Health Care Plan Providers
 

Is there any companies beside Blue Cross?

Blue cross quoted me for paying at least $450 yearly to pay full coverage plan.

I'm wondering if there is a cheaper plan around there since work won't cover me...

However I'm still debating about getting prescription drugs plan, and maybe somebody on here will educate me about it.

BC Health Insurance Plans I BC Health Coverage

Health & Dental Insurance Basics | BCAA

London Drugs Insurance

CoverMe Health & Dental Insurance Plans: Flexcare & FollowMe

^^^Those are off the top of my head. Your quote will depend on several factors, including age, sex (not if you have it but male vs. female), smoker, pre-existing conditions, possible past claims history.

Why are you looking for private medical? What are your priorities? Not that you want to share on a public forum, but what is your income level? (ie fair pharmacare < google it) How much did you spend on medical, dental, practioners in 2011 compared to premium quote? Again to the income, and relevant with tax time just past, can you claim your medical on your income tax (income versus medical receipts) (medical receipts can be claimed for a 12 month period but the 12 months do not have to be Jan - Dec). Is this for you or are there dependents invovled?

^I'm guessing dependents?
Unless you have something chronic, private medical is a little overkill..? I guess it's just extra insurance.

The plan is for myself...
Well the most priorities I need is mostly dental and eye care... not sure about prescription drug coverage though... Maybe I get MSP instead of getting drug coverage.

My income isn't not a lot.. like maybe 20g a year

In 2011, i spent this lame $80 drug to fix my unbearable rash... didn't help me at all. Maybe I need a new doctor who doesn't rip me off. As for dental, I went for a checkup which cost me about $200?

Blue Cross is the only company I know, lol.
Blue Cross is actually private health insurance? Didn't know that...

i've been with manulife, sunlife, blue cross...i am also on the search for some other ones to cover medical benefits.

Not much point if your main goal is to get prescriptions covered due to your income. The government will start kicking in for you and pay for the majority of your meds after you spend $400 in eligible meds anyways. If you spend $600 in a calendar year on eligible meds, your drugs are free for that year.

Fair PharmaCare Calculator

Register for fair pharmacare if you have not. It's free, you're eligible. If you don't need the coverage, you pay nothing. If you do, you pay about the same as blue cross anyways for the year.

If you need it for dental, that's another story.

There are many private plan carriers. Blue cross, Green shield, ESI, Assure Health (sunlife).

Assure health is a bitch as they are quite anal about every nit picky detail. Most of the time if you fill things normally, the deductions come off from the pharmacy and we're good. But if you need an emergency supply, they need you to manually submit that... if you need vacation supplies, manually submit that too... Blue cross doesn't do that... they don't really care...

That being said, I'm not sure how much the plans cost to buy privately.

Best bet I think would be either Blue Cross or ESI (manulife). Depending on how much the plans themselves cost. The dental or vision care benefits are always nice to have.

In general however, with regards to drugs:

Tell your doctor that you have cost concerns, or would prefer not to spend huge amounts on medications. And they usually can give you a couple different options of things to try. Sometimes there are cheaper options that may work about the same.

Talk to your pharmacist, they may be able to make suggestions if they know cost is an issue.

Sometimes taking half of a 20mg tablet is 50% less of the price than taking one of a 10mg tablet. There are some drugs where different strength tablets all cost the same.

Sometimes new generics may be available that they can bring in for you. Usually arrives next day, and you could save 50-60% even.

For example, If I see a prescription for a combination inhaler (that's not covered, and costs $120 bucks), and I know you have cost concerns. I could suggest splitting up the combination inhaler and give you 2 inhalers, one of each drug separately which IS covered.

But again, this depends on how good your pharmacist is at finding these cost savings strategies for you. They aren't obligated to do so as their main concern is the safety and effectiveness of the drug and also treating you to make you better. So they could just fill the prescription as it is, but if they know you or you're a nice guy they could go out of their way to help you out.

I think most life insurance companies offer Health Plans including such as Sunlife, Great-West Life, Manulife etc. I have mine, though, through Blue Cross - was the cheapest alternative for me.

Check out Consumer Insurance Reports - some companies are not as good as others... I hope it helps!
:5shots:

There's Green Shield too.

If your income is that low you should be getting at least partial drug coverage from MSP.

So it's a good idea to not add the "prescription drugs" and just go with dental and eye care?

And sign up for MSP and pharmacare?

I know msp is required but iunno what is the benefits...

Yep register for MSP and Pharmacare. (Not actually sure if you need to register for MSP though manually...?) Pharmacare you just have to call the 1-800 number and they can register you right away. Make sure you have your 2010/2011 tax information on hand though.

MSP benefits = free doctor visits, hospital visits, full hospital care, lab tests, x-rays etc. stuff you don't normally think about