NoFeeBoards.com!

Here's what you have to look forward to: steep monthly premiums, higher copayments, outrageous deductibles and fewer benefits. Moreover, the process can be tedious and downright confusing - which helps explain why there are some 65 million America under age 65 who went at least six months without coverage during the past year.

caseynshan wrote:

I just got my 2004 Kaiser Info,

Wanderer - FYI - for a 43 old single male HMO is 220.00 a month (drops to 166.00 if you drop maternity and prescription drug coverage)

The cost of medical benefits is expected to rise 12 percent or more next year. At that pace, benefits costs will have doubled since 1999. Having already passed on deep cost cuts to doctors, hospitals and HMOs, now employers will continue to push more benefits costs on to their employees.

Thousands left without coverage
Among the findings: Since 2001, four unauthorized plans have left nearly 100,000 people with approximately $85 million in unpaid medical debts and without health coverage. The study was commissioned by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation supporting independent research on health and social issues.

Typically, scam health plans proliferate when insurance premiums are rising, prompting people to look for less expensive alternatives. "These people can sell their plans because the market is seeking cheaper forms of coverage," says Miller.

Why you don't hear about these accounts?
In a word, politics. Congress started the program and capped the allowable total enrollment at 750,000. Fewer than 200,000 Americans are actually enrolled in plans

Kramer wrote: My dad was virtually uninsurable, because he had had cancer at age 37, and later had to have his hips replaced. But he got group coverage for his tax and accounting business, that has a minimum of 2 enrollees, for him and my mother. It wasn't cheap, and the rates steadily have gone up faster than inflation, but it seemed fair, given his condition.