My husband and I are both self-employed, and have individual health insurance. (We never realized how "good" we had it when we were employed by large institutions who offered great health insurance benefits...but that is another story...).
I recently received notice from our health insurer that our monthly premiums would be increasing. No surprise. What I am surprised about is that they offer an "Alternate Plan" with a reduction in monthly premium. I then assumed the deductible would have also increased, but this decreased as well! What did decrease (and not in our favor) is the co-pay would decrease from 80% to 70%.
I need to do some more research, as I am sure there is more to this story (and, I don't think for a minute that our Health Insurer would actually be helping us to save money!), but I am interested in hearing from others in answering these questions:
1. Did you receive the same renewal information notice from your health insurance that monthly premiums would increase?
2. Did your Insurer provide an "Alternative Plan" to consider that actually looks good, even better, than your current plan? (ie, premiums decreased, deductible decreased, in-network and/or out-of-network co-pays increased or stayed the same, benefits added, etc.).
3. Do you see any glaring red-flags in switching to the Alternate Plan? There is no indication that there would be any chance of denial of coverage, or for them to drop us or anything sneaky like this.
My biggest question is: is it worth calling their "enrollment specialist" and finding out more? Can I trust this person to tell me what's best for me and my family?
I hope to hear from others, as I'm wondering if this is a national trend for health insurance companies to try to keep us, of if this is done every year, or if I should stay away from any health insurance changes...that I would be signing something I would later regret?
Thanks for any suggestions and advice!