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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have been on both AETNA and Kaiser.

Aetna plusses: Almost unlimited choice of doctors and hospitals, but good luck finding doctors in the Washington area who are accepting new patients and who will see you without a six month wait. I have a friend who wants to change from Kaiser to Aetna but she has a lot of health issues and she has been unable to find specialists who accept Aetna and who are willing to see her. Fortunately I have been on Aetna for a while so I already have doctors who are willing to see me.

Aetna minuses: I had surgery last year and they denied the payment to the anesthesiologist! I called them up and they said it was a mistake (they didn't really think I should get cut up with no anesthesia), but they didn't fix it. After half a dozen frustrating calls with Aetna (including getting bounced all over by their phone system) I turned to HR in my office since I got the Aetna policy through work. After another half a dozen calls from my office HR representative to Aetna, I think this is fixed but I am still not 100 percent certain. At least the anesthesiologist's office was nice about this and didn't send my bill to a collection agency. The Aetna bureaucracy is awful.

Kaiser plusses: Everything is in one place. They have urgent care clinics that are easy to get into on nights and weekend. They have nurses who are easy to access on the phone for advice when you have a sick child screaming at 2 in the morning. They are the insurance so you don't have to sorry about these bill mess ups. I just paid one co-payment for everything and that was that. I found a good personal doctor, a good gynecologist, and a good pediatrician on Kaiser that I liked and trusted.

Kaiser minuses: Limited selection of doctors and hospitals. Kaiser will refer to outside specialists if they cannot handle something in house, but generally all care is handled by Kaiser doctors. This is particularly an issue if anyone on your insurance policy needs psychological counseling and you need to find a counselor to whom the person can relate. Less personal: My second child was delivered by the Kaiser doctor who happened to be on call that night. He was from a different Kaiser center than I normally went to and I had never met him before. Fortunately I liked him. Bureaucracy: When my second child was born they wanted to give her a different pediatrician from the pediatrician my first child had because they told me that pediatrician was all filled up and not taking new patients. I refused to have two children with two different pediatricians. I eventually won that battle. It was an easier fight than getting Aetna to pay the anesthesiologist for my surgery.

My experience with Kaiser was from 15 years ago so it is possible that things have changed. However, if it wasn't for the fact that I travel a lot and therefore I need very flexible coverage I would consider going back on Kaiser after my latest billing battle with Aetna. As I tried to indicate above, each insurance has its good points and bad points.[/quote]

OP Here- Thanks for sharing this. So would you say your experience with Kaiser is better overall than Aetna?[/quote]

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