Both my wife and I have coverage at Kaiser Permanente. I am covered under their Senior Advantage plan at the same rate as Medicare Part A and B. That includes Medicare Part A and B, special rates for lab test other procedures and they provide low cost prescription drugs as well. My wife is not old enough to qualify for Medicare and we must pay the premium for the group in the age range 60 to 65. That amounts to $387 per month and we pay a $50 co-pay for each office visit. Her plan does not provide any drug plan thus many of her prescriptions are filled at Costco.
Talking to friends and relatives, I find many either love or intensely dislike Kaiser. I call it the McDonald’s of health care because they fill the needs of most people at a low cost. The nearby facility in Woodland Hills, California has a hospital, all the labs, urgent care, and doctor examination facilities for every imaginable kind of ailment. It is truly a “one stop facility” for all your medical needs.
There are doctors there that I do not like but there are many that are very good. When I collapsed at a party with vertigo on a Saturday night my wife took me to urgent care. They put me through a battery of test that included a brain scan at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning. They came up with the vertigo diagnosis.
What is wrong with Kaiser? They rarely send patients outside of their facilities for any treatment. They most likely will not send you to City of Hope, UCLA, Mayo Clinic, etc. The big advantage of a PPO is that you can go to those famed hospitals and the doctor of your choice.
Coast Contact 
I have had many problems with getting consistent care. Kaiser, to me, is a very bad memory. I often had to pay for emergency room visits because their offices were closed on weekends and holidays. That of course isn’t the problem, the problem was that they insisted that I had to pay the whole portion of my bill. No reimbursement.
I was also misdiagnosed several times, which inevitably led to me going to the hospital for awhile.
I don’t know, I guess I wish that Kaiser would give many of us with chronic conditions better care.
Best wishes. Enjoyed your thoughts.
Yeah, I don’t mind Kaiser too much. We just switched to it at work, and if anyone feels like pawing through my long-winded blog, you’ll find enough positive Kaiser stories.
Then again, I’m only 39 and (please God) healthy. If I were chronically ill, maybe I’d think differently.