Retiree Insurance - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Retiree Insurance

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Yes, they took an extra $29 bucks out of today's check, so it is now up to $351/mo.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

PERS recipient wrote:

Does anyone know if health insurance went up for PERS recipients on July 1? I got my PERS automatic deposit today. The 13th check kicked in today also but it seemed to have been offset on the monthly amount by something and it probably was another health insurance increase.

Yes, it happened to me also. In June I believe the insurance was $322/month, and in July it jumped to $351/month.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

PERS recipient wrote:

Does anyone know if health insurance went up for PERS recipients on July 1? I got my PERS automatic deposit today. The 13th check kicked in today also but it seemed to have been offset on the monthly amount by something and it probably was another health insurance increase.

I don't get my 13th check until toward the end of the year. How did you get yours so soon? Maybe it's because you elected to receive it spread over 12 months and I get mine in one huge annual lump sum (which, thanks to PERS' wise investments, has increased with each passing year).

It seems that I do recall receiving information about new health premium rates effective July 1, but I can't put my hands on that information at the moment.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

The specific amount deducted for health insurance will depend on which plan you have (e.g., individual, family, spouse), whether or not you are also on Medicaid yet, etc.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Livin' on Tulsa Time wrote:

The specific amount deducted for health insurance will depend on which plan you have (e.g., individual, family, spouse), whether or not you are also on Medicaid yet, etc.

I hope you meant "Medicare" instead of "Medicaid". It hasn't gotten that bad yes.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

My bank account figures show that my health insurance deduction this month increased by $49.86. That covers two participants.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Me too wrote:

I hope you meant "Medicare" instead of "Medicaid". It hasn't gotten that bad

Oops! Oldtimers syndrome kicking in I suppose.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Livin' on Tulsa Time wrote:

I don't get my 13th check until toward the end of the year. How did you get yours so soon? Maybe it's because you elected to receive it spread over 12 months and I get mine in one huge annual lump sum (which, thanks to PERS' wise investments, has increased with each passing year).

Another point is that after age 55, the 13th check compounds into the calculation of the next 13th check. (I note this, because I "got my 25" at age 50, so this is an incentive for some of us to work until "30" or beyond.)

Of course, the thought of being able to retire at age 55 with a guaranteed 60% of the average of my "highest four" (recall that I'm an administrator, too), plus a compounding COLA (13th check) that grows nicely anyway due to PERS track record of good investing, well, it's pretty tempting. I can kinda picture myself in a pair of bib-front overalls with one gallus un-done, sitting on the porch of Invictus' Country Store ("beer, baloney, bait & computer hacking to go") in just a few years...

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Most of the problem is due to greedy doctors and hospitals.Health care costs are the biggest problem our country faces.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Sick Man wrote:

Most of the problem is due to greedy doctors and hospitals.Health care costs are the biggest problem our country faces.

I'm not letting the insurance companies & ambulance-chasing malpractice attorneys off the hook either. One reason the doctors seem "greedy" is that they pay exorbitant amounts for insurance, even with the "reform" enacted by our so-called lawmakers.

But I will say this: The #1 reason that kids major in pre-med is money. It has nothing to do with a compelling interest in serving humanity. I suspect that if auto mechanics made $500K/year, a lot of USM's pre-meds would be over at PRCC learning to grind camshafts.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Maybe a heart surgeon makes that. Your friendly GP or pediatrician doesn't.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

LVN wrote:

Maybe a heart surgeon makes that. Your friendly GP or pediatrician doesn't.

Premeds don't know that.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Forget cardiac surgery, all the money these days is in plastics.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

I'm sure you're right, 'Vict. The perception is strong that all doctors are rolling in the bucks. But even ten years ago, when I worked at a med school, that picture was beginning to change. The insurance is a huge factor, as stated earlier, and also they leave medical school with crushing debt. It's almost impossible to make it as a solo practice any more. I've seen several consolidations recently here in H'burg.
Here's an example of the problem. I had a routine test. The clinic billed $800. My insurance (Tricare) paid less than $200. The rest is a write-off. The time, supplies, drugs, equipment and personnel involved cost every bit of the $200 or more. Tricare reimbursement levels are close to Medicaid's, a little worse than Medicare and Blue Cross, but still the write offs are huge. Of course the sad part is that Joe Uninsured gets to pay the whole $800, usually in $50 installments, or he doesn't pay and the whole thing is a write off. Plus, factor in the full-time staff it takes to keep up with all this stuff! In some areas, a few doctors have gone to cash-only, which enables them to charge less and hire fewer staff, but I don't know how well that has worked.
And here's another thing before we call them greedy:
B.S. = 4 years
M.D. = 4 years
Residency = 3-5 years depending on speciality
Fellowship = you name it, two years at least

That's 10 -15 years of very intense, grueling training. I know getting a PhD is hard and demanding, but I used to work with residents, and there's no comparison.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Invictus wrote:

The #1 reason that kids major in pre-med is money. It has nothing to do with a compelling interest in serving humanity.

That's why there are so many Freshmen biology majors (pre- med). After they take chemistry most of them change to something else. But the Freshmen enrollment does help keep biology's overall enrollment up.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

LVN wrote:

Residency = 3-5 years depending on speciality Fellowship = you name it, two years at least.

They are well paid during those years . . . maybe not as much as they would like, but a heck of a lot more than a graduate assistant makes even at the heavily funded schools. They already have their M.D. during those years of residency and fellowship and they work at M.D. wages during their residency and fellowship periods. That nothing to sneeze at.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

I don't know -- my last experience with them was about ten years ago. They don't make "MD" wages, and they work absolutely brutal hours. About ten years ago my residents made around $30K. But remember, this is after eight years of higher education.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

LVN wrote:

I don't know -- my last experience with them was about ten years ago. They don't make "MD" wages, and they work absolutely brutal hours. About ten years ago my residents made around $30K. But remember, this is after eight years of higher education.

That's more money than a new Ph.D. in my field made ten years ago. A new Ph.D also has eight years of higher education (undergraduate + four graduate) behind them. Some doctoral prorams require five years of graduate studies.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

regardless of the number of years in school - an MD is comparable to a PhD in this respect - i think it is fair to say that MDs are overpaid.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

I feel like I'm being drawn into something I don't want to be. I agree that stipends for PhD's are usually poor. But remember, we're talking about residents, people who already have an MD. In the residency program I worked in, my young docs worked 80-100 hours a week sometimes, sometimes 36 hours at a time on call. When I say the work and hours are brutal, that's not hyperbole. And please, remember what the "work" involves. When is the last time a PhD student in English (say me, once) had to . . . well, I could get gruesome here, but I wont'. Let's just say the work is not comparable.

So, what do you think they should make? Before you decide, go spend some time in the ER at Charity.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

LVN wrote:

So, what do you think they should make?

Lots. I think a competent physician should be among the highest paid professionals in America. A physician in solo practice must pay rent for office space, expensive equipment, receptionist, and nurse. If they go to professional meetings it must be funded out of their own pocket. A good university takes care of the necessary professional expenses of its faculty members.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

I'm going to say one more bit about this doctor thing, and then I have to leave. We can all think of lazy, overpaid people in every profession. Some doctors do make too much money, but most doctors, having given up their youth and not even starting a real career until age 35, would think they have earned their salaries. Also, remember what I said about the debt load. Many young physicians would like to work in impoverished areas, say Indian reservations, but with $100,000+ in student loans, just can't. (Im taking this example from a PBS documentary of a few years ago.)

That being said, of course most PhD's don't make enough. Were it not for the PhD's in biology, chemistry, English, etc. we wouldn't have these doctors at all. They send their children to us, we send our children to them. Maybe we could have a little more respect all around.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

LVN wrote:

And please, remember what the "work" involves. When is the last time a PhD student in English (say me, once) had to . . . well, I could get gruesome here, but I wont'. Let's just say the work is not comparable.

But even a plumber must wash his hands after finishing the job. But it's not the type of "gruesome work" (your term) a physician must often do that we're paying for. It's his (her) competence in an essential field where the supply and demand is not in favor of the consumer. I have no problem with that. Good physicians shoud be well compensated. All I was saying is that their training is no longer than that of a Ph.D.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

LVN wrote:

most doctors, having given up their youth

I guess I've been watching too many TV soap operas about doctors. Some appear to be in the prime of their youth and enjoying it on and off the job.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Cannonball wrote:

Good physicians shoud be well compensated. All I was saying is that their training is no longer than that of a Ph.D.

Oh, true, except some specialities like surgery have a six-year residency, and then frequently another couple of years of fellowship. And many specialties like radiology require a year of internal medicine residency BEFORE they can even start their specialty training.

Our department had both MDs and PhD researchers. The PhDs sometimes got a bad deal and were not always treated with enough respect (except by the MD's who also had a science PhD -- that made a difference in attitude.) Our PhD researchers were doing some heavy, important stuff.
Oh, also, a mention was made of malpractice insurance. That still takes a whack out of any doc's compensation. Does anybody have any real numbers?
Now I really am leaving.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

LVN wrote:

Oh, true, except some specialities like surgery have a six-year residency, and then frequently another couple of years of fellowship. And many specialties like radiology require a year of internal medicine residency BEFORE they can even start their specialty training..........Oh, also, a mention was made of malpractice insurance. That still takes a whack out of any doc's compensation.

LVN - You need not pity the physician's destitute financial circumstances. Some of them do reasonably well

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Pity Party wrote:

LVN wrote: Oh, true, except some specialities like surgery have a six-year residency, and then frequently another couple of years of fellowship. And many specialties like radiology require a year of internal medicine residency BEFORE they can even start their specialty training..........Oh, also, a mention was made of malpractice insurance. That still takes a whack out of any doc's compensation. LVN - You need not pity the physician's destitute financial circumstances. Some of them do reasonably well

LVN-

You are looking at medicine from the standpoint of the US. Compared to the rest of the developed world, US physicians are compensated at a much higher rate, even adjusting for various business costs. However, from the standpoint of morbity and mortality, we are far from #1. The notion that insurance costs is contributory, though high by layman standards, is a red herring. Physician compensation is a significant contributary cost to our skyrocketing health care costs, as are lab costs and other testing (with often no benefit if one looks at population based data), and administrative costs (which are high) for our various third party payer systems (PPOs, HMOs, FFS).

I was a faculty in a medical school (Ph.D.), and I can tell you physician researchers are overcompenstated. Many Ph.D.s do brutal fellowships after the do that far exceed the training clock of physicians. In many countries, the Ph.D. is the prestigious and well paid degree, and MDs are considered techies. The AMA, however, has done an outstanding job looking out for their own (as have state boards and societies). You may see Ph.D. driving a cab in NY for lack of employment, but most young physicians I know (even GP types) pilot some pretty sweet rides, live in nice digs, and have fat investment accounts. I don't buy the crocadile tears for their lowly beginning salaries and student loans. Those are just a memory for most as quick as you can say, "Do you have your insurance card with you?"

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Prime Time wrote:

I guess I've been watching too many TV soap operas about doctors. Some appear to be in the prime of their youth and enjoying it on and off the job.

That youthful appearance goes along with the trip to the crossroads to sign the contract offered by the well-dressed man driving the black Terraplane. How do you think those dudes memorize Gray's & Guyton? With their superior brain cells?

Give the devil his due.

Date: Jul 1, 2005

Robert Johnson's Ghost wrote:

How do you think those dudes memorize Gray's & Guyton?

We call those 'memory crutches.' - On Old Olympus Towering Tops A Finn And German Viewed Some Hopps. If that doesn't work they invent XXX-rated versions which are even easier to master. There must be one for each page of Gray's & Guyton.