Wednesday, October 9, 2013

GuideStone reinrollment vs Obamacare?

There it lies - my GuideStone 2014 comprehensive medical re-enrollment packet. (I smudged the address just in case some nefarious spammer wanted to load my mailbox with junk mail. If you would like to send me money, I have a PayPal account and can accommodate you that way ;) .)

I haven't opened it but can prophetically state with absolute certainly that the annual cost will be more than my entire year's salary at my first church (not adjusted for inflation of course). It will easily be my household's greatest single expense, unless I decide to borrow money and go buy a new boat.

How much difference will there be between the Obamacare exchange price for my family of two and the GuideStone price for us? I don't know but plan to find out.

If GuideStone is, say, $5,000 per year more expensive, is it worth it to pay that? I'm thinking probably not.

So...I ask my fellow Southern Baptists a couple of questions:

1. For those of you who are like me, in the individual insurance market paying your own bill, do you plan to check the exchanges and compare? Have you already done so? What experience do you have?

2. For those of you whose bill has always been paid by your church, are you or is your church considering moving that expense to the exchanges to save the church money?

Yeah, I understand that GuideStone is filled with old, unhealthy dudes and that is why it is so high.

What do you plan to do for next year?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

“What do you plan to do for next year?”

Hope that all plans for re-arranging deck chairs on a sinking ship will be replaced with plans for building a new ship.

Single payer is in our future; it is our future. To paraphrase Churchill, eventually we will follow a better course of action.

William Thornton said...

...meanwhile, we have to make important decisions within the next month or so and political opinions/predictions/pontifications have little bearing on such.

Matt Richard said...

I'm young and can afford a private policy for cheaper than what Guidestone will charge, with similar coverage. I made the decision to do this before Obamacare. Not sure how my policy is going to be affected yet.

Spoke with the DOM in my area who is nearing retirement and he has gone the "Medi-Share" route. I've been skeptical about these Christian "sharing" programs, but he has no complaints.

Anonymous said...

"... opinions/predictions/pontifications have little bearing on such."

Except that these decisions will be faced year after year after year after ... until people realize the sheer insanity of keeping a system that costs more and delivers less most single-payer systems.

OC will be more or less affordable for people with existing medical plans but it is the only way some will be able to acquire a medical plan. Either way, OC or other plans are generally more expensive than medical plans need be.

But you are right, at this very moment it is a matter of practicality ... which is why it is fascinating that there is not a ground-swell among all political groups for a single-payer system. It doesn't get more practical than that.

Nonetheless, I hope you secure a good medical plan at an affordable price. You deserve it.