what do you think about Kaiser permanente healthcare? I feel their specialists are not experts in many ways.. I may be wrong.. Please share your experience with Kaiser (Bay area highly encouraged) Note: Please avoid participating in this conversation if you are not aware of Kaiser.. This conversation is more sensitive to take some decisions..
I’ve had them my entire life with the exception of last year when the startup I was at didn’t offer it. I’ve had some excellent doctors at Kaiser as we’ll as very good ER experiences. I like that there are no big surprises with billing. When I’ve had an emergency, the cost of care was either included or nominal. I panicked last year because, if I got sick or there was an emergency, the cost would have been a mystery. I hurt my foot and by the time it was looked at, X-rayed, and told there was nothing they could do, I paid $400 out of pocket with Blue Cross/Blue Shield. If I had had Kaiser, it would have been a $15 deductible and that’s it.
KP HMO is pretty good stuff if you intend to use the services. If you don't plan to ever use anything, the HSA plans are a better option. Also, you might not get all services from KP; for example, I think talk therapy might not be covered. I think that's generally the same with any HMO, there's some things that they simply don't cover at all.
That’s a good call out. Mental health services at Kaiser aren’t great. Meta offers Lyra, so I’ve been using that.
Kaiser is a great place to have a baby - they are great at that experience. They can also be the most affordable care for diseases like diabetes. However, if you have a rare disease or a difficult diagnosis, it can be too limiting because they don’t always have top tier doctors or treatments and you have to get permission to get treatment outside of their ecosystem. I know someone who had a rare seizure disorder and multiple doctors quit her case before they let her switch to a better hospital. A long time ago, they amputated the wrong foot of my classmate’s grandmother. Another person I know had prostate cancer and they incorrectly installed a device to help him urinate.
100% agree on having a baby. I had a lot of support before, during, and after she was born. Also agree on the rare diseases. You probably want doctors/hospitals that specialize in what you need.
I’m on Kaiser and I agree with everything here. Been 5 years in Seattle, first year I was on an HSA (outside Kaiser) and ended up paying $500 because my wife had a minor stomachache. Kind of felt discouraged from going to docs because I’d never know how big of a bill I was going to get. Switch to Kaiser and never worried about billing. Straightforward, and makes me feel like I can go whenever I need to. I also sliced off the tip of my thumb once and ended up in ER. Paid $20 for the visit. If I was not in Kaiser I’d imagine the bill to be $900 or something. Had a baby on Kaiser, and it was a great experience. Then I switched out of Kaiser because people said Allegro was great for babies; my experience that year was so bad that I’m back on Kaiser now. Only thing I couldn’t get from them was chiropractor coverage. Their physical therapy was bad. But I work at Microsoft so we have in-house chiropractors. In conclusion, good for general stuff, unsure about specialties. But if you need someone special, chances are it could probably wait until end of year so you can switch then
It’s good but I just paid a bill for a medical procedure two years ago and now cannot use my FSA for reimbursement because it’s not from this year. So if their billing is backlogged you may get stuck paying out of pocket for a lot of things.