Self employed/self-insured

luvmykids wrote: Who do you have your insurance through? I'm shopping and am just floored at the rates. And IMO you pay a lot for very little in benefits

Danalana replied: Blue Cross/Blue Shield...I pay about $70.00/month, just for me. If I add Richard, it will be $140.00 I'm not very happy with them right now, but I guess it's usually a good insurance. But yeah, it's way too high.

mom21kid2dogs replied: I buy mine & Olivia's through Assurant Health. It starts out low (like all of them) then raises insane amounts every year. Stephen has his own through work but if they covered us (to the tune of $800 per month) he'd have no paycheck. It's a crock of crap, Monica, I agree!

Our Lil' Family replied: Blue Cross/Blue Shield here as well. Thomas has an HMO and we pay $193/month for that. DH and I have very high deductibles, his is $2500 and that's $102/month and mine is $1700 for $139/month. We raised his deductible because he'll is/will be getting his health care pretty much for free from here on out.

lisar replied: I recommend United Health Care. I love there plans

MommyToAshley replied: I would look into a HSA (or medical savings account). You only have to carry major medical (or some call it catastrophy). The HSA earns interest, and I find we pay out less than if we had full coverage insurance anyways.

Insurance rates are ridiculous! That's for sure!

ETA: Forgot to mention that the HSA is pre-tax dollars and your insurance premiums are now 100% tax deductible.

mummy2girls replied: well im thinking of getting medical/dental at the end of March. i pay 50 dollars a month for 80 % coverage.

lovemy2 replied: Check with your State too - in NY we have what is called Healthy NY, they offer lower cost plans (premiums were based on income) for individuals and employers to offer to their employees.......maybe do a google search for your State website and see if you can find any State sponsored health care plans.....we were on it for awhile when we had Olivia and although we paid the highest monthly premium it was still MUCH lower than what we would have paid through an employer....Good luck and I agree it is terrible....

We are lucky - my husband being a Sheriff working for the County we pay $10 a month for awesome coverage with low copays....thank god...

PrairieMom replied: We had blue cross blue shield until I added the entire family to my work plan. We paid $700.00 a month for all 4 of us, but they wouldn't cover anything for my asthma, so it was basically like I had no insurance at all. I had to cover my self with my work plan in addition to the BC/BS plan for an extra $100 a month just incase I would have breathing problems. I hate insurance.

Kaitlin'smom replied: We have Blue cross/Blue shield and thankfull DH's work pays the premimums for us, that was one benifit we considered when he changed jobs last year, pay wise it was the same but witht hem paying the insurance it was like gettig a rasie

Boo&BugsMom replied: I'm so happy that hubby works for our hospital, we have our insurance through them. It's not cheap, but it is reasonable and the coverage is pretty good. Before that we went through a private agent and it was extremely expensive. For over a year we paid lots of money and never even used it.

grapfruit replied:
Totally agree! HDHP (High Deductible Health Plans) are the wave of the future. Let me know and I can send you tons of information (as I sell it ).

The HSA (Health Savings Account) that goes with it is great, the money in it rolls over unlike it's predicessor (sp?) the MSA (Medical Savings Account) or FSA (Flexible Savings Account) which was a "use it or loose it" type of plan.

The coverage is great (at least w/us!) and the premiums are fairly low in comparision. PLUS the HSA has a tax benefit (don't ask me all those questions though, not an accountant!)

Brias3 replied: I agree- we were covered independantly for a little under a year right before we moved from Chicago to Hong Kong (luckily, we didn't have kids yet either). We were under BCBS of Illinois- astronomical then and now. My father was self-employed his whole life having owned his own business so we know all too well about the sacrifices you make insurance-wise there. To tack on dental and vision is extrordinarily priced too

my2monkeyboys replied: We've had quite a few plans, and my favorite by far is the Golden Rule plan we have now. It costs us about $310 a month (incl a bit for maternity and good prescription coverage). We also had coverage through NASE. If this plan ever goes to pot we'll go back to that. The only reason I changed is bc the plan through NASE charged a lot more for maternity.