health insurance

[Steve Giufre]

Anybody know where the best place to try to find some cheap health insurance? I figured maybe some of the other full time degenerates on this forum might know a good starting place.

[SinCityGuy]

www.unicare.com (http://www.unicare.com)

[cardcounter0]

Check your State's BCBS insurance organization. They write competitive policies for individuals.
/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[fnurt]

http://www.workingtoday.org/ might be worth looking into. They advertise reasonable insurance rates for self-employed/independent contractor types, no idea if they underwrite policies in your state or anything.

[Ulysses]

I've gone w/ Blue Cross/Blue Shield (www.bcbs.com) for many years. Tons of great individual plans. They also do dental plans. If for some reason you don't qualify for a plan you like, you can join the National Associated for the Self-Employed (www.nase.org) and get access to some good group health plans.

[La Brujita]

For anyone who wouldn't mind responding, may I ask how much you all pay monthly.

Thanks

[Glenn]

Try www.ehealthinsurance.com. (http://www.ehealthinsurance.com.) You can do a quick search and get quotes for a variety of plans from a variety of providers. It rocks.

[Glenn]

I pay just under $100 a month for a good but not spectacular PPO plan with Prescps (age 24, N/S, no prior health problems). However this will vary widely from state to state. I got my plan when I lived in Ohio, and was able to keep it when I moved to NJ. If I bought a similar plan in NJ, it would be around $650/month. Yes, $650/month. See, some states have laws to make sure that everyone can get insurance. These people think it is unfair to determine premiums by things like age, health status, etc... So they make sure no one can buy insurance by driving premiums through the roof. A family of 4 would pay something like 25k/yr for decent insurance. But at least they won't get turned down when they apply, lol!

[Steve Giufre]

nm

[Ray Zee]

i am in my fifties and pay 220 a month with a 2500 deductable. best i could find with a large company that wont dissapear and leave me stranded like the last one. now i choose more carefully.
remember you still have to collect from them so best price dosent always equate to best deal.

[SinCityGuy]

[ QUOTE ]
For anyone who wouldn't mind responding, may I ask how much you all pay monthly.

Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

$220/month

no deductable

unlimited visits ($30 co-pay)

$3,500 maximum out-of-pocket annually

covers 80% of all professional services, hospitalization, surgical expenses, lab work, x-rays, outpatient care.

$10 co-pay for generic drugs, $25 co-pay for brand name drugs

[Ulysses]

I pay $190/mo in California for a plan that is similar to SCG's. I could get a plan that is more than sufficient for under $100/mo, but I'm very picky about certain coverages (ie: being able to go to any out-of-network sports medicine doctors when I do something stupid and not have to pay a ton). I'm a 32yo ns male w/ no health problems. After reading Glenn's post, I checked the BCBS website for rates in NJ. A plan similar to mine would be over $1500 there. Wow. I wonder what kind of rates a group plan like NASE would havee there.

[Glenn]

That's almost identical to my plan...I have a deductable of 500 or 1000, but my out of pocket max is 3k. Since I don't live in the state my insurance is from, everything is out of network, but given the out of pocket maximum on that plan is less than the PREMIUMS would be in NJ, I am happy /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[SmileyEH]

move to Canada /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

-SmileyEH

[fnord_too]

[ QUOTE ]
I pay $190/mo in California for a plan that is similar to SCG's. I could get a plan that is more than sufficient for under $100/mo, but I'm very picky about certain coverages (ie: being able to go to any out-of-network sports medicine doctors when I do something stupid and not have to pay a ton). I'm a 32yo ns male w/ no health problems. After reading Glenn's post, I checked the BCBS website for rates in NJ. A plan similar to mine would be over $1500 there. Wow. I wonder what kind of rates a group plan like NASE would havee there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, I was wondering how you all were getting good health care so cheaply. I guess there is better consumer protection out west (insurance companies are such a racket). I get helathcare through work. I pay about 20% of the actual cost and STILL pay more than the prices I'm seeing quoted here. Of course I do have family coverage, but that is a surprisingly small price factor.

[Rick Nebiolo]

Read this (http://tinyurl.com/6hgl8) five year old column by Jane Bryant Quinn. I found it while looking an even older one by Quinn that I thought was titled "The Death Pool" and published in Newsweek in the early nineties. If anyone can find it please post a link.

In a nutshell, the "death spiral" (or what I remembered was called the "death pool") in individual health insurance policies is where a fairly large number (let's say 1000) of healthy individuals (or families) about the same age are put into one group (pool) by an insurer, all paying the same low price (for that age or type of family). Over time some people develop illnesses that require expensive ongoing treatment. This drives the costs up for everybody in the pool. After a while the healthy people or families in the pool start bailing out (getting into new, low cost policies where everybody in the new pool is healthy). Eventually the cost of insurance for the remaining policy holders who developed illnesses after purchasing the initial policy becomes astronomical.

Generally speaking, individual of family health insurance policies are great for the first illness. Just don't develop a condition that requires ongoing treatment.

Regards,

Rick

[Zele]

[ QUOTE ]
A plan similar to mine would be over $1500 there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Holy f***ing Jesus!

I guess that's one way to deal with adverse selection: just price everyone out. Of course, $1500/mo might make actuarial sense in NJ, given the probably high rate of organ damage due to superfund sites and alcohol abuse.