I just read about skywest insurance

gtpilot said:
I'm not sure how the SKW HSA compares to what they currently have, but on the ASA side, every worst case scenario I have looked at has the HSA coming out ahead. I'm not there to take the extra bribe they're throwing in, but that would just be extra gravy to me! And before I get blasted, I was on the ASA HSA before the furlough and I have a family and we had multiple problems last year, including surgery and still came out ahead. The new terms for the 2010 HSA are more favorable, so on the ASA side at least, it's hard to understand the uproar.
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What is your premium for single and single + 1 for the HSA at ASA? And do you still get your copays on regular doctor visits or is it like Skywests where it's just on preventive care?
 
Any 80/20 coverage scheme, with or without a deductible, will bankrupt virtually anyone faced with a catastrophic event or serious medical condition.

And while SKYW's plan to contribute up to $2k to employee HSAs during the transition is laudable, employees joining after the transition are left to their own devices to meet these high deductibles.

I'm thinking that a new flight kit sticker is in order, something like "HOW WOULD YOU VOTE NOW?" or "HSAs: BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOUR NO VOTE"
 
bike21 said:
Another funny/sad/interesting tidbit...upon rollout of our new plan, the annual max out of pocket was $10,000. Within a day or so of LOTS of angry emails it went down 4k to $6,000. No way that could be negotiated is such short order. It was likely planned from the beginning to make the company look better to us 'common folk'.
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Yeah, if the company meant to do that, it was a dumb move or back fired badly! But then, it's airline management, no? ;)

wheelsup said:
What is your premium for single and single + 1 for the HSA at ASA? And do you still get your copays on regular doctor visits or is it like Skywests where it's just on preventive care?
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Monthly premiums are 44 vs 84 single, 86 vs 217 +1 and 103 vs 270 family. I think the plans are the same at ASA and Skywest - so you pay in full until the deductible unless it's preventative care.

aloft said:
Any 80/20 coverage scheme, with or without a deductible, will bankrupt virtually anyone faced with a catastrophic event or serious medical condition.

And while SKYW's plan to contribute up to $2k to employee HSAs during the transition is laudable, employees joining after the transition are left to their own devices to meet these high deductibles.
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Again, I don't have what Skywest has now to compare to, but the HSA being offered will not bankrupt anyone anymore than the PPO would. Even without the 2K bribe, I can see very few scenarios where the HSA is more expensive because the premiums are significantly lower. If anything catastrophic occurs, the max out of pocket is $6000 under the HSA and $6450 under the PPO, so you'll pay out the nose either way. If it's really bad, the max on both plans is $2 million and again, you're screwed either way.

I don't know how this plan stacks up against what other people have, but for my family it compares favorably to what my wife was offered working for Athens/Clarke county in Georgia and it's much better than trying to get independent coverage!
 
gtpilot said:
Monthly premiums are 44 vs 84 single, 86 vs 217 +1 and 103 vs 270 family. I think the plans are the same at ASA and Skywest - so you pay in full until the deductible unless it's preventative care.
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Wow that is a raw deal. I would've expected the premiums to be around $20-$30 a month for that kind of plan. Well at least I have my insurance for now.

Eventually I think these kinds of plans will be good for America as a whole as they will lower overall healthcare costs however for those switching early on they are going to get screwed.
 
wheelsup said:
Wow that is a raw deal. I would've expected the premiums to be around $20-$30 a month for that kind of plan. Well at least I have my insurance for now.

Eventually I think these kinds of plans will be good for America as a whole as they will lower overall healthcare costs however for those switching early on they are going to get screwed.
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This isn't aimed at you but you said something that made me think of this...

Just think how much lower healthcare costs would be if there were less than 10% obesity and smoking was banned. This is one of the major healthcare costs that nobody seems to get. All the healthy people in america are paying for these rogue individuals who lead unhealthy lifestyles.
 
stuckingfk said:
This isn't aimed at you but you said something that made me think of this...

Just think how much lower healthcare costs would be if there were less than 10% obesity and smoking was banned. This is one of the major healthcare costs that nobody seems to get. All the healthy people in america are paying for these rogue individuals who lead unhealthy lifestyles.
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Technically over the long term smokers and obese people cost less. The reasoning is that they generally do not contract long term, costly, diseases such as cancer (smokers do, but it generally is a quick death), Alzheimers, etc.

I don't support any government intervention in our lives, and banning smoking is one of them. If people want to smoke that is their business as well as their business to do drugs, drink alcohol, etc.
 
wheelsup said:
Technically over the long term smokers and obese people cost less. The reasoning is that they generally do not contract long term, costly, diseases such as cancer (smokers do, but it generally is a quick death), Alzheimers, etc.

I don't support any government intervention in our lives, and banning smoking is one of them. If people want to smoke that is their business as well as their business to do drugs, drink alcohol, etc.
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What are you smokin today?

If you don't think fat people cost more money I suggest you do some research.

Start with googling "Heath Affairs" and read this.
 
stuckingfk said:
What are you smokin today?

If you don't think fat people cost more money I suggest you do some research.

Start with googling "Heath Affairs" and read this.
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Here was a study published not too long ago

In a paper published online Monday in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal, Dutch researchers found that the health costs of thin and healthy people in adulthood are higher than those of either fat people or smokers.

Van Baal and colleagues created a model to simulate lifetime health costs for three groups of 1,000 people: the "healthy-living" group (thin and nonsmoking), obese people and smokers. The model relied on "cost of illness" data and disease prevalence in the Netherlands in 2003.

The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, obese people racked up the highest health costs. But because both the smokers and the obese people died sooner than the healthy group, it cost less to treat them in the long run.

On average, healthy people lived 84 years. Smokers lived about 77 years, and obese people lived about 80 years. Smokers and obese people tended to have more heart disease than the healthy people.

Cancer incidence, except for lung cancer, was the same in all three groups. Obese people had the most diabetes, and healthy people had the most strokes. Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on.

The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000.
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004164306_health05.html
 
Let me just say for all of those who "don't get sick that often" or who "take care of themselves"....

You never can predict the future of your health. Just a year ago, I hadn't a health problem what so ever. I hadn't seen my doctor in over a year. I was never sick and never missed a day of work in the last 4 years because of being sick.

Then suddenly, I woke up one day with vomiting and diarrhea. The next 48hrs were the same. The vomitting stopped and I thought it was all over. Since that first 48hrs, I've had 2 colonoscopy's, 1 upper endoscopy, MRI's, Catscans, Small bowel series barium xrays etc. etc. you name it I've done it in the last year. I've been through 2 GI doctors.....no conclusive diagnosis. My current GI doctor believes I had an intestinal parasite and because I didn't go to a doctor for over a month, I have intestinal damage.

Now I almost always miss at least one trip a month due to digestive issues. I've used up all of my FMLA time for the year, and now I have to take non-FMLA for every incident.

My out of pocket expenses during the last year for these medical problems have been pennies compared to what I would have paid had we no insurance. The most I've paid for a single visit or procedure has been $20. $10 copay for office visits.

One thing I've learned - don't ever say you'll never get sick and don't ever think you won't need your health insurance. A colonoscopy alone is a $800-1,000 procedure....try 1 every six months...you need good health coverage.
 
stuckingfk said:
What are you smokin today?

If you don't think fat people cost more money I suggest you do some research.

Start with googling "Heath Affairs" and read this.
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There are several European studies that point to the fact that over the life of an individual, obesity and smoking reduce health care costs because the generally die before retirement age and die more quickly when stricken with heart disease or cancer. Not saying there aren't other costs involved, but you can't entirely discount his argument.

An interesting rebuttal to the 'Health Affairs' article here:

If Obesity Saves Taxpayers Money, Should It Be Encouraged?
 
gtpilot said:
Again, I don't have what Skywest has now to compare to, but the HSA being offered will not bankrupt anyone anymore than the PPO would.
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Oh, if I had been on his HSA when my wife hit the hospital, my son broke is leg and then broke his arm 6 months later, I'd have filed bankruptcy. Under my PPO, just rolled with it and kept going. Nice having a $150 deductible per person.
 
For you ASA guys. How is the comany changing your healthcare bennfits? Don't you guys have that locked into your CBA? Here at Comair they're only changing healthcare bennefits for merit salary/hourly employees. Pilots, FA's, and Maintenance employees are exempt due to their negotiated health bennefits being locked into their contracts.
 
H46Bubba said:
For you ASA guys. How is the comany changing your healthcare bennfits? Don't you guys have that locked into your CBA? Here at Comair they're only changing healthcare bennefits for merit salary/hourly employees. Pilots, FA's, and Maintenance employees are exempt due to their negotiated health bennefits being locked into their contracts.
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The HSA was already an option at ASA....but the PPO is what was negotiated in the contract and I don't see how the company can remove that as an option without union consent.
 
gtpilot said:
The HSA was already an option at ASA....but the PPO is what was negotiated in the contract and I don't see how the company can remove that as an option without union consent.
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I figured that. Is the MEC doing anythig about it?
 
To add my two cents, when I had my shoulder surgery two summers ago, had I had this plan, I'd be out $7,500 over a 6 month period. This is the catch guys. If your injury goes from Jan01 to Dec 31, youre on the hook for 5K, if it goes into Jan01 of the next year, your on the hook for another 5K.

My surgery cost $27,000(freak accident). Under this bogus new plan, my out of pocket from July(when it happened) until Dec would have maxed out at $5,000. I still had copays for rehab till May, doctors visits, medications, etc that ran another $2,500 from Jan until May.

You can't predict when or how you will get injured. It can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone.

Bogus, bogus bogus.

I just hope our guys won't fall for the 5 new RJ's for AirTran to make up for the continued erosion of benefits.

What if I had cancer? 100K? What if I had a life threatening car accident? 250K+?
 
H46Bubba said:
I figured that. Is the MEC doing anythig about it?
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Honestly, the MEC seems too concerned with sending out PBS updates every other day. They haven't really addressed it, but they have two years before it's a real issue so it may be put on the back burner.
 
What if I had cancer? 100K? What if I had a life threatening car accident? 250K+?
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I'm under the impression that you would hit the $3000 individual/$6000 family CDHP max out of pocket limit and be covered 100% until you hit the next plan year just like our current PPO option. I think for a high cost event like that it would come out to be the same. I say this after finding out that a couple of our pilots here had to shell out $6000 for the birth of their babies under our current PPO plan.
 
It will save the company millions in dollars and help keep skywest competative. We need all the cost savings we can get when there are airlines like XJT and RAH willing to fly for free.

I have been using HSA for years and find it very good. I really don't understand why people are against it, this is much better than a ppo. Your monthly payments are much cheaper than on a ppo.
 
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