Kaiser Permanente

Because I was forced to look for other insurance when Blue Shield decided to drop all Realtors from the CAR Health Plan, my only other alternative with a group plan was Kaiser. So I polled MLN neighbors for their feedback on Kaiser, and here is a summary of their comments:

• I am generally happy with Kaiser, although their premiums have gone through the roof

• We have had Kaiser long term, and they are making strides on becoming more customer friendly. You get profiles of all the doctors and can chose your primary care physician. Their clinic is handy, on Castro. You can email the doctors, and they get back with you in a day or two.

• Kaiser Medicare was horrible when my father had a stroke. No details were given, but they were available had I wanted the nitty gritty.

• We couldn't be happier with Kaiser. They hire from the top 10% of graduates from medical school. They had undergone three major surgeries and were happy with their care. Kaiser encourages you to change doctors until you find one you can work with. The new facility in Santa Clara will be state of the art.

• We've had Kaiser for 10 years and are satisfied. The lab results are in in a day or two. Emails from doctors come back in a day or two. You don't hear of the long waits, doctors going on vacation and passing you on to someone else, rescheduling surgeries, etc. like you do with some other insurance companies.

Pat Jordan

Blue Shield

Blue Shield is another story. They are the ones who decided to drop all the Realtors from the group CAR policy. Probably because there wasn't enough profit in it for them. They claim it was because of "underenrollment". Their premiums went up in huge amounts every year. I had to keep getting a higher and higher deductible just to keep insured. It was costing me big in premiums and for all the doctor bills I had to pay out of pocket. They seem to be just out to make money, not cover for insurance. On the positive side, their referral doctors seemed competent, and I got good medical care. So it's good if you are rich.

Pat Jordan