Assurant Health (Time Insurance Company) Sucks
I've been with the same health insurance company for years now, since about 2002. My premiums were about $250/month, with a decent deductible and a low co-pay as well. I was pretty happy with the service, and it kept my parents from nagging me about getting insurance. So it worked on different levels.
Then, in 2005, I tried to add my wife to plan and include maternity coverage as well. Adding her raised my premiums to $582/month which was astonishing, but women need to go to the doctor more, so I was fine with that. This year, as we are possibly trying to have a child, I called to make sure that the policy included the maternity coverage as requested.
It did not and there was no way to add it. After speaking to a few people at our insurance company, I got them to allow me to add the coverage as long as it was backdated to the time she joined the policy and pay the past premiums. I said fine and send me a quote as to what the cost would be. Keep in mind, I assumed that the $582/month already included maternity coverage on it, so I wasn't expecting a huge increase or bill. Maybe a few thousand dollars in back premiums and $100 or so per month extra at worst.
So I open my mail the other day, and I get this letter from Assurant Health.
This letter is to advise you that if you were to add the Maternity Rider effective December 15, 2005 the total amount due would be $11,206.58.
....
We apologize for the amount of time it took to respond to your correspondence.
I omitted the boring part of how they broke down how they came across the figure. I liked how they apologized for how long it took to get back to me; they should have been apologizing for trying to pass this off as a reasonable amount to pay. $11,000 ? Assuming you have a child without insurance, it costs between $10,000 and $20,000 or so. So, I'm almost half paid off anyways. What's the point of this insurance? Really?
So I placed a call to Assurant Health and talked to someone on the policy holders' line. I asked her what, on top of that $11,000, would happen to my monthly premiums if I went ahead and paid. She said my premiums would go from $500 per month to $1200 per month. I was flummoxed and asked if she thought $1200/month was reasonable for 2 people, in their early 30's, non-smokers, no health problems, etc. She said that she has seen higher. That was helpful. She asked if there was anything else she could do to help. Other than pay off that $11,000 pill and not rape me for $1200 per month, not really.
I called around just a few moments ago and reached Blue Cross/Blue Shield. I've heard of them of course. So I talk to someone on the phone and they said there is some "Plan 3" policy (or something like that) that'd cost me $313/month plus $100 (or $50, depending on the deductible) for maternity coverage. For both of us. Hmm. $413 compared to $1200. That's a tough choice there.
Obviously, I'll do more calling around before I make a commitment, but $1200 is crazy. $413 is quite pallitable.
While on the phone with Assurant Health (I'd already contacted BCBS as this point) and told her that BCBS quoted me $413 for the same coverage, if not a little better. She said that was possible, new business is cheaper than existing business. That's completely contrary to every business model I've ever heard about it. It's supposedly much cheaper to keep an existing customer than get a new one. Weird.
Anyways, Assurant Health sucks. If it wasn't apparent to me before, it is now.
April 14th, 2010 - 13:15
I had an accident 22 years ago where I had a disk fusion in my lower back. Well mark Insurance of Iowa took me on without a restriction because of my overall health. In eleven years I received eleven rate increases. The last one was 24%, $161 a month.
I’ve been looking around and have applied twice with both companies refusing coverage due to that surgery of 22 years ago. I have never filed a single claim with Well mark in eleven years with them.
The Assurant agent gave me a ridiculously low price. So I am trolling the waters on this company with reservations. It appear it was too good to be true from what I have heard. It appears I’m running out of options as well. Either pay the eight grand plus a year or go without.
May 1st, 2010 - 00:00
I just recently signed on with Assurant Health Insurance for me and my two sons. My husbands family that owed a business from 1939 to 2005 always had Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas. Excellent insurnace, the only problem is when my husband that was healthy for 63 years of his life ended up with prostate cancer and he had surgery for it, they decided to raise our monthly cost from $500.00 a month to $3,000.00 a month.
Forget That! So now I have Brad from assurant for my agent and I deal directly to him and I tell him what I want and need and what I don’t want to have to pay out of pocket for. I have a low copay, RX and the complete package for under $500.00 a month.
The same plan I had basically with BlueCross/BlueShield of Kansas!
I guess with all this negativity about Assurant Health Insurance I hope I don’t get yanked around again by another insurance company or I will be highering my lawyer to fight it!
Isn’t there any good about Assurant?
May 8th, 2010 - 23:46
yes, assurant health is sucks and lie, if u plan to have kid better not go with assurant they are very suck.
May 27th, 2010 - 11:54
America, all your problems have been resolved…. health care reform is on it’s way!!! just in case you haven’t read the bill or are not well informed yet here’s a little insight of some of the things to expect with this wonderful bill americans have been begging for (right?) first of all by september of 2010 (yes a few months away)
ALL insurance companies are being demanded that there will be ZERO limits on any health plan provided- whether it’s assurant / BC/BS you name it… and that all children 18 and under will be GUARANTEED issue no matter any pre existing conditons- that all sounds GREAT doesn’t it??? HOWEVER what amercians are not aware of is that with all those demands from the govt. will come a hefty price to pay- insurance premiums WILL SYROCKET due to these changes oh but wait the govt said they will help with subsidies right??? aahh yeah true only problem is that those subsidies wont kick in until 2014!!! yes america expect to see more ppl going with out insurance as the economy is not getting better anytime soon yet prices are rising- it’s ridiculous- if you think the health care reform is your answer to all your prayers think again- oh and did I mention that by 2014 you will be fined a % of your income if you don’t carry health ins. and that by the 3rd fine if you still don’t have it it will become a criminal offense??!!! you can potentially serve time in jail if you don’t carry health insurance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m sorry but don’t we live in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? or did we somehow morphed into cuba?? seriously!!by the way there’s a LOT of other minor details that this bill will bring upon us- but you don’t hear it on the news do you? no that’s very conviniently being left out- it just seems to me that this broken health care system and shady ins companies- and even shadier govt representatives (don’t forget at the end of the day it’s all about politics DUH!)are leaving us with no options other than self insure (which we can’t afford to do)- how about we stand up for ourselves already and create our own pool of insurance money -self insure- within a community or workplace or some sort of group that we can create ourselves and leverage cost through out but also we can control the claims and acutally pay the bills that r being denied by certain ins companies… think about all the money that ppl pay into ins companies only to be DENIED medical ins claims?? oh but hospitals and doctors are in it for the money too- hhmm hmmm nope I don’t see any hopes for me and my children to be entitled to decent health care under any health care reform no matter how they try to paint the picture it’s still all dark and shady.
so bottom line is that yes we need help fixing our broken health care system but this new bill is no help at all if the govt won’t step up and help with those subsidies RIGHT NOW we will see a huge mess in these next 4 yrs to say the least…why on earth would they demand change on all of these policies knowing very well ins companies will have to raise premuims in order to stay in business so why wouldn’t they offer the subsidies like RIGHT NOW this is when we need the most help!! none of this bill makes sense other than politic sense- I encourage you to go ahead and read it see if you still agree with it.
May 28th, 2010 - 19:33
Andy.. I think you’ve been paying attention to fox news too much. I’m 20 years old and am thankfully covered under my dad’s Med insurance and thanks to the new bill will be able to stay on it til I’m 26. And you wont face jail time if you don’t have insurance you just get a tax break if you have it and if you don’t you don’t receive the tax break. And it gets rid of all that preexisting conditions crap which I have lordosis in my spine and I could NEVER get insurance otherwise. And children will be covered more etc. And assurant and cigna and bcbs and ALL of the other insurance companies need to stop worrying about their bottom line and CARE about the needs of their customers. And instead of bitching about it we need to do something and not have it be about Republican or Democrat and work with each other. The insurance companies have us by the balls and they know it and they don’t care if someone has cancer they just care about finding a way to not pay. They have no compassion and would rather have you die then help you get better. This “wonderful country” pays the most money to insurance companies yet we have the sickest people worldwide. We need preventative care and we need less people who don’t want to pay that tiny tax increase to help his fellow man.
P.S. Assurant sucks….
June 29th, 2010 - 09:04
Andy,
TLDR
I’ve been with Assurant for 9 months now since my wife quit her job to go back to school and we lost the group coverage. It has been nothing but a nightmare.
Now our monthly rates are pretty low, I’m glad for that, but nothing is covered. My wife went to her annual exam, not covered as a doctors visit (which we get 4 “free” per year), because it’s a “preventative care” treatment.
I had to go to the emergency room at 1:30 in the morning (emergency because the walk-in wasn’t open, it wasn’t really an emergency). Denied. Emergency treatment isn’t an “office visit.”
My wife had abdomen pain and tried to go to the walk-in. The hospital said “abdomen pain is serious, we need to admit you to the ER.” 2 hours later she went back into a room they did some tests and said “we don’t know what’s wrong, here’s some pain pills.” Assurant said “ER is not an office visit. DENIED!
Now I’m shopping for someone else because Assurant Sucks!
July 4th, 2010 - 13:30
I canceled assurant Health two months ago and they still keep trying to bill me, If recieve anymore letters from them they will be hearing from my lawyer. I am not paying $1,201 for 6 months of insurance. It’s too damn expensive.
July 29th, 2010 - 14:58
Assurant Health is a scam. We purchased insurance for my husband and have been fighting with Assurant since October of 2009. They kept asking for the complete medical history for the last five years for my husband which we supplied 8 times. Now they say they have all the information and are making a ruling. Now they are calling asking how we purchased the insurance, did we purchase on line, or in person. It just never ends. So in order to keep my husbands bills out of collection, we have to pay the doctor $300 per month, and $185 for the policy. Why have insurance if they don’t cover it. It is a shell game, that we are losing. My next move it to the insurance commissioner in Florida.
Do not buy Assurant insurance. They are just hoping that they will wear us out. But I will fight them to the very end.