Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Attention Uninsured Artists: Join Fractured Atlas NOW

Now. You don't have a second to lose.

Fractured Atlas is, AT LAST, offering health insurance with health savings accounts at reasonable prices. At least, the prices are considerably more reasonable than the premiums that Pretty Lady has been paying for her rather indifferent health plan.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pretty Lady's frequent rants about HSAs and consumer-driven healthcare, an HSA is the difference between buying and renting. You are investing your healthcare dollars, and spending them on the healthcare that you decide to buy, rather than flushing your unconscionable premiums into an ill-managed, totalitarian system, which forces you to take an appointment with a male, Polish OB-GYN who is only in once a week, because that's the only one who has an opening in the next three months, then will not allow you to switch to a female nurse-midwife, or anyone else.

Pretty Lady notes that in the new Perfect Health plan, to which she is switching as soon as humanly possible, not only do you get to choose any doctor you want, but a nurse midwife is automatically covered. Also, the premiums are considerably lower than what Freelancer's Union was charging, last time she looked.

So if you are an artist, and if you are in New York, and if you have no insurance, or insurance that costs more than $250/mo, GO. NOW. You have to get your application in by July 10. GO. NOW.




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Posted by Pretty Lady at 2:27 PM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for bringing this up. I am in the market for health insurance.

Another good option, if you meet the income requirements, is Healthy New York.

I'll compare plans. I like the idea of an HSA but I don't have $5000 if something happens to me in the next couple of years... the deductible makes me a bit nervous.

6/19/2008 1:33 PM
Anonymous said...

Thanks for bringing this up. I am in the market for health insurance.

Another good option, if you meet the income requirements, is Healthy New York.

I'll compare plans. I like the idea of an HSA but I don't have $5000 if something happens to me in the next couple of years... the deductible makes me a bit nervous.

6/19/2008 1:33 PM
Anonymous said...

With all that you have said about health insurance, I'd love to hear your thoughts on malpractice insurance.

6/19/2008 7:26 PM
Desert Cat said...

The thing about these HSA deductibles is that it is not just the deductible typically associated with a PPO or HMO, but includes all copays as well. With a PPO, you might pay a $500 deductible for the 20% of the charges that you owe (in an 80/20 plan), plus a $20 copay per doctor visit, plus $50 per emergency room visit, plus $10-$70 per prescription refill each and every month, etc.

*All* of those items count toward the deductible in an HSA. So if you budget accordingly and figure on paying enough into your HSA every month to cover those items (which would otherwise be out of pocket with a PPO), plus saving the difference in premiums between the PPO plan and the HSA plan, the savings balance adds up faster.

And if not and something big hits, well there's credit cards, payment plans worked out with the doctors/hospital, friends, family, or whatever you may have done to cope with a medical emergency before you had insurance.

Nothing makes you pinch your pennies and grill your doctor harder than having to shell out cash from your own HSA to cover whatever battery of tests he or she wants to put you through. It may be a rude awakening for some docs to adjust to the approach of patients with an HSA.

6/19/2008 7:43 PM

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