Preachers (and everyone else, too!)

Could you recommend good health and dental plans?

Web addresses too, if you have em...

Family of four.

Thanks...

Duane

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

Answers

I will NOT be ignored!

Must I hack my own forum?

I am in a quandary....

Which is best... 100% coverage or 80/20?

$500 deductible or $5000?

Our family is healthy.... Catastrophic stuff is the biggest concern...

Does anybody know about that Preachers "Plan" which is sort of like health insurance....

So far the quote I have looked at ranges from $211 a month PPO (80% coverage)where they pick the doctor and the hospital with a $5000 deductible per person... to....

$800 a month where I pick ANY doc or hospital I choose, $100% coverage, and $1000 deductible....

I lean towards the very cheapest, putting the difference in a "cushion" account which would meet the "deductible" and the 20% if needed...

How about some input? If you know of any insurance people in your congregations, they are welcome to send me quotes, etc...

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2000

I currently pay only 90$ a month for complete health insurance through Blue Cross and Blue Sheild. It is a PPO with a 250 deductable.

But, if you need help with current medical bills I am involved in a Christian sharing program that will help you greatly with all your bills. Just email personally if you would like more info.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2000

My church pays $3,668 a year for my family health plan (actually it is quarterly payments of $917). The plan dental coverage (up to $500 per person) and each person has an $800 deductible. BUT...the really cool stuff if that when we go in to the doctor for anything in an office visit, we pay 10% - ALWAYS. Our deductible only goes into effect on hospital visits, surgeries, and prescription meds. So for a $300 doctor office visit...we pay $30.

Our plan is Wellmark (of Iowa) Blue Cross/Blue Shield. It is the best plan I have ever had. Our last plan was fairly decent in Putnam but it doesn't hold a candle to this one.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2000

My best recommendation for health/dental/etc. from my experience:

Help your wife find a job with a killer plan, and enlist under it.

It helps that my wife has a 19yr career with built-up benefits. It's a plan that works.

Otherwise, I can't offer any help. Sorry.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2000

Sorry Sam...But I paradigmatically disagree with your advice. Excuse me for sounding chauvanistic, but I firmly believe that the wife's best role is as a support system at home. I don't buy the "we have to have two incomes" mentality. It is a choice...pure and simple. And if you have kids, it is wholeheartedly the WRONG choice.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2000

Michael:

If it were possible, I would invent a font that when used would be understood to represent, at least partially, a "tongue in cheek" voicing.

I spoke from this perspective -- I am self-employed, primarily. I work two jobs. To be self-employed and to try to fund the family's health insurance needs is prohibitively expensive.

I agree that the wife is best left at home And completely supported financially by the husband. You must give, however, that it is not always the most practical for all families in all phases of their lives together. And you must also give that you CANNOT categorically state that to have the wife working out of the home is WRONG. You may say that it is often not the best. Perhaps even USUALLY not the best. You may say that in YOUR opinion it is always wrong.

But to say that you "don't buy" the "have to have two incomes" mentality is to overstep the bounds both of authority and reality. You don't have all the facts in every case.

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2000

Sam,

I will stick to my guns on this one. I understand that certain situations arise in life that don't fit "the mold." But that does not exclude that the wife's best "fit" in her role is as a support system at home. If there are children, then there are no circumstances that I can see where a mother and father "have" to work. It is purely a choice. And mostly a choice made on simple materialistic foundations. I had a couple tell me just the other day that they both had to work. He takes in $75,000 a year and she takes in $35,000 a year (both with benefits of health & retirement). He works for an aviation company and she is a teacher of special education. They are a great Christian couple with two wonderful daughters. BUT...they both don't "have" to work. To maintain the standard of living that they chose, sure. But they didn't have to buy that house in that exclusive neighborhood, and they both don't need cell phones and they both don't need satelite TV at home and they could have chosen a less expensive car than a Dodge Durango (2000).

This is where it is at for couples with kids who say they both "have" to work. That is simply not true. There are always creative alternatives to materialism...if you are willing to invest in the lives of your kids first.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2000

You see, Michael, you're looking at it only in terms of wanting more material gain, as though that were the only motivation for a tweo- income household. I will not deny that the BEST situation is for the mother to be at home. I truly wish that ALL mothers could be at home with their children. I acknowledge that in MANY families where mothers work, they could alter their goals and desires and perceptions of comfort and material gain, and make it so that mom is at home. And most probably should do so.

There are lots of folks who, because of mistakes made in the past, are now virtually forced to make decisions that they don't like. We not only live with the decisions we make now; we also have to live with decisions that we have made before now. And in a significant number of people's lives, those decisions and their aftereffects force your hand and require that you do things you wouldn't ordinarily choose to do. For some people, it's a short-term thing; for others, it takes longer. For this reason, while I will agree with you that the preference is for mom to stay at home, I also have to acknowledge that it cannot always be done.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2000

Here's an interesting idea to see just how much the wife is bringing home ... in thelong run.

Try to figure out what the actual financial costs are for her working. That would include things such as second vehicle, insurance for that vehicle, gas, oil, maintaining the vehicle, tags, license, etc. Add to that the costs (if any) for additional clothing for the job. Sme require uniforms the employee must purchase. Others requrie a certain level of dress that might require a wife to purchase more of those types of clothing than she would have.

Next, add up the small things, like the cost of lunch each day -vs- eating lunch at home ... that sort of thing. Be very honest in this and try to figure out all the costs.

Then add whatever daycare / babysitter / after-school costs that might be involved.

Does the extra income put the family into a higher tax bracket? If so, try to figure out those differences.

Once all that is done ... and it will take some time to figure it correctly and honestly, then subtract that amount from the wifes net (take home) paycheck amount. That figure is the amount her working is actually bringing into the household. Then yo can try to decide if it is worth it or not.

Of course, these figures can't account for the intangibles that we must look at. The wife (mother) away from the children. And there are, of course, others that should be included in this ... you have to figure it out for yourself and your family, then make the decision that is correct for you and yours.

Darrell H Combs

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2000

Getting back to the original question, and not whether it's o.k. for women to work, etc.

I am interested in finding the Health Insurance that I know is out there. It's for Christians, who do not smoke or drink, and for Pastors. You pay a certain amount when someone submits a bill until their bills are paid. I can't find it anywhere on the web but I know it's out there. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

-- Anonymous, September 24, 2001