Anybody have experience with Golden Rule individual insurance?

[raccoon]

I have an individual policy with them. High deductible, and they basically don't pay for much unless I have a catastrophic problem.

What galls me is, in Oct. 2005 they sent me a letter jacking up the premium. I increased my deductible.

Yesterday I received another such letter, jacking up the premium the SECOND TIME within a year.

Anybody else ever have experience with these folks? Good, bad, or indifferent, please post.

[Ralpho]

1. Golden Rule Insurance

I have had an individual Health Savings Account policy with Golden Rule for five years. They have raised my premiums six times during that period. My understanding is that other insurance companies do the same thing. You can fight back, however, by switching companies.

After five years of seeing my premiums go up and up, I went to ehealthinsurance.com, typed in my basic information and got a list of companies and what they would likely charge me for a new policy. Even Golden Rule's prices were far below what I'm paying. I'm now in the process of getting a new policy with the Time Insurance Company.

A Golden Rule spokesperson told me that I was compartmentalized with a group of people who bought a policy around the same time I did. This group is periodically evaluated for price increases. Ergo, my premium is based on how much it costs Golden Rule to pay the bills for my little group. I asked about switching to a policy with a larger deductable and was discouraged post haste.

I developed a theory that insurance companies compete with each other for news customers by keeping introductory premiums low. Compartmentalizing policy holders who joined at about the same time is probably a legal way to do that.

An ehealthinsurance.com person I spoke to said that ehealthinsurance recommends that people check prices once a year to see if they can get a better deal elsewhere. Evidently, the only way to reduce your cost is to switch companies.

Of course, if you've got a serious pre-existing condition, you're probably stuck. In any case, you should check out ehealthinsurance.com and see if you can get a better deal elsewhere.

I'm also turned off on Golden Rule on account of the recent news of the CEO of its parent company, United Health: This dude gets a salary of $40 million/year and has United Health stock worth $1.6 BILLION. A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that the CEO's quarterly stock payment just happened to occur at the point each quarter when the stock had its lowest value. It's more certain than a DNA test that the dates were chose retroactively. I don't believe it's illegal, but the United Health board is unhappy.

[raccoon]

2. Thanks for that info. I'm going to look around.

Especially that news about the CEO chaps my arse! And probably a lot of other people's.

[newyawker99]

4. Hi Ralpho!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Sgent]

3. Golden Rule

isn't bad in some ways (pays claims quickly), but like any other insurance sucks in many others.

Any personal health insurance will benefit by getting a new policy annually -- this allows the ins company to gaurentee your current health.