Re: OT: An American patient's perspective. (And screw Winston and the horse he rode in on.)

On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:35:06 -0400, Bill Chandler
<drink@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:39:54 GMT, Mark & Steven Bornfeld
<bornfeldmung@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> brewed up the following, and served it
to the group:

<snip>

Unfortunately, most folks with employer-sponsored health insurance are
living in a fool's paradise, because they have no idea what these
policies cost. I can tell you as someone who purchases my own health
insurance that it goes up about 10% a year, every year. I was
destroying my old financial records from 2002 or so and was shocked to
see that my premiums had more than doubled in that time.

That's more than 14% a year, which, strangely, is almost exactly the
rise in share prices on the F.T. top 100 shares in any 10 year period
since WWII (I can't speak for the Dow Jones).

You've really got to watch it with any kind of insurance. We had a
renewal on our house policy come through a couple of weeks ago and the
company (Churchill) were asking for £500 a year.

A quick quote from Churchill's website using my name as the
policyholder instead of my wife's came up with £159 for the same cover
on buildings and property. The inevitable 'phone call followed and
they offered to drop it by £90.

That was still £250 more than Direct Line were offering.

The conversation kinda went downhill after that, so when they tried to
screw me for a 1 month 'cancellation' fee (there's no such thing - we
cancel the DD and they cancel the insurance when they don't get the
money - £40 for an adjustment on a PC? I don't think so...). I read
back their own letter to them, the relevant clause being "To continue
with this policy you need to do nothing."

They really didn't understand that by doing SOMETHING, it had not cost
them £340, it had cost them £500.

Of course for Steve's position it's a different matter - professional
indemnity for medical people of any sort has always been a very simple
way of making brokers rich.

If I told them I ever used my guitars for gigs the premium would have
doubled - an irrelevance in as much as the three I do use are
completely irreplaceable, and I can get another decent Strat or Tele
for less than the excess.

(mucho snippage)

Pete


.

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