this really irks me good...

[BuffyMars]

"Yesterday, we met with our insurance broker to discuss our year to date claims. During the period of February – May, we have spent $2,021,191 in insurance claims. If annualized, our company is currently on track to spend over $6 Million in insurance claims. This is a SIGNIFICANT number.

One of the most startling statistics was related to prescription drugs and the number of employees who are still requesting preferred or non-preferred medications.

Although as an employee you are only responsible for paying a $25 co-pay for preferred drugs and a $50 co-pay for non-preferred drugs, our company pays the remaining balance for these medications and the amounts can be staggering. Below is a list of a few of the top prescriptions in our plan and the total cost per prescription.

Lipitor $153
Lunesta $165
Protonix $174
Nexium $184
Effexor $190
Advair Diskus $263
Aciphex $299
Provigil $538
Humira $1,878 (no, this is not a typo)

When going to your doctor, please remember to inquire about Generic medications. The Generic co-pay is $5 and on average the total cost will be about 50 – 75% less than the cost of a preferred or non-preferred drug. You can save yourself and our plan a significant amount of money by going Generic.

Please consider using the on-line prescription tool to price your medications. To use the tool, go to the website.

Every little bit helps and it’s up to you to be a smart consumer. Remember, our company is self-insured and WE are paying your claims, not the insurance company.

Thank you in advance for being a smart consumer and helping our company lower our health care costs.

xxxxxx
Vice President, Human Resources"

-----

personally, i was insulted and appalled that there are people within the company who are REQUESTING brand names over the generics. look....we aren't talking about hy-top macaroni and cheese compared to kraft. even i won't buy the knock off on CERTAIN things....but RX!!! you have got to be kidding me! you know...i didn't even know imitrex had finally got a generic rx until i picked it up from CVS. when i asked why it was only $5 compared to $25....it was the pharmacist that told me they finally had a generic rx. they have it on record...if there is a generic....crystal will have it!!! hmmm....$5 compared to $25....man that is tough!

these drugs cannot be patented after their financial test run is over.

it is consumers like them who are making the rest of us conservatives look bad!

and don't get me started on how my chiropractor only charges me $40 for a visit (when i was on a 1099 and was un-insured) but he charges my insurance company $200. and he ain't the only one!!! this is a can of worms you DON'T want me to open.
:mad: :mad: :mad:

[jason]

what company?

[DDBooger]

I always request generic. It's also nice to have a family who own a pharmacy in Mexico! haha They've learned english just dealing with people who go down there to buy their prescriptions.

[BuffyMars]

Originally posted by jason
what company?

oh sorry, it was an email HR sent yesterday to all of our employees in Dallas.

[Ranger Mom]

What's sad is the company won't be able to do that forever....and then the cost will land squarely back on the employee in one way or the other!!!

[BuffyMars]

Originally posted by Ranger Mom
What's sad is the company won't be able to do that forever....and then the cost will land squarely back on the employee in one way or the other!!!

exactly! i tell you what they oughtta do is have those big spenders go without insurance and pay for those drugs out of pocket for a while. i paid $90 for 9 imitrex tablets when i was on a 1099. needless to say...i had more migraines than i could afford to pay for.

I GUARANTEE YOU THEY WOULD BE SCREAMING FOR THE GENERICS THEN!

:weeping:

[Txbroadcaster]

and this is the catch 22 we are in

A lot of people blame the Insurance field because of high prices and bad service, and they are right to an extent..BUT

The doctors charging people without healthcare say 80 bucks for an office visit and then charging someone with insurance 20 bucks co-pay but then 200 charged to the insurance does not help either. It looks on paper like the Doc is helping the non-insured by giving them a break...and to an extent they are..but it is also IMO overcharging to the insurance companies, which in turn drive up the cost of insurance. AND it can also force the insured to hit their limit on certain care like Chiro visits quicker because insurance caps those type of "secondary" categories at a certain monetary value.

So if an insured can only spend 1200 a year thru insurance on a Chrio they will only get 6 visits a year before they have to then pay double or triple out of pocket


I am NOT at the moment for Universial health care BUT something does have to be changed

[BuffyMars]

Originally posted by Txbroadcaster


I am NOT at the moment for Universial health care BUT something does have to be changed


i agree in reform....BUT....i DO NOT, WILL NOT support universal healthcare.


however, i do believe that if doctors would have the same pricing across the board...more people would be able to afford insurance.

[Emerson1]

Both of you just need to work out a little bit more and lose a lot of that weight and you will be fine



:D

[waterboy]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. If this HealthCare bill gets passed, there will be no more private insurance carriers. Read this:

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Congress: It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For Failure

When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

From the beginning, opponents of the public option plan have warned that if the government gets into the business of offering subsidized health insurance coverage, the private insurance market will wither. Drawn by a public option that will be 30% to 40% cheaper than their current premiums because taxpayers will be funding it, employers will gladly scrap their private plans and go with Washington's coverage.

The nonpartisan Lewin Group estimated in April that 120 million or more Americans could lose their group coverage at work and end up in such a program. That would leave private carriers with 50 million or fewer customers. This could cause the market to, as Lewin Vice President John Sheils put it, "fizzle out altogether."

What wasn't known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.

The legislation is also likely to finish off health savings accounts, a goal that Democrats have had for years. They want to crush that alternative because nothing gives individuals more control over their medical care, and the government less, than HSAs.

With HSAs out of the way, a key obstacle to the left's expansion of the welfare state will be removed.

The public option won't be an option for many, but rather a mandate for buying government care. A free people should be outraged at this advance of soft tyranny.

Washington does not have the constitutional or moral authority to outlaw private markets in which parties voluntarily participate. It shouldn't be killing business opportunities, or limiting choices, or legislating major changes in Americans' lives.

It took just 16 pages of reading to find this naked attempt by the political powers to increase their reach. It's scary to think how many more breaches of liberty we'll come across in the final 1,002.

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=332548165656854
_______
Not trying to get political, but this kinda scares me.....:(

[SintonFan]

Originally posted by Txbroadcaster
and this is the catch 22 we are in

A lot of people blame the Insurance field because of high prices and bad service, and they are right to an extent..BUT

The doctors charging people without healthcare say 80 bucks for an office visit and then charging someone with insurance 20 bucks co-pay but then 200 charged to the insurance does not help either. It looks on paper like the Doc is helping the non-insured by giving them a break...and to an extent they are..but it is also IMO overcharging to the insurance companies, which in turn drive up the cost of insurance. AND it can also force the insured to hit their limit on certain care like Chiro visits quicker because insurance caps those type of "secondary" categories at a certain monetary value.

So if an insured can only spend 1200 a year thru insurance on a Chrio they will only get 6 visits a year before they have to then pay double or triple out of pocket


I am NOT at the moment for Universial health care BUT something does have to be changed
.
I have heard theories about what the US would be like if there was no health insurance...
one theory speculated that office visits would be about the cost of our current co-pays. I'm not sure that would be the case today but health insurance was originally only affordable to the rich. Companies in the 50's, in trying to lure better employees, started the current trend of employer paid for health insurance.
Maybe a better alternative would be to have just catastrophic insurance with a higher deductible and leave your average office visit up to customers. I bet that infusion of cash for family/general practitioners would force the price down pretty quick.

[PPHSfan]

Being self employed, I pay about 240 bucks a month for what is basically the equivalent of a Workers Comp policy, that provides some money for me if I am injured while working. On top of this I pay about the same amount for Catastrophic insurance for my family. Normal Dr. Visits for things like getting the flu or some infection that requires a prescription, I pay out of pocket directly for the visit.

I'm happy with the way I am sitting right now, and would prefer that it be left alone.