In late September, I, and a bunch of other subject matter experts at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, spent a few mornings telling our producers and brokers (the people who help our clients find the right plan for themselves or their employees) all about what’s new from Blue for 2023 health plans. Read more
It’s Expensive, I Don’t Use It Much
As we were developing our recent Straight Talk posts that dealt directly with terminology, how health insurance pays for your health care, and how your out-of-pocket spending and your health insurance carrier’s spending relate to your premiums, another question kept coming up. This one came specifically from younger folks with health insurance. It went something like this: Read more
Very recently on Straight Talk, I wrote a piece designed to help you understand your health insurance. This explained what all the words –deductibles, networks, claims, etc. – really mean. I also broke down who pays for what when a medical bill shows up. You might remember the three payment zones – the deductible zone, the coinsurance zone and the max out-of-pocket zone.
As soon as we published that piece, I heard this question: “So Mike, how do copays fit into all this stuff?” Read more
Summer is usually a slow season in the health insurance policy world. But not summer 2022. A lot is happening, and I want to keep you updated on all of it. I appeared on WRKF Radio’s Talk Louisiana with Jim Engster on Monday, Aug. 15. We talked about what’s going on in the health care world. Read more
When I was young, my dad and I spent a lot of time, days even, in boats on the water. One time, when I was about 11, we were crawfishing. We had a large aluminum boat loaded with two smaller boats (pirogues) and a lot of other gear. Read more
One thing that has always struck me about the way people spend money is how much it has evolved during my lifetime. Today, we are much more savvy and flexible about how we use debt and insurance than we were 50 years ago. Most people don’t really think about the retail prices anymore when they buy a house or a car; instead, they think, “Hey, I can make the monthly payments!” and that’s typically about as far as it goes. Read more
