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Why it is sometimes best to lie to someone, or, how I got to hate Blue Cross

mac

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My wife and I wanted to change health care to Blue Cross. Initially quoted a rate of abot 800/month for the both of us. By the time we got through the "interview" about our health history, it had climbed to 1,400 per month. The woman who interviewed us on the phone barely spoke english. She also would throw in questions that were meant to trick us. One was, so your history shows perscription drugs for mental health issues. Each of us had at least four of these off the wall questions. When she asked if I ever smoke, I honestly replied about two cigars per year, so they put me in the same catagory as someone who smokes two packs of cigaretts per day. If you are on Blue Cross I advise you to shop around. They s**k.
 

Jeff_L

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Everybody is entitled to their opinion about everything. Thus, in my opinion I don't think Blue Cross is all that bad. I've had them through my work for nearly 10yrs now and haven't had any problems with them. Actually, I had a great experience just last year. The hospital where my son was born accidentally used a doctor not covered by BC to do my his circumcision. We were billed the full amount, however, after discussing the situation with BC, they went ahead and paid the bill.

Sorry your experience was poor, and no I don't have any financial ties to them.
 

MEP001

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When they ask if you smoke, the obvious assumption would be that they mean if you smoke regularly. Two cigars a year is not regularly, hence "no" would not be a lie.
 

gsgriffin

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I agree, "No" is not a lie to the smoke question if it is just a couple of cigars a year. Just make sure one of those two times is not recent enough to show up in any testing. From my personal perspective: Blue Cross/Blue Shield is a great organization if you have it through group coverage. But before my wife anfd I were married, she had blue cross/blue shield on an individual policy. She tried to get reimbursed for allergy testing. She had never been tested for allergies before. But according to Blue Cross/ Blue Shield it was denied as a preexisting condition. And therefore all allergy shots and medications following were denied. What was their basis for this preexisting condition? While in college she had seen a schoolnurse and the nurse had written down that her symptons appear to be from allergies and gave her some samples of prescription drugs to try.
 

dclark3344

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Hey Mac
I know your pain. We pay $800 month for BC/BS and were only able to get it thru the Chamber Choice program. Here in OK your business can join the Chamber of Commerce and get in on a group plan where pre-exsiting conditions will be covered and there is no rating system. I seldom have used them but my wife does regularly. I found that they get the hospitals to discount most of what they are supposedly covering then they stick you with the rest for the deductible or it is something that is not covered. I fell of a ladder and the $280 brace the doctor ordered for me and the $200 cream and half of his charges were not covered and the meds were only 1/2 covered
 

Sequoia

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Here's my blue cross/blue shield story:

While covered by blue shield, I was diagnosed, as a complete surprise, with advanced colon cancer in July 2007. Came straight out of left field.

Radiation, chemo, surgery, more radiation, etc. etc. First year bills for treatment exceeded $250k. My total cost out-of-pocket? Less than $400.

If you think your premiums are too high and you are not getting your full value out of them, be thankful. The best possible result is to pay your health premiums and never need to use them.
 

Keith Baker

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The thing I like about BC BS is that they will pay for an annual physical and encourage you to get one. Colonoscopies and mamagrams have no out of pocket expense either.
The thing I don't like is when my wife and I turned 55 this month, they raised our rate by $211. per month. I'll have to shop rates when it renews next December.
I sure hope President O gets me my free health insurance pretty quick.
 

mac

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The thing that really got me about the experience with them was their attemt to trick us into admitting things that didn't exist. That is simply no way to start a business relationship. The other thing was that woman's lack of proficiency with the language.
 
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