Cheaper Insurance Isn't Always Cheaper or Better

When my children were in elementary school, the company I worked for offered two decent health care plans. With the plan I chose, the co-payments for doctor visits was $10 and prescriptions were $5, and we could use any doctor we wanted. My children had been going to the same pediatrician since they were toddlers. The minute my kids got sick, I could always get an appointment right away. If our favorite doctor wasn't available, one of his associates stepped in and took care of my children. The office was open until 7:00 every night of the week and on Saturday mornings all year long.

Then, in an effort to save some money, my company switched insurance companies. This new company only offered one insurance plan, and we could only use doctors that were in their plan. The cost of the coverage was higher, the co-payments for doctor visits and prescriptions were higher, and many drugs that my co-workers needed for their health problems were either not covered or they had to pay more for the medicine.

The main problem I had with the new plan was only one of the primary care doctors on their entire list was accepting new patients! Additionally, there was only one--count them, one--pediatrician on the list.

At first I was happy with this new pediatrician because there were three female doctors in the office, and I liked them. But immediately I discovered a huge problem: they were not available when my children came home sick from school, and they didn't cover each others patients! During the week their office hours were 8:30 to 3:00; forget the weekends. And, believe it or not, when school was closed, like for school holidays, their office was completely closed. And during summer vacation their hours were even shorter! I asked them why their hours were so short during the week and why they weren't available on Saturdays, and one doctor told me they were all moms and wanted to be home when their kids got home from school. Must be nice.

A couple of times one of my children was sick in the night, but I couldn't get an appointment with the doctor for a day or two. Even though another doctor was available, Id have to wait until there was an opening on my child's doctors calendar. The times one of my children came home sick from school, it was too late to see the doctor or even try to get an appointment for the next day. If my child got sick on Friday, Id have to wait until Monday to even to call the doctor to get an appointment for as early as Tuesday. Everyone I worked with who had children had this same problem.

We had to deal with this problem for an entire year until open enrollment came around again. By that time, everyone in my company had complained multiple times about the insurance plan we were forced to use, and our company picked a new insurance company with multiple plans to choose from. We were able to choose a plan were I could take my children back to their old doctor who had the terrific office hours and could see my children anytime they were sick. Now they really cared for the kids.