Anyone self-employed have affordable health insurance?

How old are you? 100?

$1000.00 is outrageous.

I have a plan through Aetna that comes out to $161.00 per month which is %50 higher then their typical rate becaues of my risk level with an irregular heart beat.

 

i'm 38 with a wife and three kids. maybe it's because we live in new york?

 

For many, many years, I didn't have insurance at all. For a while, I got one of those Blue Cross plans to just cover the basics just in case (which ran just over $100/mo, IIRC). When I got married, I thought my wife would put me on her plan, but because she gets the most full-blown options in her coverage from work and since married couples can't have different levels of coverage in her work plan, adding me would add something like $500/mo. which didn't seem worth it given how infrequently I use my coverage.

Since then, though, I qualified for my Guild's Health Plan, which doesn't cost me anything. So that's nice.

I would recommend Blue Cross, but I didn't make any claims the whole time I had coverage with them, so I don't know if they're good or not beyond processing my payments well.

 

You should look into getting a Health Savings Plan with a high deductible insurance plan. What that basically is is you get insurance with a high deductible. So instead of normally having a deductible of $300 or $500 you get one with a deductible of $1000. There is still an overall cap on the deductible so the max you would pay a year would still only be $5000 or so. The benefit of this plan is you pay a very low monthly premium.
Then the HSA part of this combo is that you put away a certain amount of money each month into the HSA. Think of it as an IRA but for health. So lets say you put in $200 a month. If you don't go to the doctor at all that year then you have $2400 in your HSA. Come next year you still have that money. It just rolls over. Unlike regular insurance, once you pay that premium it's gone whether you use it or not. So if you're relatively healthy and you just want insurance in case, this is a great way to save up money instead of losing it with normal premiums.
There is more to it than my explanation. There are tax benefits and stuff too. Read it at http://www.msainfo.net/

 

I get great service with Blue Cross. Doc's don't really like the rates they pay for services but they pay and don't dispute every claim so that's better than most other insurance companies. And, I can always get someone on the phone in under 1 minute that has full access to my files including notes from other agents and, so far, has been able to solve any problems to my satisfaction.

My only real problem with them was that no anesthesiologist work 'in network' with them so I end up paying a lot for that. I assume it is because anesthesiologist are high risk insurance guys so they want higher rates for their services.

 

OK, I have a couple of simple (but possibly stupid) questions.

1. What is the difference between blue shield and blue cross? (I live in CA).

2. For Blue Shield/Blue Cross, what is better, the PPO or the HMO? I don't care too much about physician choice, so HMO might be good for me. But is it true that I can't see any specialists under HMO unless I get a referral from my family doctor? That seems like a pain in the a**.

3. Should I go to an agent or buy it myself? Will the agent get a better price for me or will she just provide an extra layer of cost? Is the agent on my side?

4. Do I have to go in for a medical exam before getting my insurance?

Thanks in advance.

 

I just got a new job that makes you wait 3 months before you can get insurance with them so for now I bought an individual plan from Unicare.
Its only $86/month
The coverage is not great but I dont plan on going to any doctors.
Its $40 copay for office visits
Dental is covered ($25 premium)
Vision is covered (You pay just $50 for an eye exam)
Prescription generic drugs are $20

That should be good enough for 3 months for me and the price is not bad. Check it out at: http://www.soundhealth.com
Sound Health (Sound Gravity 5000) is the cheapest but it seems like its only available in TX and IL. If you are in a different state then you will have to go to the main site at http://www.unicare.com to check out the other plans..they are still cheap.

 

I roll on spinnaz so I'm not too worried.

 

1. One (BC?) addresses physician services; the other (BS?) addresses hospital/facility charges.

3. In my state and I think everywhere, rates are set by the state and no one, not even the internet, can get you a discount. So it is a good idea to buy from an agent who can guide you through the maze.

4. Typically you don't have to go for any medical exams when buying medical insurance.

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I'm on board endorsing the Health Savings Account plans. I've sold a lot with Assurant here in NC. emoreland is single but the deductible on their feature HSA plan is a One (shared) Deductible for the family.

My advice got to the highest deductible that doesn't make you wet your pants. Statistically, the huge majority of healthcare consumers don't consume $500 a year in health care (we see many affirmations of that here), so it doesn't matter if your Deductible is $1,000 or $5,000... you are not having claims paid because you are not cracking that Deductible on the HSA-eligible plan-- whether it is $1000 or $10,000

Ah, but it makes a big difference on the monthly premium you'll pay. The money you save can be put into your HSA for future expenses.

For example, I checked rates in my area for a 28YO NS Male. The premium on a 100% plan post-deductible for the $1000 Deductible is $148/month while the premium for the $5,000 Deductible is $66.41. Since in a typical year you are unlikely to file a claim under either plan, go with the high deductible and put the $80 per month premium savings into your Health Savings Account to offset future healthcare expenses. You can also get 50% and 80% post-deductible plans which will even further lower the premium... and there are plans with design modifications which can also lower the premium. Lots of options.

For you younger folks who are not worried about getting sick but do have to consider accidents, you can get a $5000 accident policy from someone like Mutual of Omaha for somewhere in the vicinity of $15-20 per month.

Should you face a $4700 medical bill due to an accidental injury, the accident coverage provides the $4700 to take care of that cost. This is a great policy if you are othersie unprepared to pay the $4700 out-of-pocket via the HSA or otherwise.

Regarding the medical exam, Assurant even has a "tele-app" program where you fill out a simple bio-app and dial a toll-free number to do your "health interview" with an underwriter directly. Answer the questions straight and soberly with no elaboration unless asked for.

Also, Assurant has a nice Short-term plan meant for the intermediate time like aeroman faced before eligibility for regular insurance kicked in. It is very affordable and is available for periods generally up to 6 months. It is way cheaper than permanent health insurance but proves to be a great bridge plan to your eligibility for permanent coverage and is a way to get coverage in effect by tomorrow... if you do it online or get the 3-question app in the mail postmarked today.

 

This thread is very timely, as I'm thinking about taking an extended time away from work.

I found this site to be useful:

http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/

It's a search tool that compares all the usual providers - I'm all in favor of the high deductible HSA plans too (33 yo, single, no medical problems [yet]). BCBS and Humana seem to have the best rates.

 

My wife and I are 50. My job stopped providing health insurance 2 1/2 years ago. I called around and got Humana with a $2500.00 deductible for 598.00 per month for myself, wife with Rheumatoid arthritis and son 26 yrs old. She has not been treated for the arthritis in 3 years. Humana went up to $ 1498.00 per month with no clains other than 2 routine Dr. visits with no arthritis meds. It's not like my wife is taking Humira at $1500.0 per month.

I have called around and been discouraged about getting health insurance through my small business. We have insurance now with Humana so it should be easier to get without exclusions.

I am considering going to work for a larger company just to get health insurance.

I am very healthy, but my son is a chronic alchoholic and drug abuser- I need health insurance.

Insurance is so expensive - people that get it provided at work are so lucky.

$ 1,498.00 per month is a house payment.

 

giddyup thank you so much! That totally cleared things up for me. You're my hero for the day.

cuttino, good call on ehealthinsurance! I took giddyup's advice and I think this plan I found on ehealthinsurance looks cool (I'm 30, single, no illness). I think based on giddyup's advice I can probably go a bit cheaper. Also, I'm a little worried that it doesn't provide coverage for non-generic drugs:

Blue Shield Essential Plan 4500 (PPO)

Monthly Cost estimate: $102

Individual: deductible: $4,500

Primary doctor:
$40 Copay, deductible waived for first 3 visits/calendar year (combined with Specialist visits). Subsequent visits are subject to the deductible.

Specialist:
$40 Copay, deductible waived for first 3 visits/calendar year (combined with Primary Doctor visits). Subsequent visits are subject to the deductible.

Prescription Drugs: (only generic covered, brand not covered)
$10 Copay

Emergency Room:
$100 Copay (copay waived if admitted), deductible waived

 

ehealthinsurance.com lays out all the choices for you. That's fine if you are of a mind to sort through them all.

Give FFB a call if you guys are proximate. If not look at DaveRamsey.com. They have a program with qualified health insurance agents. You can submit a request to be contacted here: http://daveramsey.com/sa/health/

This will get you a health insurance specialist. I used to be one for NC. There is no charge. You will get top-notch advice and the same products you can get from ehealthinsurance.com.

 

Thanks giddyup. I am definitely going to contact a health insurance specialist as you suggested. I just wanted to start off with ehealthinsurance to get a general survey of the land. But I'm sure I have tons of question a website can't answer.