93|7?

[helen]

Anyone know what 93|7 is? I first saw an ad in the newspaper this week. Just a big block with 93|7 in the middle. Then just a few minutes ago on the USA Network a commerical which I wasn't paying much attention aired and at the every end 93|7 showed up.

[helen]

Re: 93|7?

Just saw another 93|7 commerical on KGMB. Just flashes of local scenes with either 93 or 7 in the scene and then it ends with:

93|7
It's about you

With no idea what this is about. Anybody want to hazard a guess about this?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: 93|7?

If you watch closely for the fine print at the end, you'll see that they're HMSA commercials. I googled and found that HMSA is claiming that 93 cents out of every dollar you pay to them goes to medical services, and only 7 cents to their operating costs. I'm guessing that this set of commercials is trying to drive those figures into your brain so you'll feel good about them when they raise their rates.

[kukui_nut]

Re: 93|7?

If you watch closely for the fine print at the end, you'll see that they're HMSA commercials. I googled and found that HMSA is claiming that 93 cents out of every dollar you pay to them goes to medical services, and only 7 cents to their operating costs. I'm guessing that this set of commercials is trying to drive those figures into your brain so you'll feel good about them when they raise their rates.

Sheesh...
It'll take more than this lame subliminal suggestion to make me feel good about anything HMSA...

[helen]

Re: 93|7?

A new round of commericals are out, this time someone is actually speaking as to what 93|7 is all about.

And yeah it is about HMSA.

[Mocha]

Re: 93|7?

It's amazing how health companies try to get you to believe that they're really on "your side" and doing their darndest to keep costs down. I realize that if we didn't have any health insurance we'd be paying exorbitant amounts, the health bill is inflated to infinity!

[pzarquon]

Re: 93|7?

I'm actually of two minds about all this...

On one hand, I do think that medical costs across the board are getting out of hand. And I was a HMSA subscriber, before switching to Kaiser simply because the monthly premiums were impossible to sustain on my income (one wage earner with a wife and two and a half kids). Even with my employer kicking in half, it was still $500+ out of my paycheck each month. Kaiser is much cheaper... although your options are limited, things are priced more "ala carte" (i.e. nickel and dime you to death), and there's not a line item that you don't pay at least a little bit of. Neither is perfect.

On the other hand, I think many of us have had that epiphany that demonstrates just how neccessary insurance is. For me, it was my son's neurosurgery at six months of age. As you can imagine, as expensive as neurosurgery is, the costs get bigger for the smaller patients. In any case, after that incredible ordeal, I was nearly shocked into insanity when I added up the various statements from the hospital. All told, the procedure and subsequent stay in PICU cost well over $100,000.

By the time HMSA was done going back and forth with 'em, we paid maybe 2-3 percent out of pocket.

So, I know both HMSA and Kaiser are expensive, and the rates keep going up. It makes sense now that employees are just as concerned about their medical benefits as they are about their wages. But it's a neccessary evil. And if you look at what the hospital and physicians bill them for, it's not as if the insurers are neccessarily living on a ridiculous margin.

More competition would be a good thing, to be sure, but emphasizing they claim is the breakdown between "services" and "administration" is actually a good strategy.

[Mocha]

Re: 93|7?

NO truer (?) words pzarquon. My hubby had a very foolish fall from a ladder 2 1/2 years ago and one day in the hospital and the bill came out to $14,000+!!! They charged for everything and had we not had health coverage of some kind we would have had to sell our house. Hope all is well with your son now and with the baby in the "oven". Children are SOOOO expensive now but as long as they're healthy...the more the merrier!

[dick]

Re: 93|7?

So, am I sucker for using HMSA, and paying hand over fist for it? I've heard such horror stories about Kaiser that I'm deathly afraid of the place. It just seems to me that it's well worth the money to be able to choose who I want to see. I rarely if ever go to the doctor, but do see my eye doctor annually (my job depends on my eyesight, so I take that pretty seriously). The idea of having no choice bothers me a bit. Or is that a misconception as well?

[pzarquon]

Re: 93|7?

You definitely have less choice. But for me, a guy who avoids doctors anyway, it's not a problem. Obviously, though, YMMV. I mean, my wife resented that she couldn't keep our kids' pediatrician, but it turns out she liked the staff at Kaiser better than at Straub. Same goes for obstetrics. We're a little worried about having our next baby at Kaiser Moanalua instead of at Kapiolani Medical Center (where the last two were born), but... so far Kaiser hasn't actually given us much reason to worry.

It's just a different approach. With HMSA, you roamed free, and pretty much everything was covered. When it wasn't, though, boy were you in trouble. (I remember a few HMSA bills to the tune of four figures.) With Kaiser, there's more rules and limitations, and you're "nickeled and dimed" to death at times -- every visit, every whatever, three bucks, five bucks, ten bucks. But there are few big-ticket surprises, that's for sure. Emergency room visit with X-rays, blood tests, and who knows what else? The same $10 as you'd pay for a checkup.

We're paying much less a month for Kaiser, and with a pre-tax medical expenses "cafeteria plan" that reimburses expenses, it's just a better use of my money. I can take that $300-$400 a month I'm saving and put it to other things to keep my kids healthy, you know?

That's not to say if money were no object, I wouldn't go back to HMSA. If only for the access to Kapiolani Medical Center. But for now... it works.