So mad, i don't know whether to ball or scream!

[whatever]

so yesterday my dh takes one of my med scripts to fill, plus he had to fill his high blood pressure. So he calls me and asks if i still have enough till tommorow. I said yes, but why? He said he boss changed our ins!!! We had blue cross. I was so mad. He informs me the cards with policy numbers did not come. I said how do you know they will come tommorow. We argued, and i got so mad i hung up. So he took the hint and called the lady on the card he had (he had the pamplet at work) And of course I was right, the cards were not coming tommorow (which is today) So she is supposed to let us know numbers so we can get our meds filled. But most of my meds are going to jump in prices!!! It will make our monthly meds go up by AT LEAST 50 bucks. AND i am just guessing. the 2 name brand ones alone (which they do NOT have generic for) go up 20 bucks. I know i can't complain to much. We are lucky, because his boss pays for ALL of the ins. The employees do NOT have to pay for any of it. It is their only benefit really. Well they do get paid time off in winter. But no paid vacation any other time of year. He works at a marina. He has worked there for 18 years. but the new ins. is not nearly as good as bCBS. And what makes me so mad is his boss says its costs half as much. Which i doubt. If it saved LYNN 1,000 a year its worth it to him. the guy is loaded. No kids, never been married. He just does not understand what struggling to live means....

[iluvmybaby]

How can he change your insurance without your husbands permission/authorization?

[tracyb]

probably since the company pays for the insurance they change when ever they feel to save money....that is my guess..hubbys is the same way ....thank goodness they dont hardly ever change

[Explorer 4x4'r]

How can he change your insurance without your husbands permission/authorization?


because the employer pays for it 100% (I imagine)

[whatever]

because the employer pays for it 100% (I imagine)

Yep, basically. We filled out papers about a month ago. We have done it before. All employees ( there are only about 9 full timers) and usually it either does not accept us or it must not save him money. but this time BAM! it came as a shock to all of us. He cancelled our old policy on SAT. which he did not inform anyone till yesterday apparently. I have a call in to the rep. but she is in a meeting!

[xtrememom]

I feel your pain, DH's work changed as of Jan 1st and I was actually happy because we had dealt with this insurance prior and I loved them boy how they changed. Yesterday I had a kidney stone attack and had to go to the ER and phenergan dont cut my nausea and vomiting they have to give me zofran so they sent me home with a prescription for it. Pharmacist tells DH they will only cover 9 a month fine whatever we'll take it then they rang it up and it was half of my DH's bi-monthly paycheck $238 !! for 9 pills told us it was a discount I havent even bothered to call the insurance company I am so angry right now because I cant get my nausea under control and I cant hold a glass of water down and now know I will be back in the ER before long and have to be admitted. Then we are trying to get OT's, Pediatric Eye Dr and Pediatric Mental Health for DS not a single participating Physician within a 10-15 mile radius I have to go 25 miles which in our Metro area takes an hour and I cannot be taking my DS out of school 3-5 times per week for half a day to drive an hour there, hour for Therapy hour back in traffic plus add an additional half hour just to be sure we arent late since accidents screw the whole system up here. I am so ready to tell DH to quit his job and find something else, but the job amrket is stagnant here. DH pays close to $600 a month for insurance. Our health insurance system is sick.

[PrincessArky]

could be much worse, could have that coverage and actually have to pay the premiums as well

[Qtxann315]

I'm sorry to hear the change in your insurance. I have BCBS also and like it. It sucks that your prescription bill will go up. I know how that feels. My husband's work changes our insurance all the time without telling us until I receive a letter in the mail.

[Kelsey1224]

You may want to ask if the insurance provides for pharmacy by mail. This option usually saves you much more money. You usually get 3 months for the cost of two.

I work in benefits and premium costs continue to rise at double digit rates.to Most employer's have watched their costs double in the last couple of years.

Even though it is lousy how this employer handled this, it is still better than no insurance...which is what many American's have.

[evrita]

Also have you checked into walmart on thier 4.00 list that might save you a bundle too

[aussiegirl]

See if you can mail away for your prescribtions. Our plan is cheaper for meds if we get a 3month supply through the mail.

[whatever]

Also have you checked into walmart on thier 4.00 list that might save you a bundle too

I talked to the agent today. She is super nice!! I am thinking of trying hyvee. The only problem is my darn specialist!! they are super demanding that i can only refill every 30 days. NO Expections. So non of my pills are on the same day. And we live 15 miles from any town. so with 8 meds that's 8 trips (that's counting my dh's) I get them at medicap right now and she said they price gouge. which i had a feeling they did!! :thumpdown:

[twinkiesmom]

could be much worse, could have that coverage and actually have to pay the premiums as well

i gotta agree here. I know too many ppl that dont have any coverage at all and they hafta pay full price for their meds. Please take comfort in the fact that you are lucky enough to have the insurance.

[Freebeemom]

We have bcbs. Make sure you check into the mail order program. It is so much cheaper for us to go through this rather than regular pharmacies. You have to play the games in order to save money.

[whatever]

We have bcbs. Make sure you check into the mail order program. It is so much cheaper for us to go through this rather than regular pharmacies. You have to play the games in order to save money.

the one i have now have is called united healthcare. the only problem with mail order is my doctors 30 day stingy- ness. so i don't know how i could work around it??

[whatever]

i gotta agree here. I know too many ppl have dont have any coverage at all and they hafta pay full price for their meds. Please take comfort in the fact that you are lucky enough to have the insurance.

And yes i am thankful for having ins. I think of what it would be like without it.
We pay 100 a month for scripts now. Well it will be probably about another 30 per month now. So i can't imagine those who don't have ins. And that is almost ALL generic. We always get generics if we can.

[PrincessArky]

the one i have now have is called united healthcare. the only problem with mail order is my doctors 30 day stingy- ness. so i don't know how i could work around it??

maybe if you can explain to them that it would be very helpful to you they will make some exceptions to their silly 30 day thing.....hopefully they will :)

[twinkiesmom]

the only problem with mail order is my doctors 30 day stingy- ness. so i don't know how i could work around it??

It has been my experience that if you explain to the Dr that the cheapest route to go for you is to get a 90 day supply, they will honor your request. Unless you're taking a controlled substance like a narcotic, I can't imagine why your doc would give you a problem. Just tell him that's the only way you can get your meds since the ins changed. lol

[Freebeemom]

You can go to walmart.com and print up the $4 prescriptions if you need to. If your dr won't work around it, then perhaps you need a new doctor?
Sorry, but if my dr. said no, and I used a prescription long term, I would be gone. There are many to choose from these days. You could always report the Dr. to the insurance co.

You all HAVE to see the movie "Sicko". I am not a big Michael Moore fan, but after this movie, I sure am interested!

[SLance68]

the one i have now have is called united healthcare. the only problem with mail order is my doctors 30 day stingy- ness. so i don't know how i could work around it??

If you liked BCBS you will LOVE United. We have been with them for over 12 years and they have been wonderful to deal with.

As for that Dr. I would be shopping for a new one. My Dr. writes my scripts 1 time per year - so I guess mine is just stingy with her handwriting (lol).

An the employer can change the insurance policy on the renewal date with NO input from the employees. It is the employers plan not the employees so they (the employer) can pick whatever plan they want. No matter what percentage they pay or don't pay for the employee coverage.

[whatever]

I am on 1 narcotic. The others are not. And this is a specalist. And to find them is getting harder. This is the first one try better treatments. While they say my muscles may never get better :( , he is willing to keep trying to work with me. I do NOT understand why he is this way. Even his assitant doesn't understand it. She will at least give me extra refills, but i can only fill them every 30 days. I have an appt. in a couple weeks. I'm going to talk to her about the new ins and see if she will work with me so i can go to a different pharmacy.

[katzenberg]

i go through medco is a mail order you get a 3 months supply it depends on your plan is what you pay.

[RNB16]

I would definatly check into mail order if it's available to you. We have Medco available to us to use but I haven't been able to take advantage of it due to the fact of the type of meds my son takes. Medco also has a website for me to look up costs of medications and how much you would save by using the mail order, sometimes it's quite a chunk of money. If you Doc doesn't want to write scripts for more than 30 days I'd tell him right where to go too.... I understand the Narcotic not being written for more than 30-days as that cannot be gotten through mail order anyways. Good luck and I hope it works out for you.

[Jenefer3]

We had BCBS but then ended up having to switch when I quit my job. Thankfully this new insurance company is pretty good. My son was recently prescribed a medication that costs over $1300 (yep, that's in American money)for a 25 day supply. They actually covered it with no fuss about it; I was completely shocked, especially since the medication is usually used for certain disorders and my son doesn't have those but the doctor thought he would benefit from this medication. So far it seems to work.

[SLance68]

I am on 1 narcotic. The others are not. And this is a specalist. And to find them is getting harder. This is the first one try better treatments. While they say my muscles may never get better :( , he is willing to keep trying to work with me. I do NOT understand why he is this way. Even his assitant doesn't understand it. She will at least give me extra refills, but i can only fill them every 30 days. I have an appt. in a couple weeks. I'm going to talk to her about the new ins and see if she will work with me so i can go to a different pharmacy.

It might not be the Dr. being stingy. There are some narcotics that you have to get a written script for every time. No phone in refills even allowed. I had that problem after a car accident and I was taking Tylox - what a pain.

I can relate to not having the scripts fillable on the same day. It took me almost a year to get mine all on the same day. I would fill some earlier every month and some a little later every month until I finally got them all on the same day. Then my Dr. wanted to change one of them & have me come in after taking it for a month and I told her it would have to be in 2 months since I had just filled the others & I was not going to mess up my "refill day".

[SLance68]

I forgot to add - you can go online to www.myuhc.com and get temporary medical insurance cards printed out.

[kelblend]

I have humana now however I have a $4000 deductible. It's an hsa. So, basically I get a discount, but no coverage at all until deductible met. The discount isn't very much, but I have to say better than nothing. I had united healthcare once and they were pretty easy to work with.
My husband's employer has always paid our ins. coverage in full. It's a small business. I guess he's saving quite a bit with this plan. I can't really complain, but whew I have to pay a high price at each doc visit. It's usually $65 a visit, but only $54 with my hugebutt discount. Gets quite a bit expensive when all three kids get sick close together.

[whatever]

I forgot to add - you can go online to www.myuhc.com and get temporary medical insurance cards printed out.

My dh could have used this yesterday, LOL< He got metal in his eye at work. But his boss is paying for it. I swear he has a magnet in there (his eye on mean) he has to go to the doctor to get metal out AT LEAST twice a year!!
Anyway, without having our cards yet, his boss is paying the full rate.

[pedrian]

His boss sounds like a good guy. We have no insurance, so try paying 100&#37; of everything and see how upset you get.
I understand you got upset at the moment, but just try to remember crud happens sometimes and others have it much worse than you do. Count your blessing instead of crying and screaming.

[SLance68]

My dh could have used this yesterday, LOL< He got metal in his eye at work. But his boss is paying for it. I swear he has a magnet in there (his eye on mean) he has to go to the doctor to get metal out AT LEAST twice a year!!
Anyway, without having our cards yet, his boss is paying the full rate.

Boss damn well better be paying for it - it is called Workman's Compensation and it is illegal for them to require you to use health insurance to pay for medical problems from work. And your DH must be related to my brother - he has that happen to him a couple times a year also.