17 ms·
Health Insurance in 3 Minutes
- ilbe 13y agoHow do you guys submit it to healthcare.gov afterwards?
- mwasser 13y agoWe're what is called a 'Web-Based Entity'. This means we have been given the right to integrate with hc.gov on the backend.
- ilbe 13y agoCool, I like how you guys show the Low/High $ amount. Is high the same thing as 'out-of-pocket maximum' on hc.gov?
- mwasser 13y agoHigh is the premium for 12 months + annual max out of pocket. We included it so people who know they'll have a lot of expenses can pick a plan based on what they'll likely pay that year rather than just the premium.
- rdl 13y agoThis is really fast! What I want is a way to actually evaluate the quality of the plans; coverage network (esp while out of state), etc. Ideally vs. my actual medical expenses for the previous year. This is much much harder, though. (Also, wow, health insurance plans in the state/zip I tried dropped a lot over the past month!)
- mwasser 13y agoWe do as well! Coverage networks (physicians) and actual costs are at the top of our minds. Check out sorting by 'worst case' -- while this isn't actual medical costs, if you have one or more chronic conditions, this is likely the cost you'll pay rather than just the premiums. Physician networks are harder, but we are working on it!
- iandanforth 13y agoWhile it's clear on your website, "sherpa" is unusual enough that I completely missed it trying to read your URL. healths-her-pa, health-spa, health sher pa ... oh! Health Sherpa!
- bluedevil2k 13y agoIt's crazy that a Gold PPO plan would charge me $800/month with a $12,000 out of pocket max. $22,000 a year for health care!
- melling 13y agoIt seems more like a tax, somewhat similar to social security. You pay a lot when you're young so that you can get expensive treatments when you're older.
- tomfakes 13y agoThe $12000 out of pocket is only if you use it because you need medical help. You don't actually spend the whole $22K unless you have a lot of medical issues, and then you'll be happy that you only pay $22K per year! When I left my last employer, I had the same company plan under COBRA. It started at ~$1000, and then went to ~$1300 at the next new year. It had lower out of pocket expenses, but those came at the cost of more monthly payment. My current Gold medical plan (2 years later) is $820, plus dental at $120 or so. ~$950 for Gold plan, vs $1300 for my COBRA plan (in between, I had a really crappy personal plan that covered almost nothing for ~$600) People who have employer payed medical have no idea how expensive their plans actually are
- thrill 13y agoPeople who have employer payed medical have no idea how expensive their plans actually are People in general have no idea how much their employers pay for any of the mandates - this is by design. If people were forced to pay all (the exact same) expenses from their own paychecks then the idea that they were getting a good deal would fade away.
- dangrossman 13y agoI'm still clueless as to why the lowest cost plans are twice the premium I'm paying today, on top of having higher deductibles. You'd figure that (a) it's so much cheaper because of some policy change and should have been cancelled, or (b) it's so much cheaper that they should have cancelled it to force me to pay twice as much. * 29, non-smoker, Pennsylvania * PPO through Aetna * $3000 annual deductible / max out-of-pocket * 0% coinsurance, no annual coverage limit * $90 per month premium, up from $85 when I first signed up, yet I got a rebate check back last year for part of it Essentially the same plan from the same insurer, but with a $6350 deductible instead of $3000, is now ~$200/month if I were to sign up today.
- Datsundere 13y agoNot only that but they send bills for services that you thought your insurance covered. For example, I went in for a flu checkup and they charged me $90 for lab tests. This is not including $50 for copay, and $129 for the medication. Don't ever pick kaiser as your health provider. They're very expensive. I'm still a student without a job and my parents have a normal 5-9 job that hardly pays much. I don't know what to say when just a flu checkup costs $269 in a visit.
- honksillet 13y agoBecause you are not only paying for your plan, you are also paying for the plans of those who are receiving subsidies.
- honksillet 13y agoYou are also paying for George Kalogeropoulos to take his cut.
- georgek 13y agoI'm George, cofounder of HealthSherpa (YC S'12). Plans cost the same, whether purchased on our site or through healthcare.gov.
- georgek 13y ago
- Datsundere 13y agoWow All of those plans. Even after you pay monthly, you're still charged $30+ copay for every visit. It's sad to see that healthcare is being played with by businesses.
- bluthru 13y agoI can't wait until health insurance takes 0 minutes like most of the first world.
- lastofus 13y agoI tried signing up for an Anthem PPO plan to see how this works. I was redirected to a branded but non-functional page on https://www.ehealthinsurance.com https://www.ehealthinsurance.com. The form submit button did nothing at all...
- honksillet 13y agoWho is George Kalogeropoulos? "All insurance products are sold by George Kalogeropoulos."
- dangrossman 13y agoCo-founder of the website. It appears all the licenses to sell insurance are in his name instead of the company's.
- DavidAdams 13y agoThe rules for health insurance brokers are a little antiquated. If you're going to sell health insurance online, someone in your company needs to be a licensed broker, and that person's name needs to be "on the building" so to speak.
- novalis78 13y agoa great website that quickly and plainly tells me that healthcare is b r o k e n. Those prices are i n s a n e. Time to go to a local doctor and pay him directly.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- joshontheweb 13y agoMy cheapest plan is $474 per month. That's not happening. Healthcare tourism seems to be the way to go these days.
- gsands 13y agoMight make sense for routine/planned services, but what would one do for catastrophic events? I ask because 474 doesn't sound so bad to be protected against 100k in medical bills.
- novalis78 13y agoa 100k bill that most likely is actually just 5k inflated. See Dr. Keith Smith on this topic. Excellent: http://surgerycenterofoklahoma.tumblr.com/post/79972487684/broken-nose-redux http://surgerycenterofoklahoma.tumblr.com/post/79972487684/b...
- EricDeb 13y agoIt's great that there's one surgery center in Oklahoma willing to compete on price. Unfortunately that's simply not reflective of the rest of the nation. I'm torn on this article because on one hand I don't like how embedded insurance companies are in the current system (it makes it difficult for a young, motivated person such as myself to find good doctors for my condition), but I also don't like the writer's tone - if he's making a legitimate point, why call it the 'Unaffordable care Act?'
- novalis78 12y agoYou really need to follow Dr. Keith Smith - he has been writing about this topic for a long time. There is actually quite an interesting movement towards price transparency gaining traction in recent months, checkout for instance http://www.pricepain.com/why http://www.pricepain.com/why with a detailed reference list to articles/discussion on this topic from recent months
- mindslight 13y ago
- jpeg_hero 13y agoThat's right , 3 min is too many
- latchkey 13y agoThis is a helpful site, but I feel like what is missing is the fine details like 'Does this plan cover the XYZ medication that my wife requires on a weekly basis?'. I ended up having to go with a more expensive plan in order to get the coverage I needed for her.
- seanccox 13y ago"Sherpa"... In a day in age when "red skin", "gypsy", and "chinaman" are not the preferred nomenclatures, you should consider incorporating under a name that doesn't have an ethnic component. Maybe "porter"?
- abeinstein 13y agoThis may be helpful for people like me who don't know anything about health insurance: https://www.healthsherpa.com/learn/how-insurance-works https://www.healthsherpa.com/learn/how-insurance-works