Health insurance?

I've always been self employed. Single income family, 5 kids, so we were always short on money. Fortunately, everyone has always been pretty healthy. When we had an issue, we paid for it.

No military or other benefits.

Now, my earning potential has decreased (economic downturn), and my wife and I are both in our young 50's. I'm looking ahead, and not sure I feel too comfortable.

Our family histories don't look too good- cancers, heart conditions, diabetes, etc.

I don't know where to start. Every time I have looked into having health insurance, it has been cost prohibitive.

I am also not convinced the new health care laws are going to help me at all. Requiring me to pay for sometimes I can't afford doesn't sound like help, but I am perfectly willing to be proven wrong if someone knows more about this than me. (Let's not get political)

I've had a few friends die recently, and others get very sick. It's on my mind.

Any suggestions of how to begin addressing the concerns?

I assume your wife is self-employed or stays at home, so there is no chance getting insurance via her?

I'm not sure if that's the case where you are, but in some places people band together via some sort of small business association or group so they are eligible for group rates from health insurers. That might be worth looking into.

About the only thing I can think of is one person going to work "for the man", in other words, go work for a corporation that can provide a nice benefits package.

That's how it works in our house. I work for the man, so the wife can be self-employed.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

Single income. Wife homeschools

In reply to z31maniac:

If we had it to do again, we certainly would.

We live in a poor area in a right to work state. There are pretty much zero corporate jobs with benefits available.

Datsun1500 wrote: High deductible plan? That way you are paying for regular stuff, but if something major happens you are covered. I guess the main question is what's affordable to you? $200 a month, $400? Etc

I agree. You might need to look into a high deductible plan.

In reply to Datsun1500:

I'd jump at $200. I'd stretch to $400.

Every time I've looked into it, it was more like $1000- $1500. Can't do it.

TBH $1000-1500 sounds about right. We have no kids, are a little younger than you are and generally healthy, but our part of the monthly premiums of the employer-sponsored high deductible health plan we had last year was $200 alone, so that would have translated into an $800-$1k premium on the open market.

High-deductible plans can also be an bit of an issue if you don't have the cash floating around to cover the deductible. I don't think we got any money from the insurance during the couple of years we were on that plan as we didn't manage to get up to the deductible.

Didn't stop the insurance co to stick their nose into prescription meds approval and fun stuff like that, even though they didn't cough up any money.

I do not have this plan but have heard about it fo 15+ years. It might not be your thing.......it is more of a cost sharing plan.

http://samaritanministries.org/costs/monthly/

BoxheadTim wrote: TBH $1000-1500 sounds about right. We have no kids, are a little younger than you are and generally healthy, but our part of the monthly premiums of the employer-sponsored high deductible health plan we had last year was $200 alone, so that would have translated into an $800-$1k premium on the open market. High-deductible plans can also be an bit of an issue if you don't have the cash floating around to cover the deductible. I don't think we got any money from the insurance during the couple of years we were on that plan as we didn't manage to get up to the deductible. Didn't stop the insurance co to stick their nose into prescription meds approval and fun stuff like that, even though they didn't cough up any money.

Well... you did get money from insurance, in the form of the negotiated rates for services.

As far as insurance sticking their noses into RX stuff... bear in mind that your employer writes the policies and/or chooses what they want the insurance company to do.

This is of course, ASSuming that your employer is part of the 90%+ that uses a group ASO policy.

Paul, if you guys are largely healthy, a high deductible/catostrophic plan is the way to go.

The new health plan laws probably won't help you much, other than there will be no waiting period for Pre-Ex come January 1st.

I guess I don't understand why you are worried. The new health care law has the word Affordable in it's title so the cost should come down.........

Please continue on with the thread.

I have a friend here in IL who is also self-employed without any insurance. He had a stroke a couple years ago, and discovered there is an organization for people in similar situations. I believe acceptance was based on income vs. size of household. I know there's also a program here in IL to provide healthcare for children who do not have any coverage through their parents, but I don't know the details of it. Does Georgia offer anything similar?

You might look into what is available through the NASE. National Association of the Self Employed. http://www.nase.org/ Our policy is a really high deductible policy, but I think we are still paying in the $500+ range for 5 people. As far as the Health Care Act helping, that's not looking very promising. Our policy actually went up as of January 1st, and now covers less stuff. We did some shopping around then and that appears to be an across the board problem.

You also might look around your county and state. I know when we were really doing poorly there was a program, sponsored by local businesses and corporations, that would help with insurance. It was based on income. That was a lot of years ago so I don't remember the specifics.

I fear it'll be expensive no matter what. While my high deductible plan is reasonably affordable for me through work (~150/mo), the family version is considerably more: about $500/mo. And the HD plans are about 1/2 the "regular" plans. My understanding is we pay about 25% of the actual plan costs - the company covers the rest. Because I have the HD plan, I also have a Health Savings Account, into which I max out my contribution: $122/pay to get me close to the $3200/yr max (unlike a FSA, a HSA is NOT use-or-lose and rolls over each year). Fortunately, because I've been on this plan for a few years now, I've built up the HSA balance to more than cover the deductible. Right now, I'm hoping to keep saving in order to cover some needed dental work.

A year or two ago, Margie posted about the health care costs for the GRM staff. Pretty sobering numbers, IIRC.

In reply to Toyman01:

I've been a me bed of the NASE in the past. Maybe I need to look at it again.

What role does Medicare play in the considerations?

Have you checked out these guys? Kaiser Permanente My brother used them for a while before he got a job and it did not seem too bad.

Ever see this calculator?

http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/

I hope the wife and I get to keep our insurance for awhile...geesh Oh, and if you use tobacco, you better plan to quite now.

As far as open market insurance plans go - high deductible/catastrophic plans are the cheapest premiums. The reality is that you won't know what plan is the cheapest to your wallet is until the year is over...If you're income has a taken a big hit this year and you have a family of 5, you may qualify for any number of state/county programs (find the social worker in your local hospital, they should know where to start digging around).

In reply to Fletch1:

excellent use of link from Henry J Kaiser Foundation!