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Medical Insurance? - mc

Posted: May 01, 2013

I'm wondering what other ICs do for medical insurance, at least the ones without spouses to cover that for them. Private insurance? any recommendations?

here's what I have - OHMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I got my health insurance thru HAA (Health Advocates Alliance). You have to become a member (costs about 5 bucks I think) in order to be eligible for their plans. My husband is also self-employed, so he's on my insurance and it runs us around $400 a month (we are both in our 50s and healthy). But this is major medical, high deductible. They do have other plans with lower deductibles but of course the rate might be higher.

What we do - See Msg

[ In Reply To ..]
We have something through Blue Cross Blue Shield called Blue Options 710. It's bascially catastrophic insurance, but does cover some routine stuff. It's about $600 per month for the two of us.

There's a $2500 per year per person deductible + 20% co-insurance if, say, we land in the hospital. There's a $7500 maximum per person out of pocket. In other words, say one of us has a $100,000 hospital bill, only $7500 + 20% of the hospital bill comes out of our pocket (I think after the $2500 deductible is met).

We are both in reasonably good health, but in our early 60s, so anything could happen and we're most concerned with a large hospital bill that could put a serious dent in our retirement savings.

Your best bet would be to go through an insurance broker. It all can get so confusing. We called one and he asked our needs/priorities. From there, he selected 3 plans (out of a gazillion) for us to choose from. It just helps narrow it down if you have someone helping you, and it's also someone you can ask questions of.

If you don't mind belong to AARP, you can get some good plans through them as well--but you do have to join AARP.

Question for "What we do--See Msg" response: - (see message)

[ In Reply To ..]
My husband and I have separate individual plans through BC/BS, too....kind of similar to yours but probably a little different. I'm curious about comparing our plans, just in general.

I'm 57; he's 61. We pay for each one separately...mine is $200-something; his is $500-something; total comes to $771 a month. Ours includes dental which does cover SOME things, but it's not the super-good dental coverage we've had in our past lives....better than nothing, and it only added $20-something to our premium. That pretty much pays for what we'd spend on the two cleanings/checkups per year with annual x-rays, so it's probably worthwhile for us to have it.

We have no vision coverage. We have no prescription drug coverage. They did send us a Rx "discount card," and that does allow us to get less-than-full-price on Rx's, but that's not saying much....we've still had to pay some pretty high prices on a few of our Rx's.

So, basically, I'm wondering....does your coverage include prescriptions? Is your premium for just the health insurance? Do you each have your own policy, or do you have a "family plan"? We found that the total was less for us if we got separate policies....was a little higher price for the same plan if we bought it as a family plan!

I've been miffed that the plan doesn't pay for some things I thought it did...or at least apply it toward our deductible. One example: My husband had pneumonia in January. The office visit was an "uncovered expense" because it was not an accident or injury. Okay, fine--but I thought that the cost ($91) would at least go toward our deductible or out-of-pocket total. It didn't, though, because of it being an "uncovered" expense. So....good to know--only "covered" expenses count toward the deductible totals. :-(

One other time where I fell between the cracks was when I had a shoulder injury. I figured I had just strained or twisted a muscle and gave it some time to heal "on its own." When I finally went to the doctor for it, it was about 3 months after the injury, and that was out of the time limit....would have been covered if I had gone without a certain time of the injury. I can't remember how long, but probably something like 30 days. So, again, that visit and a followup for it were not covered and didn't go toward my deductible.

Soooo, lesson learned: When you look at the "out-of-pocket maximums," those figures might only be counting what you're out of pocket on "covered" expenses, and a lot of bills might be "non-covered" expenses. I naively thought the out-of-pocket maximums might be the MOST we would be out for ANY bills that weren't paid by the insurance plan. I guess what worries me about plans like these are whether we could be very unfortunate some year and have thousands upon thousands of dollars in medical bills that fall under these "uncovered" expenses but also don't count toward our out-of-pocket totals. I hate the insurance situation a lot of us are facing these days.

Answer... - but not completely

[ In Reply To ..]
We don't have dental or vision. Also, I never thought to check to see if we would be better off individually---I'm the policy holder and he's the dependent.

I'm $259 and hubby is $342. It comes to $601. We don't have much of a prescription plan---it pays nothing for mail-order Rx and only $15 towards non-mail-order Rx. We belong to AAA, and actually get a discount for the few drugs we're on. We also live very close to a Walmart and whatever the AAA doesn't cover, Walmart is cheap enough.

We only just recently got the insurance, so I'm not sure what all would happen in terms of "covered" and "not covered." I never would have even thought about it if you hadn't brought it up. That's a very good question, one I need to look into.

Also, the particular county you live in can raise the price. We live in a county where there aren't a lot of medical facilities, so that raises up our premium to the tune of $70 per month. In actuality, we live very close to a county that has tons of medical facilities, but that doesn't seem to matter. Our actual county only has very limited medical facilities. If we moved 1 mile down the road apiece, our insurance would be cheaper.

Once the new healthcare plan takes effect, I would imagine premiums are going to skyrocket---insurance companies are going to be required to cover everybody, even bums who don't work.

So, what was already a big mess, will be an even bigger mess.

Thank you -- sounds like our plans are... - (see message)

[ In Reply To ..]
....at least somewhat similar, except that your Rx coverage sounds better (for one thing). Yes--check on what the price would be if you each got your own plan. It might turn out that it wouldn't save you anything on your particular plan or in your particular area, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

When I hear some people mention how little (in comparison to me) they pay for their health insurance, I always wonder if they might be a younger age. I was really surprised by how much more my husband's was (for the very same coverage) than mine, and we're only 4 years apart in age.

I have to say one thing for it--I've had to pay nothing for a mammogram, annual physical, or Pap smear; and when my husband had his 10-year followup colonoscopy this year, it was fully covered, too. Nice to have those basic preventative things paid for, though I cringed when I realized that some of the everyday stuff, like an office visit for a URI or whatnot, didn't even go towards our deductible. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying we stay healthy!!

I have United Health Care/Golden rule, medical, dental sm - COMT

[ In Reply To ..]
and vision, $390/month.

Health insurance - 2bz2sleep

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I have a policy under my business, HealthNet. Due to new insurance rules, this was the only coverage I could get except Kaiser (do not even start me on that nightmare). Others now insist you are LLP, such as Blue Cross. My husband was laid off 5 years ago; hence, he lost our insurance. I am 49 years old and paying over $1200 per month for both of us. Our premiums just went up.

ACA Health Exchanges - mt57

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Have you looked into the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) state health exchanges that are starting up at the end of the year? I have been studying up on this and am very pleased with how this will work out for me. There are calculators available on line where you can get an estimate about how much your annual premiums will be based on your estimated income next year and your age. People with the types of incomes made by MTs will get pretty heavy subsidies towards the premiums, making them quite affordable. The coverage levels are better than what most private plans offer,and you can't be denied because of age or preexisting condition. By the way, I'm not a fan of Obamacare in general because I'm concerned about its effect on our health care system and economy, but I am very happy about how it will affect my ability to get affordable health coverage. Check it out - it might ease your mind to see what kind of health insurance you can get in Jan 2014- it did mine.

BCBS - PA MT

[ In Reply To ..]
$275 a month with $1000 deductible.

Getting my own insurance took so much stress off of me fretting every time I had to change companies. And my cost is cheaper than most companies "providing" benefits are charging.

You are right about this! - (see message)

[ In Reply To ..]
Getting my own coverage (not through an employer) was what finally freed me to be able to turn down an MT job with M*Modal when they bought out my company. Before that, I felt like such a prisoner because I HAD TO keep my health insurance in place.

It's lifted a huge burden from my mind that my insurance is in place, no matter where I work, and I hope I never feel chained to a job I hate again. My daughter noted that it was hugely ironic that I had to stay in my job just because of health insurance, while the job itself was ruining my health.

Me Too - see msg

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I was finally able to get out of this gawdawful "career." The only thing holding me back was the darn health insurance. I am paying double what MM was providing us with, but am much happier and freer to just work where I want (non-MT, by the way) without worrying if they have health insurance. It's hard enough finding a job these days without that standing in the way.

For IC, insurance premiums can be used as a tax - write off. nm

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x

Insurance can be written off whether you are an IC or employee - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
.

Yes it can - sm

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I do it every year and I am an employee of an MTSO (temporarily until I make my exit). Anyway, I write off not only my health insurance (pretax) but also any medical expenses not covered by my insurance, including dental expenses.

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