weird insurance question

[Greyd]

My mind was wandering and I started thinking about this as I was driving the other day. Can a person have two seperate health insurance policies? If they can, can they utilize both for taking care of medical bills,etc?


Yeah im bored.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: Greyd
My mind was wandering and I started thinking about this as I was driving the other day. Can a person have two seperate health insurance policies? If they can, can they utilize both for taking care of medical bills,etc?


Yeah im bored.

Yes

 

[Hoober]

Originally posted by: Greyd
My mind was wandering and I started thinking about this as I was driving the other day. Can a person have two seperate health insurance policies? If they can, can they utilize both for taking care of medical bills,etc?


Yeah im bored.

I don't see why not, but why would you want to pay for 2?

 

[Greyd]

Originally posted by: Hoober

Originally posted by: Greyd
My mind was wandering and I started thinking about this as I was driving the other day. Can a person have two seperate health insurance policies? If they can, can they utilize both for taking care of medical bills,etc?


Yeah im bored.

I don't see why not, but why would you want to pay for 2?

Supposing that a married couple and their respective places of employment give really good plans. I started to think more that if one of them got into a serious medical situation, they could utilize both plans to help with costs,etc. HEY - I said I was bored.

 

[DeadByDawn]

My wife has two. One is free through her work, the other is on my family plan at work since I have to cover my daughter. It's pretty much worthless unless something really bad happens, and you go above your deductible on both policies. We thought she would never have to pay anything, but you still have to pay the copay on the primary policy, and the second one always finds a way to not pay much.

 

[kranky]

Today all insurers have "coordination of benefits" clauses. That means the companies will make sure only one of them pays for something, not both. You could still choose which plan to use if it made any difference in coverage.

I had a co-worker way back whose daughter was standing too close to the road waiting to cross, and a truck's side mirror hit the girl in the head. The medical bills were staggering, over $200K. Both parents worked and both had insurance, and through some loophole that used to exist prior to coordination of benefits, they were able to submit the bills to both companies, and pocketed the extra $200K.

 

[Pantoot]

I had the opposite experience. It seemed that every time I submitted a claim the insurance company would claim that the other insurer was responsible. This would result in months of claim rejection notices and phone calls.

Bleh.

Not worth the hassle.

 

[cronos]

Originally posted by: Greyd
My mind was wandering and I started thinking about this as I was driving the other day. Can a person have two seperate health insurance policies? If they can, can they utilize both for taking care of medical bills,etc?

absolutely. heard about it all the time.

 

[ATLien247]

Well, the way it's supposed to work is that your secondary insurance should pick up the amount in excess of your primary insurance. Whether that really happens or not is based upon the fine print for each policy, and seemingly, the predilection of the insurance company to screw over everyone.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: ATLien247
Well, the way it's supposed to work is that your secondary insurance should pick up the amount in excess of your primary insurance. Whether that really happens or not is based upon the fine print for each policy, and seemingly, the predilection of the insurance company to screw over everyone.

Yep, when you have a single insurance, it's fairly straight forward ... they only have so much wiggle room. With two, now they can point the finger at each other and gain considerably more wiggle room ... each claiming the other was responsible and generally making things a complete PITA. That's what I've seen in coworker's in that situation at least. But if you ever have a catastrophic loss it may make all the difference.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: kranky
Today all insurers have "coordination of benefits" clauses. That means the companies will make sure only one of them pays for something, not both. You could still choose which plan to use if it made any difference in coverage.

I had a co-worker way back whose daughter was standing too close to the road waiting to cross, and a truck's side mirror hit the girl in the head. The medical bills were staggering, over $200K. Both parents worked and both had insurance, and through some loophole that used to exist prior to coordination of benefits, they were able to submit the bills to both companies, and pocketed the extra $200K.

Wow ... that smells alot like fraud to me.

 

[DeMeo]

Originally posted by: kranky
Today all insurers have "coordination of benefits" clauses. That means the companies will make sure only one of them pays for something, not both. You could still choose which plan to use if it made any difference in coverage.

I had a co-worker way back whose daughter was standing too close to the road waiting to cross, and a truck's side mirror hit the girl in the head. The medical bills were staggering, over $200K. Both parents worked and both had insurance, and through some loophole that used to exist prior to coordination of benefits, they were able to submit the bills to both companies, and pocketed the extra $200K.

yeah, what he just said.
they work toether to make sure you get screwed. You can pay them both and get no extra benefits.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: kranky
Today all insurers have "coordination of benefits" clauses. That means the companies will make sure only one of them pays for something, not both. You could still choose which plan to use if it made any difference in coverage.

I had a co-worker way back whose daughter was standing too close to the road waiting to cross, and a truck's side mirror hit the girl in the head. The medical bills were staggering, over $200K. Both parents worked and both had insurance, and through some loophole that used to exist prior to coordination of benefits, they were able to submit the bills to both companies, and pocketed the extra $200K.

Wow ... that smells alot like fraud to me.

It wasn't fraud at the time. The medical bills were legitimate. They submitted the claims to both insurers and were paid by both. Neither insurer said it would only pay if no other insurer paid already. It was a big loophole, now closed.