different thread.

I still have a vivid memory of NORBA at Mt Spokane quite a few years ago. Guys' got a serious head injury, on a back board, and the helicopter was about to land. The GF is sobbing, but we don't have any insurance... should have thought about that before you undertook a sport with a risk for serious injury, IMO.

gg.

 

[Borregokid]

Lifewise of Oregon can suck my left......I'm soooo getting the run around for the MRI and xrays I had last October!!!!!! They still haven't paid the bills and now I have to or the hospital will send me to collections. I HATE DEALING WITH INSURANCE COMPANIES!!!!!!

rant off

You wont see too many people complaining about GHC leaving them with a stack of bills. Did I mention that my bills came to over $32,000 and GHC paid everything but $1.11. My wifes stop/loss coverage is $6000 and $10,000. Does Blue Cross offer stop/loss coverage? Bottom line PPO coverage really doesnt mean much with a high deductable.

My main point is that for $53 per month you have some really decent coveragae with GHC if you have to get a plan outside of work. If you really feel that GHC is "group death" go ahead and tax yourself because Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Premera will cost at least twice as much. The cheapest plan I saw from Premera was $123 per month.

Lifewise looks like a "for profit" insurance company I am not sure If I want to be covered by someone thats looking at their bottom line.

 

[trailhacker]

...I knocked myself way past "silly" and was scrapped...

They just scrapped you with so little damage!?!!?
So did the wife buy you back from the insurance company with a rebuilt title or something or are you still not legal? :nuts:

 

[KNine]

I Have a SD plan from Aetna. I have 750 in an account and i have a 750 deductable. Plus i have Aflac to at least give me some pay if i am out of work for a period of time.

 

[Borregokid]

They just scrapped you with so little damage!?!!?
So did the wife buy you back from the insurance company with a rebuilt title or something or are you still not legal? :nuts:

He-He-He- I was definitely "scraped" and "totaled" I think my wife wanted a new model but the insurance company GHC made her take me back.

 

[geargrrl]

Lifewise looks like a "for profit" insurance company I am not sure If I want to be covered by someone thats looking at their bottom line.

that may be so, but self employed doesn't leave a lot of options.

gg

 

[largextracheese]

I just signed up with the 5,000 ded. for my wife and I. It will cost us 120 a month. It's good to have the catastrophic coverage. We have AFLAC as well. The othe places I tried were indeed double. I was going to pay 126.00 per month for a similar dealfor only myself. Thanks for the info.

 

[Borregokid]

Glad I could help. I forgot to mention when I fell off my bike GHC didnt even want me in one of their hospitals. I was sent to Harborview Trauma Center which is the best in the state. GHC paid every penny of the bill at Harborview-which was $22k. You have the catastrophic deductable but after that you are covered with a stop/loss provision. I think the cap is 2 million. The problem with the private plans and Blue Cross/Shield is that too much of the money ends up as profit for a company or lost in paperwork.

 

[MMike]

GHC for the most part is still better than nothing. That's what my wife and I were on when I was unemployed and my wife was still in school. We both had various dealing with the GHC hospital downtown and we both fared ok (and these were decently serious medical conditions for both of us).

But for general mountain bike injury stuff, it's wa-hay better than nothing.

why hasn't Rhino chimed in on this one......

 

[Borregokid]

Actually it was Blue Cross/Shield that tried to become a for profit corporation. GHC is a co-op. The members own the business and it will probably never go the for-profit route. One of the reasons they are able to deliver more medical care than Blue Cross/Shield is the doctors and GHC can't be sued because of its HMO status. Unfortunately lawmakers many of whom are lawyers want patients inside the HMO's to have the right to sue. I personally think if you want the right to sue your Doctor-dont join an HMO and pay the higher cost outside of the HMO's.

 

[thesacrifice]

I have GHC through work (state employee) , I haven't used it yet, but I was able to choose a primary doctor

 

[largextracheese]

So now I'm debating on going riding the Gnar stuff until the 1st when it kicks in.
Ummm....yeah, I'm heading out right now. Too damn nice outside!!!!!

 

[MMike]

I was able to choose my primary physician when I was on the po' people insurance. He just had to be from the "network".