I certainly don’t want to jinx myself here, as I haven’t been approved for anything yet, but if you’re either self-employed or just don’t have health insurance at all I suggest that you give ehealthinsurance.com a look. At RedMonk, as Cote discovered when he joined, we’re a bring-your-own-insurance shop and I signed up with the unfortunately named Mega Life & Health through the National Association of Self-Employed individuals.
Having no previous experience with health insurance, I should have but did virtually no shopping around, simply taking the most basic plan they offered which was a bit over three hundred a month (in my defense, I was a bit preoccupied with setting up a business at the time). Wow, I thought at the time, that’s brutal, but I guess that’s what insurance costs. A couple of years, and five or six increases in my premium later (despite the fact that I’ve been to the doctor’s once in all the year’s I’ve had the insurance - when I stepped on a rusty nail - and have no prescriptions), I was at $359 a month. And it’s not like the plan was any good; when I stepped on the nail, it was under my $2K deductible so I was out better than $800 for an ER visit. For a while I stoicly endured this financial bleeding, until I was talking to a friend recently who told me that was insane.
A quick visit to ehealthinsurance.com later, and I was quoted $71 bucks for a comparable [1] plan - a delta for the math impaired of $288. A month. It’s not a great plan, but neither was my old one, and it’s a whole lot cheaper. After feeling like a bit of an idiot for not having done this sooner (if Anthem Blue Cross doesn’t approve this one, there are a couple of other providers I can pick from), I thought I’d mention it here just in case some of you are also getting gouged by your insurance provider. Learn from my error.
[1] The new plan doesn’t include dental, but the dental component of the Mega Life & Health plan was terrible, offering virtually no pay for anything beyond checkups.
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You should also look into major medical plans and can couple them with health saving accounts which tend to be a better deal than basic health insurance.
James: the HSA account is a good idea, and as i understand it i have the option to create one with the plan i’ve applied for. that is, i think, a major medical plan w/ anthem blue cross, but maybe i’m just demonstrating my ignorance in this area.
You may also wish to check if the Blue Cross/Blue Shield entity in your state offers something called, or similar to ‘Personal Choice’ - which is what they underwrite for individuals. It may be a bit pricey, but comprehensive.
Heath insurance premiums are not driven by your claims, or lack of them, like auto insurance is. The drivers are the deductible you take, what the plan covers (and what it doesn’t), your overall health (HIPPA and Kennedy-Kassenbaum act notwithstanding), and your age bracket (younger & healthy good, older & sick or pregnant bad, and whether you’re in a preferred-provider situation with negotiated fees for service or not (i.e. go to any provider and get dinged because the insurer has no cost-certainty on services).
NASE is a scam, always has been. Been indicted in many states for failure to pay claims and leaving folks hanging…I think Texas tried taking them down big-time.
Be careful and harrass those people. I thought I bought insurance from ehealthinsurance and it turned out the company never processed the application. I found out one day before the insurance ran out that I never had any health insurance. Now the company that ehealthinsurance sent me to is making up stories to cover.
It was like buying health insurance out of a dark ally.
Watch out when orderig insurance through eHealthInsurance. I thought I was just getting a firmer quote and applying, and weas told I would receive a contract in the mail etc., but then Blue Cross Horizon, one of their carriers, billed my vredit card for a full month of coverage befor my application was even processed. It has been impossible to get a refund, even after faxing several letters. Don’t give them your credi card number!
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