Everyone knows that health care costs are going through the roof, and as a result so is the price of health insurance. So when Kaiser Permanente advertised coverage for only $3 a day, it caught Mouse Print*’s attention.
Coverage for prescriptions, doctors’ visits, hospitalization, and emergency care for only $3 a day? Wow!
After trying zip codes in Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois with no coverage available, a Maryland zip code finally yielded some policies and prices.Â
*MOUSE PRINT:Â A policy for one 50-something male would cost monthly:
No policy was anywhere close to the advertised $3 a day, and the best plan was seven times higher. In fact, at least in Maryland, you would have to be in your 30s or younger to find a policy at the advertised price. And what do you get for your premium dollar even at over twice the advertised price? You must first pay $8,000 out of your own pocket (in addition to the premiums) before you get “free” doctors’ visits and hospitalization coverage.
Kaiser’s $3 ad is a come on without adequate disclosure that it applies with severe coverage limitations and applies to a narrow segment of customers.
It’s nice to see that lying is getting more and more acceptable in advertising.
I like that this one doesn’t use the weaselly ‘from $3 a day’. They just claim ‘for about $3 a day’, which does not seem to have any limitations. Am curious how they are gonna lie themselves out of this one.
Have you contacted them?
This is clearly a case of misleading advertising and should be prosecuted as such.
At least in this case you have the chance to discover that the health insurance company is a bunch of lying bastards *before* you sign up.
In your screenshots, you don’t say for what period the rate is. Is it for a day, a week, a month, a year or what? Please save me from figuring out the math and jsut tell us.
Edgar replies: Those are monthly rates.
That is one of those ads which proves the adage, if it looks to good to be true, it probably is. Yhat ad should be waving red flags all over the place. You know there is a catch and you had better look for it or else you are going to get burned badly. Kaiser gets your premium money and you get nothing.
I was a victim of such false advertising for a company that offers private health insurance. They advertise inexpensive coverage. AFter going through the rigamarole my wife and 2 month old son would not be covered and I would be covered by a plan that was twice what they advertised.
Not to go too far off track on this, but I really think that all insurance should be handled through re-imbursement or something similar. If the masses started to see just how much scamming is going on in the medical industry/insurance companies, we might just be inclined to complain or otherwise refuse some of the services that get charged and covered by insurance without notice…only to cause huge premium increases.
If you want to know what’s going on, take a minute to look at some of your dental coverage bills, which is following the medical industry…and not they eye-care industry is doing the same.
People are often looking for drugs to solve their lives problems, then they need more drugs to solve the side-effects, then they need doctor care to fix them from all of the problems that occurred because they took, for example, cold medicine, then anti-inflamatory medicine, then head-clearing medicine, then sleeping pills, then waking pills, then… when simply one day’s rest would have solved the problem.
You should see the outrageous health care costs I have to pay!
First I have to pay for prescription drug coverage ($0), coverage for hospitalisation & emergency ($0), on site doctors ($0).
Once I broke my arm and needed to go to hospital, it cost $0!!! How ever will I pay that!?
In case you can’t tell, I live in the UK, or France, or Canada, or Australia, or New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Germany or some other first world country.
When you yanks get yourselves proper health care system?
And don’t you tell me that ‘I pay high taxes’, I looked at moving to the US once and worked out after I paid for a basic level of health insurance I’d be *worse* off, even if I never had an accident.
Ben, if we ever get “universal” health care in the US, it will be interesting to see how the quality of medical services plummets as drug companies either here lose incentive to create new drugs or make billions as they rip off the American public even more than they do now and our system goes more broke than it does with our Defense program.
BEN ,ARE WE TO CONCLUDE THAT ALL THE EXPENSES INVOLVED IN SERVICING YOUR BROKEN ARM WAS ZERO 0 ???? DO YOU PERFORM SERVICES FOR OTHERS AT NO COST NO COST TO THEM??? WHO PAYS THE WAGES,RENT, UTILITY,TRANSPORTATION.DRUGS,ET AL FOR THE HOSPITAL THAT PROVIDES YOU AND OTHERS ‘FREE’ CARE??? THE MONEY COMES FROM CONFISCATED TAXES BEN.MAY WE ASSUME YOU DO NOT PAY TAXES,HENCE YOUR COST FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT IS ZERO 0 ??THANKS.
If you think you’re better off outside the US, then please, go ahead and stay where you are and get your “free” health care. Our system generates most of the leading edge medical R&D for all you 2nd and 3rd world countries anyway. We have the best hospitals and doctors anywhere. Of course we do spend a lot of money on wasted “wellness” visits. This needs to change if we’re ever going to be able to offer “health care” at a reasonable price. Everyone these days thinks they will live forever, always be able to bicycle and surf without pain, get monster boners anytime they want at any age, and eat any fatty crap they want, without raising their cholesteral. WAKE UP, America. Good news: At least we don’t live in…UK, or France, or Canada, or Australia, or New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Germany…. We’re still doing better than any of them.
But we need to quit babying all the pansies out there.
Hey Ben, I noticed that you mentioned in your list Canada. Well, I do happen to have learned a thing or two about that recently. As I understand it the people who use the universal health care there have to get on long lines. I also hear that people in Canada that want better quality health care come to the U.S. and pay for it. Wonder why those that can pay would opt for that instead of the usual?
Nice to know America is the only first world country. I live in Australia
where we have universal coverage and it’s not perfect I pay $100 a month for private
care which let’s me have a non- urgent elective operation within 2 weeks ( the free public
system is more like 12 months).. If I am in an Accident I go to the free system and it ‘s that free. Broken leg or severe injuries I pay nothing but the medication once I leave hospital. As for the
best research only coming out of America it was an Australian team
that developed the cervical cancer vaccine.
Here in the UK we have a body that governs all advertising on Insurance and financial products. Seems the US could do with a governing body too!