Blue Cross, Blue Shield, and NASE...

I got Blue Shield because, at the time (many years ago), it was a much better deal than Blue Cross... but I never knew Blue Cross had a plan for the self-employed either. My agent never mentioned it.

I live in constant fear that the stop sign in my ADD husband's brain will fail and he'll lose his job or quit, so until January of this year, I always kept my own policy.

Well... on my birthday, my premium (for ONLY ME) was going up to $882/month, and I bailed. I'm on his group Blue Cross now for $99 a month and it's MUCH better coverage. I'm taking a chance, but oh well... it's only 11+ years til Medicare, so it's a risk I'm willing to take.

I keep both kids on private Blue Shield -- HORRIBLY priced at $137/month each for $1500 deductible for a healthy 10-year-old, but one has asthma and one has epilepsy, and I'm not taking any chances that they won't be able to get insurance later.

ABOUT NASE:

I don't know for sure if that's what I had when I first became self-employed, but I believe it is.  It was NA-something, and the salesman came to the house, told me it was a special association for self-employed people, and I'm almost positive that's what it was.

I lost my shirt.

I kept it for years and never had a claim, then I broke my kneecap. I ended up owing $8700 out of pocket, even though there was a pretty low out-of-pocket maximum (I believe it was $2500).

I barely met my deductible that year and came nowhere close to my out-of-pocket maximum.

The reason?

At the time, I didn't know anything about insurance.  I think everyone knows now that they all pay based on WHAT THEY ALLOW for each service.  Also, you may pay $3,000 out of pocket, but if they only ALLOW $1,200 of those charges, that's all that counts.

Well, I was young and naive, and the salesman forgot to mention that.

He also forgot to mention that (NASE?) used the LOWEST numbers available anywhere, so like I said, with a $8700 out of pocket, I never reached my limit and the insurance paid PENNIES.

Twenty years later, somebody wanted to sell me NASE again (this time I'm sure it was NASE).  They called me relentlessly.  I told them no.  My husband told them no.  The salesman claimed my husband had told them to call me to set up an appointment, etc.  INCREDIBLE pressure over a period of a year.

I finally told them I had talked to my attorney and if they ever contacted me again, I would sue them for harassment.  (Of course I hadn't and I wouldn't, but it made them go away.)

I wouldn't touch them with a 53-foot pole.  Even if they weren't the ones that wiped me out in the '80s, the high-pressure assault twenty years later was more than enough for me.

Luv,

MaaMaw