<p>Hi. I’m hoping that there is some wisdom out there, as I am going 'round and round on the web with little success.
My daughter has just graduated and will be moving back to Boston in a week (we are from washington state). Our insurance will cover her for three more months, but after that the COBRA costs exceed $400 per month. I wanted to find her an individual catastrophic plan where the deductible would be high, the premiums low, and no cap on benefits. I have sent out her info on all those e-insurance sites and they bounce back with messages saying that there are no plans or agents that will match for the area (brookline). ?? One place told me that only Blue cross offers individual plans in mass, but that sounded questionable to me.</p>
<p>So, I have looked up info on blue cross blue shield in mass. I have found a young adult HMO (deductible 250) and one PPO plan with a deductible of $2000, max out of pocket $5000. Both of these have premiums in excess of $200/mo. I don’t know what is considered catastrophic, but these seem expensive to me.<br>
My daughter will be looking for work, but as of now it is not clear that she will find a job-let alone one that offers health insurance.
Does anyone have experience with individual plans for young adults in the boston area?</p>
<p>I got our S local Regence BC/BS (Oregon), HSA highest deductible. So how does this apply to your D? Our S has been on temporary internships Canada, India, Redmond WA, and Germany; And because of his travels, he still calls OR as state-of-residence. Until the time your D can find and be assured that any position she takes is more than just temporary and transitional, why not obtain WA BC/BS? She may incur out-of-network costs, but those costs my still be within the deductible. Consult with your local health insurance advisor. I may be just blowing smoke, but it works for us and S.</p>
<p>She still has 3 months with you, then she could remain with Cobra until she finds work. My son;s Cobra costs less, but I don’t know the details of the coverage. This made sense to us, as he was already part of large group, and he wouldn;t get excluded for preexisting conditions. He spent a day in hospital ER, so I will be curious how much the Cobra covers.</p>
<p>I’m sure Aetna and UHC and UBH offers individual plans, but usually more expensive than being part of a group.</p>
<p>If she remains unemployed after moving back to Boston, your D might qualify for the MA health care plan. I am not familiar with its details or requirements, but she could google the MA gov. site.</p>
<p>As Marite said, she may qualify for a discounted plan. Google the MASS Health Connector website. My first COBRA payment in MA is due this month, $1,595 for BCBS family rate. YIKES!!!</p>
<p>Thank you, all.
LongPrime, I like that idea. The fact is that it is not clear how long my daughter will remain in boston. She would ultimately like to move to NYC, so I might need to be looking into this again. </p>
<p>She does have part-time work lined up, but will be trying to find a job in her field. So i don’t know if she would qualify for programs that require unemployment. </p>
<p>Bookworm, our cobra would be in excess of $400.mo. A little hard to swallow being that we currently pay less than 100 per mo for the whole family!
So, in that regard,unsoccermom, you have my sincere condolences! Never realized it could be that expensive! Maybe Mass is more expensive in general? That is outlandish.</p>
<p>Marite and unsoccermom, I have looked at these plans. While there is one that i would consider (a young adult hmo thru blue cross), I see that alot of these plans have a very low cap. We have had the great misfortune of having had our naivete wiped out when my best friend’s daughter was diagnosed with leukemia a week before she was to return for her senior year at Smith. Two transplants and multiple treatments later, and the cost is into the multimillion range. Miraculously, she is doing well. But i no longer assume that just because one never needs to see a doctor, it will always be so. I would actually like to find a plan where my out of pocket could be as high as 10,000, but the premiums low and the cap unlimited. Some of the plans (especially thru Mass connector) have a 50,000 cap. That could get eaten up in an instant.</p>
<p>If you live in a state with reasonable regulation and individual policies are still available, COBRA is a very expensive way to go. You might check into what is available for your family. If your daughter is moving around a lot, another option is to purchase insurance in a reasonable state that is one’s “residence” and go on from there. A lot of people in the Northeast like the Connecticut market for this. However, in Massachusetts your policy must be “credible” meaning that it has to meet the requirements of the Romney plan in order to qualify as insurance to meet the individual mandate. This means that some of the most popular policies in other states, those with say a $5,000 deductible, would not qualify.</p>
<p>Unlimited life time maximums are usually only available in states like New Jersey that require them. The problem is that premiums go up to reflect the uncertainty (in NJ an individual plan runs at least $1,000 a month). In states with decent regulation, you can usually buy an $8 million cap, enough to take care of most anything, for a few dollars more. I’m with you; it is much less expensive for the average person to take a higher deductible in exchange for a lower premium and a higher cap. Finally, go into an HMO with full knowledge that if you do not like the care they want to give you, you cannot go elsewhere without paying cash. In a PPO you usually have the option to go anywhere although in that case your stop loss may double.</p>
<p>Thank you, Fourier. Yes, after what has been a week of sending out my dd’s personal info on numerous e health insurance sites and getting no response, i finally managed to talk to a blue cross person today who said that there is no catastrophic insurance in Mass. So, thank you for the comment that such a plan might not be considered valid if the deductible were 5K. (And that explains why i couldn’t find such a plan). </p>
<p>We have always been averse to HMOs for the very reason you cite. I was starting to cave, so it is good to get that reminder. Thanks.</p>
<p>If someone can clarify for me: What is the deal on “residence”. My daughter is a washington resident now. If she moves to boston and works there, does that automatically make her a Mass resident, or does one have to take an active step to do so? Is it merely where one is registered to vote?</p>
<p>BTW there are catastrophic plans available in WA for around $60/mo. But, frankly, i am starting to get dizzy trying to distinguish among all these plans. And if she sees a non-preferred provider (as would be the case if she were treated in boston), she would, in some cases have no cap on her coinsurance. </p>
<p>Never appreciated my own health insurance til now…</p>
<p>mommelah - I am very interested in hearing what you find the options are. D1 graduated in May, lived at home with us until late October, then moved to Boston where her school’s alumni network is much stronger. She just started a full-time internship, but non-paid, so we are continuing to support her to a certain extent. She absolutely loves the job, and this company has a strong reputation for hiring their interns, especially from her school, so it is in her best interest to stay there as long as she can. They’ve already made it clear that they are creatively looking for ways to offer some sort of pay, but as soon as they land another account, they hope to hire her as a regular employee. I know they keep her updated on this search, as they don’t want to lose her. She has been given an assignment already that will require work beyond normal internship hours, and have said she will be paid for that one day (she’s hosting an inaugural party at the agency). Anyway, I’ve never heard her be so happy about her workplace and how busy they’re keeping her. She loves it.</p>
<p>As for now, she is continuing to be covered under H’s employer’s plan, as long as we are providing at least 50% of her living expenses (which we obviously are since she has no income). However, there is some question as to how that will play out once she becomes a resident of Massachusetts. She just signed a lease on an apartment (with our co-sign). She does not have a car there, but still plans on getting a MA driver’s license for ID purposes (she’s been turned away from liquor stores with her IL ID), which I think might change her status with the coverage she has now. I am absolutely clueless about the state health plan and/or it’s something she should look into. Let me know what decision you guys make.</p>
<p>teriwtt,
It sounds like we are in a similar boat: my daughter is going to try to get a job in her field, but it is unlikely she will get one without doing another internship first. Unpaid, I’m sure. So, I guess i have to hold off on rejoicing that the tuition payments are over: between the rent, food, phone and health insurance, we still have a significant outflow of cash. </p>
<p>I am awaiting quotes from aetna and blue cross, and I’ll let you know what we decide. </p>
<p>It’s great that your daughter is enjoying her work so much. So, the fact that she was not still a student did not impact her ability to get an internship? That’s one of the concerns I had.
Did your daughter get an apt with others? My d will be in an apt with 4 other girls, for a total rent of $3000 per month. With only 1 bathroom. Boston is definitely not a cheap place to live!</p>
<p>momeleh - like I said, this agency is very pleased with the experience they’ve had with alumni from my daughter’s program and have a pretty decent track record of hiring them permamently. One of her sorority sisters has already been with this agency for over a year and a half now, so when the previous intern was ready to leave, D’s sorority sister knew of my D’s situation (willing to start at the bottom), so her name was submitted pretty quickly.</p>
<p>Her first two months there, she lived with a family friend while she job hunted, and looked for an apartment. She got an apartment with another sorority sister who is from the Boston area, and had been living with family since graduation. They have a 2/1 apartment that runs $1500/month, so yes, it’s expensive. But their location allowed her to give up her car since she has great access to the T, so she doesn’t have to worry about car expenses anymore. Her roommate has a car and is pretty generous with letting D borrow it. But she’s happy and feeling very appreciated in her work, so it seems like she’s found a good fit (minus the lack of money!).</p>
<p>Just went through this with daughter. What ended up working the best was like Longprime found–BCBS HSA with 2500 deductible. Hers was still close to 200/mo as they “rated” her for a prior medical condition.</p>
<p>Our country will not get out of this economic mess till we have a national health care system that allows our businesses to compete globally and fairly with the rest of the entire industrialized world. ALL of our competitors wisely have chosen such a system. </p>
<p>Our present health care paradigm serves itself only to the few, while at an ever increasing cost to all. </p>
<p>Well, I have been getting pretty frustrated here. i really liked the idea of staying with insurance from WA (our state) for multiple reasons. The cost would be around $80-100/mo. instead of close to $300 for something comparable in Boston. So, I called to make sure there would be no problems with residency issues. Regence Blue Shield said my daughter must reside in WA for 6 months of the year. So, that will not work.</p>
<p>So it looks like I either pay for the expensive MA Blue cross plan or the even more expensive COBRA plan until my daughter can get her own insurance. And then deal with this all again in August, if she moves to NYC. </p>
<p>BTW…</p>
<p>When the WA Blue cross plans all provide a max of $250,000 and a waiting period of 12 mos for a transplant. My friend’s daughter would have been dead by then. When I mentioned this to the sales guy, he had no response except to say that this was typical (the policy-not death, I hope) for individual plans.</p>
<p>^ Ask again. Technically the answer is probably correct. However there are many factors that determine residency. Does D vote in WA or MA? Does your group family insurance determines that the residency be with you or does an OOS student still qualifies. </p>
<p>According to WA BC, our son is stateless and therefore does not qualify for any health insurance. I’d go by the federal and state definition of residency. </p>
<p>Which reminds me, S’s insurance is due today. In 2008, he’s been home for about 14 days during breaks between internships and restock trips from Redmond. He’s in Germany now and no way to pay the premium due.</p>