I saw more new “Followers” this morning and I sure do appreciate you tagging along with me on this incredible journey. So, Welcome aboard to Judy and John and also to Tom. THANK YOU to everyone for giving my blog the opportunity to inform or entertain you.
I received several comments regarding yesterday’s post about camping fees here in California where we are at the moment. First of all, those “whopper parks” I mentioned with fees as high as $400 are not the norm. They are real, they exist…..but they do not reflect the majority of parks in California. I guess I didn’t make that very clear, sorry.
I did post some information on places where the daily rate is as low as $27 for FHU. OK now…this was also meant to reflect the daily rate and not a monthly rate. I think we know that if you can spend a month in one park you will usually qualify for the cheaper monthly rate. The original question posted by Judy led me to think she was questioning the daily rate fees. Most folks that are RVing on a vacation don’t always spend a month in one spot and so that daily rate may be more of what they will be facing. Also…California has a lot of trendy or touristy locations (near vacation hot spots) and those rates are hefty. If you stay in the more rural, or small town areas in California, you can find lower rates.
I didn’t mention the super-low daily rates at the membership parks because everyone doesn’t belong to a campground membership program. That is a whole different kettle of fish and I’ve posted, in great detail, information on that already. I hope this clarifies any lingering questions or debate on California dreamin’.
A view looking toward the town of Pismo Beach.
What a surprise we had this morning when Bruce did some online checking on our bank account! Not a good surprise either. He always looks to see when a planned automatic payment comes out of the account to make sure that it did, in fact, get taken and there hasn’t been a bank error that would leave us with a late payment. Today was his day to check to see if our auto-pay for our health insurance premium was taken. It was! That’s the good news. The bad new is that he saw a monthly premium increase of $154.00. That would make our total monthly premium for us being $1,093.00. That sort of put me into a bad mood right away.
And I thought the great health-care debate and new legislation passed was supposed to “help me” not screw me over with higher premiums. See what I know! Thanks for making things better for me now!
He is looking pretty happy. Guess he doesn’t worry about health care.
After breakfast Bruce did get on the phone to our insurance company to see what we could do to help ourselves. We already have a $5,000 deductible, but do have some prescription coverage which is helpful. We can no longer raise our deductible he was told. The rate increase was due to a federal mandate to cover the new things that the law made necessary….covering adult children in your home until the age of 26, different and better maternity coverage, etc. All stuff that no longer applies to our situation, but it is all lumped into the whole plan.
What Bruce did find out was that we were eligible for a different policy within the same company (so pre-existing conditions don’t matter) and we are looking into that today. If the new policy looks to be a good deal for us, we may make the switch and it could save us about $175.00 per month over the increased rate on our current policy. Sounds too good to be true (and it probably is).
Before I get comments on this: we have over the years applied to other insurance companies and groups. In Washington we have a plan called Group Health, which is like Kaiser in a lot of places. We applied. REJECTED. Those pre-existing conditions knock us out of the ballgame every time. Once you’ve had a heart attack and bypass surgery that puts a black mark against you. Bruce will be eligible for Medicare and a health supplement in a couple of years. That may help.
Looking at the ocean gives me a more peaceful, hopeful attitude. I’m going to look a lot today!
I hope everyone has been having a good day. Summer is almost over and fall is approaching. You snowbirds out there are probably looking closely at the calendar for your own “blast off” day. Hope it comes for you soon!
Until next time…..so long for now!
17 comments:
Wow, makes our Health Care look pretty good.
I have enjoyed your blog and the topics you are writing about.
Enjoy Pismo Beach it is one of our favourite spots.
Margie, I know what you are going through. My heart condition,not disease, has kept me from getting affordable ins. since Donnie retired. The monthly payments would have been half of what we get each month. I read as much of the Health Care Package as I could stomache, and thought it would be bad. I guess I was right.
Enough on that, your pictures were so calming today. I hope they worked as well for you as they did for me. Stay safe and good luck with your ins.
California can be quite pricey if you don't plan your travels carefully. We try to avoid California if we can because of a tight fixed income. Escapees Day's End directory and Passport America are a couple of our go to resources. Everyones needs, wants, and budget are so dis-similiar that one man's too pricey is another man's I can live with that.
Health Insurance/coverage is going to be the death of all of us in the years to come. I'm just thankful that we had coverage when I had by-pass surgery on Memorial day. I do have the VA as a backup plan if my current Health coverage goes away. Happy trails to you.
Yikes about that monthly fee. Glad to see you are having fun otherwise in CA.
A) The health care plan changes do not go completely into effect until 2014.
b) rejection for pre-existing conditions will be eliminated or reduced under the new plan
c) sounds like a "bait and switch" to me. They raise your rate and then just HAPPEN to have another plan at a lower rate. I'd shop around..the Health insurance company is at fault and is trying to blame it on government regulation.
It costs Kelly & I about $1,500 to come south of the border each winter. And that's because we are both considered healthy but one little 'medical' bump in the night & we would be in the same situation as sooooooo many other Canadians who simply can't afford the huge personal insurance rates to travel in the States anymore. Frustrating?? Ya darn right it is!!
I guess us Canadians should be very thankful..that payment is just ludicrous!!..$200 more and that is our mortage payment!
enjoy the ocean and pray for good health until medicare kicks in!!!
I have a feeling that most of us are not going to be to happy with the new health care plan. Can the 20 some states who are suing the fed all be wrong?
For those who comment on the fact that preexisting conditions cannot be used to deny coverage, should remember that the cost of this new mandated coverage does not mean that the coverage will be at the same rate as those with no preexisting conditions. Another words you may still find it out of reach.
Insurance is such a scam, but it's one of those things that we don't dare live without. Unfortunately, I'm not sold that the new legislation is going to do much to help. I don't know what the answers are, but I'm fed up with the entire system. So I guess the only option for now is to suck it up and pay it. Keep looking at that ocean!! :)
You don't want to get me started on this "new and improved" health care plan the government has planned for us all. I figure we are suppose to just bend over so they can put the screw to us. The only people the plan is designed to help are those who don't want to help themselves...I'm better stop before I cause hate mail.
Maybe I need to look at the beach photo. ;-)
You were right when you assumed I was interested in the nightly rate rather than the monthly rate. I will be traveling though California, not staying there. I just can't imagine any resort or campground being worth $400 a night to me no matter what they offered. Have you ever driven through any of those places just to see why they're so special?? :)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Margie. It's a tough situation and I hope you are both able to find the health coverage you require at an affordable cost.
In reading the previous comments, I see some folks seem to know who to blame; but, have neglected to offer a solution to the problem you put forward in your post.
thanks for sharing the information...
nice articles with good pictures...
Even though you have shopped around in the past, I would suggest you shop some more. My husband had a similar situation with with his business insurance and he finally stumbled on another company that could meet his needs.
That is an awful lot to have to pay for insurance with $5000 deductible. I don't understand why you can't raise your deductible. That makes no sense, it's good for the insurance company. It certainly doesn't cost anything to shop around. Good luck! Unfortunately I don't think Obamacare is going to be the answer, as you've already found out.
I'm sorry to hear about your increased health insurance costs. Unfortunately, that is going to be the way of the future for many of us. I hope people remember that when the government offers to take care of us, it's our money that they are using. My motto has become "the bigger the government, the smaller the citizen".
That is one of the major stumbling blocks Donna & I face is health insurance, if she retires we lose all, and like you said With my type 2 and her heart history, we are virtually uninsureable at any price. What is a person to do work until they are eligible for Medicare. Theres something else all the Obama followers are finding out, it is getting worse instead of better.Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.
Stay healthy until Medicare. Then see if you can get an AARP Supplement - it's good throughout the country. And we didn't have to worry about pre-ex conditions!
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