my brother-in-law's health insurance premium is going from $70/month to $650/month starting in January
JL
disabilities, moderate retardation) and lives with us. He gets
$750/month pension through his deceased mother. His private health
insurance through her work was $70/month (meaning he'd net $680/month),
but he just got his January check and they raised his health insurance
premiums to $650/month, so his check is only $100. They never warned us
that rates were going to rise that much. It's ridiculous. If they
would have warned us, we could have signed him up for Medicaid or
Medicare (which he no doubt would have been approved for). We could
have signed him up for Medicaid/Medicare years ago, but figured we'd
keep him off the "governmental teat" as long as we could since his
private insurance was so cheap. He doesn't even go to the Dr. much and
doesn't cost more to insure than a regular person.
These private insurance companies sure are socking it to people. And
also, I think it's not fair that retired workers are dumped from private
insurance over to taxpayer funded Medicare/Medicaid just because they
turn 65. If private insurance co's are going to continually raise their
premiums to these ridiculous amounts, then we shouldn't reward them by
removing older people (whose medical costs are much higher) off of
private insurance and over to taxpayer supported health care. It seems
like all the people who are actually sick or older are just dumped over
to the Medicaid/Medicare system, so the private insurers can save tons
of money, but they STILL raise premiums by ridiculous amounts.
My questions are: how long would it take to get my brother-in-law signed
up for Medicare/Medicaid, and do you think the private insurance co.
will refund part of this ridiculous $650 premium for January?
Leroy
>
> My questions are: how long would it take to get my brother-in-law
> signed up for Medicare/Medicaid, and do you think the private
> insurance co. will refund part of this ridiculous $650 premium for
> January?
You'd be advised to learn a bit about what Medicare and
Medicaid are. Start here, to see if BIL is eligible:
http://www.medicare.gov/default.asp
Then get on the phone, pronto.
contact info: http://www.medicare.gov/ContactUs.asp