I had a delightful conversation with a health Insurance company rep this morning

Is Nick and/or his wife a smoker? Does Forkie's quote take that into account?

Smoking wouldn't explain the discrepancy here. Even if all three people in Boilerman's "friend's" family smoke, including the child, Blue Cross in Illinois caps the smoker premium surcharge at just 32 percent.

Boilerman is claiming a premium 47% higher than what forkushV found, so smoking doesn't explain it.

Oh, and if the entire family of Boilerman's "friend" smokes, well, they should be glad they can get insurance at all. Before Obamacare, insurers weren't limited in how much extra they could charge. Heck, they could even refuse to insure smokers in the first place.

When I go to the actual Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois web site which (unlike Healthcare.Gov) actually supplies real quotes for smokers and I use Chicago zip-code 60018 and 3 smokers I get a cost of 815.00. Note that the prices change by zip code, not just county. It is possible that in a different zip maybe it gets up to BM's $850 quote.

In any case it's a hell of a lot more than forkies quote...and if it's true that they are smokers it's a hell of a lot more than their old group policy....not to mention that their old Group Policy Premium was probably a deductible business expense while their new improved individual plan is probably not. That's the marriage penalty. It likely means another couple of grand out of poor ol' Nick's pocket on top of his increased premiums.

Now then...Should I start calling a Forkie and Chilly liars and sacks of crap? Of course not. All the facts aren't in. They weren't in when he started calling poor ol' smokin' Nick and BM that.

If alanleroyII is taking a vote, DonDiego votes "sacks of crap".

If you use Bartlett's zip code (60103), and assume that this is a family of three with the parents Nick and Vic aged 50 and the kid (Dick) aged 15 and they all smoke (poor family!) but they make $1,000,000 a year (which is probably what it takes to keep a family smoking) and want the PPO Bronze 06 plan Boilerman says his "friend" got, here's the actual quote from BCBS Illinois showing what the Icks could actually buy:



Basically an 11 percent smoking penalty over the $573 quote forkushV found two months ago, and we don't even know that they smoke!

NOTE: I doubt the alanleroys' internet skills. I don't doubt DonDiego's and Roulette Man's willingness to namecall.

Also, I pity that poor sack of shit having to catch a whiff of Mike Pence.

If one were to go with "lying sacks of crap" one could avoid having to make a tough choice.

815 or 850 versus 573 is an 11% difference? You are too funny. I don't doubt alanleroy's internet skills at all. I also find it ironic that one of the biggest namecallers on this board calls out other people as being namecallers.

$635 is 11% higher than $573.

People don't really pay you to do math, do they?

So what was the 815 and 850 that alanleroy mentioned?