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Re:Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company by mbesto on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @03:19PM (#16268627)
I'm not discrediting that notion. My point was to echo the sentiment that a closed-loop healthcare system has it's downsides when it hits edge cases.

For the record, I pay the same for healthcare from UHC now and it would cover the $25k cost for the specialist because they're in the UHC network.

Re:Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company by wahern on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @07:27PM (#16270346)
Do you pay the same as an individual or through an employer?

When my wife left her job several years ago (but post Obamacare) and needed to get insurance on the open market, her Northern California Kaiser plan was roughly the same price as her employee group plan (inclusive of employer contribution). Not too long ago my sister purchased a Kaiser Mid-Atlantic plan on the open market, which was also reasonable with nearly identical coverage to the group plans I've had.

As far I understand, Kaiser is largely an outlier regarding rough cost parity between group plans and individual plans. I'd be surprised if UHC cost the same as Kaiser for the same coverage on the open market, but if you confirm then I'll have to update my assumptions.

Re:Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company by mbesto on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @10:27PM (#16271052)
Not sure about open market to be honest. I'm currently on COBRA (left a FTE position that had access to both). Will let you know in 9 months :)