Let me first summarize this long post: You're paying more and more each year for your health insurance, but your benefits may not be going up at all. Mine are frozen, for life apparently, at 1997 levels. So each year, as prices rise with inflation, my benefits are the same, so I can buy less and less as I get older and older (and anyone who's actually gotten older can tell you, the older you get, the MORE you spend on health care, not less).
I had a little chat with BlueCross BlueShield today, and discovered something rather shocking. It's something that might apply to a lot of you out there, even though you don't know it.
In a nutshell, I have the best self-employed health insurance BlueCross offers. Yet, somehow, I got cut off two months ago because I'd spent my annual "limit" on prescription drugs. I had no idea that I had an annual limit on how many prescription drugs I could purchase, but I was equally surprised that in 12 years of using CareFirst, I'd never hit the limit before. Considering I'm not any sicker this year than in previous years, I wondered what was different this year.
Then I talked to CareFirst this morning.
ME: What's my annual limit on prescription drugs under my plan?Let me explain. Inflation erodes the value of the dollar. Everyone knows that what cost you $1,500 ten years ago costs you a lot more today, simply because prices rise every year (on average). In fact, all things being equal, the same good costing you $1,500 in 1997 would cost you $2,024 in 2008. So in real dollars - in terms of what prescription drugs I can actually buy - over the past ten years CareFirst took away 26% of my prescription drug coverage at the same time that CareFirst was increasing my premiums by 242%.
CAREFIRST: $1,500.
ME: So that means if I buy a $100 drug, and I pay $20 and you pay $80, that adds $80 to my total $1,500 you'll pay in one year?
CAREFIRST: Yes.
ME: And what was the annual limit when I started with CareFirst back in 1997?
CAREFIRST: $1,500.
ME: Wait, so you mean I was paying something like $140 a month back in 1997 for $1,500 in prescription coverage, and I'm paying $340 a month today for the same $1,500 in coverage? So your benefits are not keeping up with increasing drug prices or even inflation - they're stuck at $1,500 - even though I pay more every year?
CAREFIRST: Yes.
Who knew?
I honestly thought that as my premiums were increasing so were my benefits. They're not. The insurance companies always complain about the high cost of drugs, and how they're getting higher every year. Well, no they're not - not if you're only paying $1500 a year, no matter what year it is. I'm only costing CareFirst $1500 a year in drugs, so at least on the drug front, there is no cost inflation whatsoever - in fact, CareFirst is making money on me relative to what they were making ten years ago. (I don't know the costs of doctor visits and lab tests, perhaps they've gone up - but then again, so does my premium.) And I don't have any figures on whether prescription drug prices have stayed even with inflation or whether drug companies are charging more than ever for their drugs (you do the math, I'm gonna go on a limb and guess that they're charging more). And if they are charging more, then your benefits have decreased even further.
And of course, your benefits aren't going anywhere, so in ten more years, I'll still be stuck at $1500 a year - which won't be worth much of anything at that point.
Just another example of how screwed we are by our current health care system.
