<p>Ok, all you self-employed folks,
I have a question for you. How do you go about finding medical insurance?</p>
<p>We currently have Blue Cross/Blue Shield and we’ve just been notified that our rates are going up $200 per month. So, now would be a goo time to start looking into different carriers. We’ve used BC/BS for some time now, so I don’t really know how to look at other companies. I did one time go to einsurance but that really wasn’t helpful (it felt weird answering such personal question on an Internet site) and all I ended up with was a ton of spam. </p>
<p>Has anyone heard about an an insurance broker? I think I read about this one time, but I don’t know anyone in real life who does this and I’m really not sure how I’d find a reputable broker.</p>
<p>Do you have a relationship with a broker for automobile or homeowner’s insurance? You might try them first to see if they have any products for sale. Or they might give you a referral to a broker who specializes in health insurance. You can also ask friends and relatives for names of brokers. When you talk with a broker, ask them what kind of health insurance products they are selling and research the products thoroughly before giving the brokers any personal health information.</p>
<p>Do you belong to a professional organization? Frequently these organizations offer health plans at group rates.</p>
<p>The link below might help you get started and familiarize yourself with your rights and options depending on your state.</p>
<p>No good advice. Just some questions: What state are you in? (State of the union, not gas liquid or solid) Do you know why the $200 increase? Age? prior claims. BTW, how old are you? (a range is acceptable ) I wonder when/if my BC/BS private plan rates will skyrocket? Personally I had a misconception about high deductible plans. I thought if I had a $2500 deductible then I would have to pay for everything out of pocket (every routine exam, blood test, perscription etc) until I had paid $2500, but in fact the deductible only applies to I think hospital visits. I continue to pay $20 copay for routine doctor visits, $50 for emergency room, $10 for perscriptions, everything is just like my old company paid plan unless I go overnight to the hospital where I have almost never been.</p>
<p>We’re self-employed–own a retail business. We have Blue Cross/Blue Shield too and pay for medical insurance for our one-year round/full time employee. It costs a fortune! Our family plan costs about $1500/month plus the additional costs for our employee. To top it off, BC/BS is in arbitration with 3 of our local hospitals and if they can’t come to an agreement very soon, we are switching to another company. The way things stand now, if they can’t work out an agreement, all of the doctors around here have decided not to accept BC/BS and will be considered “out-of-network” at the end of this month. Right now, the 3 local hospitals will only accept BC/BS if you are admitted through the Emergency Room. Anything else will be considered “out-of-network”. It’s looking like the arbitration is going to fail and we’ll end up switching to a new medical insurance plan by the end of the month.</p>
<p>We’ve narrowed our new plan down to two different plans with Oxford. It’s very similar to BC/BS but we’ll probably have a $1000 deductible for Hospital stays. We’ll take our chances and save about $4000/yr in insurance cost knowing that if necessary, we can come up with the $1000 if needed for the hospital.</p>
<p>We use a local insurance broker (actually, the office is about a 40 minute drive from our town). We give them a list of our doctors and tell them what we’re looking for in a plan:
–we want access to local hospitals
–we want all of our current doctors/specialists to be in network
–we don’t want to have to get referrals
–we want the option of going to doctors “out-of-network” if needed
–decent prescription plan </p>
<p>We’ve been with the same agency (for medical insurance) for almost 10 years now. Initially, I believe my husband asked a couple of other business owners who they used when buying medical insurance. He also talked with the insurance office that handles our auto/homeowners insurance.</p>
<p>Have you considered an HSA plan? Do you belong to any professional groups which might give you the option to join at a group rate?
For instance we are contractors and we get a good group rate through our local Contractors Association.<br>
Definitely use the same broker for everything if you can. That should help your rate.</p>
<p>Avoid the National Association for the Self Employed, or at least be very careful to read the fine print on any policy from them. They offer insurance that doesn’t cover chemo if you have cancer. Now that’s helpful! Be very, very wary of plans that use fly-by-night companies that may not actually pay up if you have a claim. 60 Minutes and the like have done many stories on people who paid premiums for years and found themselves without coverage</p>
<p>Sometimes local Chambers of Commerce have small business consortia, or so I’ve heard. Professional associations can be a good source. </p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about Harvard Pilgrim, if it’s available where you live.</p>
<p>Other than that, call your legislators and demand a public option as part of health care reform.</p>
<p>Comments in no particular order.
First of all, a BIG thank you to each of you that responded. I showed my husband the replies and we are beginning to form some ideas based on your feedback to me.</p>
<p>NJRes
Like you, we are in NJ. Middle aged. No real reason for the price increase as we’ve had no real claims - just a few dr visits. Little routine stuff.<br>
Now, my friend who has had cancer treatments (and licked it thank God) had her insurance go up by $1000. Made my $200 seem quite paltry. </p>
<p>The last time the rates went up, we did step down our level of coverage. </p>
<p>We did speak with our auto insurance provider and he was less than helpful in this matter. So, no go there.</p>
<p>NYSmile,
how did you find an insurance broker? I think it would be helpful to speak with such a person. </p>
<p>My husband is not part of a professional organization. I don’t know that one exists for what he does (computer consultant). I will try our local chamber of commerce.</p>
<p>Thanks again. I am open to hear more suggestions.</p>
<p>There are associations that you can join and you become part of their group when you buy insurance. In Massachusetts, there are several including MBA, which may be the Massachusetts Business Association. A friend who has a PhD in anthropology got his insurance from a group policy for the American Anthropological Association (or whatever it was called).</p>
<p>An alternative is to find a payroll processing firm that aggregates small firms and buys insurance for them.</p>
<p>Health Ins industry is in a death spiral which has been accelerating, and becoming deeper since the beginning of the recession. </p>
<ol>
<li>aging insured population</li>
<li>younger population are working in service industries that traditionally have poor insurance. and who are not as healthy (obesity) as the older generation.</li>
<li>Massive layoffs in manufacturing industries and firings in financial service industries that paid well and provided high benefits.</li>
<li>Insurance companies see declining enrollments which translate to less premiums to pay for those who have health conditions that require high payments. </li>
</ol>
<p>IOW its gonna to get worse before it gets better. Thus if you as an insurance company knows that your spreads are narrowing, you have to raise rates even though you will lose clients. You can not lower rates to attract new clients because no one currently have money and you only create churn within the industry. It is in the interest of all health insurance companies to therefore raise rates, collect as much $$ as possible, lobby for a national plan but without a public option, and have a huge golden parachute.</p>
<p>This thread is really scary to me. I am self employed and have BCBS. I pay over $4000 for the year with no prescription drug insurance. I had a hip replacement so I had a pretty major claim. I live in fear that somehow they will increase the premiums until I can’t afford them. I really can’t afford them now, but I am paying. I live in Maryland and there is a movement to put a public option into place here, but the economy has put the brakes on that.</p>
<p>bookreader, I moved from NJ to NC one year ago. I believe there are some state regs that make health insurance slightly more affordable in NC for the average semi-healthy individual. For 2 of us we are paying around $850/ month for BC/BS with a $2500 deductible. I was paying $1250 for COBRA, which in hindsight was a waste of $400/mo.</p>
<p>Also try your local Chamber of Commerce. As a small business owner in the past, we had been able to get pretty favorable rates and a good choice of plans through that membership.</p>
<p>We did COBRA of over a year out of fear. What a huge mistake that was. A simple call to our insurance company (BC/BS) and we could transfer to an individual policy and the price for the same coverage was much less. Since then, our rates have gone up twice, hence I’m going to look around at other companies. </p>
<p>LongPrime
I am in strong agreement with you. Sigh.</p>
<p>Heaven help you if you are looking for individual coverage and one of you has any pre-existing conditions. H was relegated to our state option when he couldn’t get any other insurance. It’s over $1000 per month just for him, and the coverage is very poor. We can afford it, barely, but it’s easy to see why so many just have to go without insurance. As you might guess, I am 100% in favor of health insurance reform. Bring on the public option!</p>
<p>Sometimes there are pretty good plans for student families if either of you want to take a course or more at a local CC & can buy cheap family insurance as a student (you can have your employee also take a class or two & get cheap insurance–check the terms & cost of tuition). The course can be on-line & related to your business. Wish there were better options.</p>
<p>If you or your spouse has a degree from a major University, a lot of times they offer insurance for graduates…no matter when you graduated. When I first started my business, this is what we did. Of course, that was a while ago, but I’m pretty sure a lot of schools offer this.</p>
<p>The problem is the fear of dropping what you have to gamble on something else. If I dropped BCBS for something that either folded or dropped me, BCBS individual could refuse to take me back. The protections afforded people with group policies are not in place for individual policies.</p>
) I wonder when/if my BC/BS private plan rates will skyrocket? Personally I had a misconception about high deductible plans. I thought if I had a $2500 deductible then I would have to pay for everything out of pocket (every routine exam, blood test, perscription etc) until I had paid $2500, but in fact the deductible only applies to I think hospital visits. I continue to pay $20 copay for routine doctor visits, $50 for emergency room, $10 for perscriptions, everything is just like my old company paid plan unless I go overnight to the hospital where I have almost never been.</p>