This HSA compatible California family health plan from Anthem Blue Cross of California must be examined closely. One important omission from this policy is maternity coverage. The plan does not cover child delivery. Accordingly, if may not be a good choice for a young family planning to have children. The Blue Cross 7000 PPO HSA plan has a high annual deductible compared to most other health insurance plans available in the state of California. Generally, the plan pays 100 percent of expenses after a member has met the deductible. One unique feature of the deductible on this plan is that all members of the family contribute to a single deductible. This means that if one person in the family breaks an arm and incurs $2,000 in after discount medical expenses and another person gets very ill and spends $5,000 in medical expenses, then the calendar year deductible has been met for the entire family. Blue Cross of California would begin to pay for medical expenses incurred by the family after that point. You must remember that the deductible is a calendar year deductible. This means that if a person incurs a lot of medical expenses towards the end of the year, the deductible may not be met in the calendar year. Subsequent expenses in the following calendar year would count toward a new deductible. This means a family could spend a lot of money out of pocket and the insurance would not begin paying because the money spent was split between two calendar years. The cost of the Blue Cross 7000 PPO HSA plan is very low compared to lower deductible California health insurance plans. The plan costs about $300 per month ($3,600 per year) for a family with parents under age 50 who live in West Los Angeles. The Blue Cross of California 1500 PPO plan costs $785 per month ($9,420 per year.) Assuming the worst case scenario where a family had huge medical expenses, the Blue Cross of California 7000 PPO HSA plan would cost a family $3,600 in premium and $7,000 for the deductible, totaling $10,600. The out of pocket maximum on this policy is $10,000, including the deductible, so the worst case would be $13,600. The Anthem Blue Cross of CA 1500 plan would cost $9,420 in premium with a $12,000 out of pocket maximum or $21,420. It seems to me that a problem with both of these policies is that they cost a lot of money on a monthly basis and most of the financial burden rests on the patient, not on the insurance company.
|
||||
|
California Health Insurance |
Group Health Insurance in California |
Health Savings Accounts | |
||||