I have had Kaiser for over 10 years and I think they are OK if you never really need to use them, or if you are in need of serious medical procedures/treatment. That said, switching is too much of a hassle and I have had PPOs before that didn’t seem any more efficient.
My husband and I have had a few bad Kaiser experiences, once he almost sliced his finger off while greasing his bicycle chain and while Kaiser was great in keeping his hand intact, they left a staple in his hand which later got infected and required additional outpatient surgery. A couple years ago I had a bicycle accident and could tell my elbow was hurt pretty bad. They took x-rays and told me it was OK, a soft tissue injury and that I should make sure to flex my arm frequently to work it out. 5 days later they called me and said that the chief radiologist had looked at the x-ray and that a bone in my elbow was fractured, and that I should not move it, and should come in immediately and get it set. Only it was memorial day weekend so the soonest I could get in was Tuesday (this on a Friday). That was annoying. Another time I had a bad cough, and I was getting ready to go on a trip to Paris, so I went in and the doctor just told me to take sudafed. The cough got progressively worse, and basically ruined my trip. When I got back they diagnosed it as whooping cough, which is highly contagious. Poor people on the 12-hour plane ride with me…
BUT, all of my friends who’ve had babies with them absolutely rave about it, including those who Kaiser provided midwives for (which I would consider semi-alternative medicine). Another friend had lifelong epilepsy and was able to get, through Kaiser, experimental treatments that essentially made the epilepsy disappear. And a very close friend of mine with Cystic Fibrosis had a double-lung transplant 2 years ago at age 40 which has completely changed her life, courtesy of Kaiser.
I think every health-care-providing bureaucracy is going to have its problems and inefficiencies and some percentage of customers is going to experience them.
