Self-Employment Part II: Insurance

[The_Veg]

I'm still in biz but it's slow...and the one thing my team really needs to sell to be sustainable is pretty much totally owned by the competition, who have every hospital under multi-year contracts for...
But that's another story. I've got a burning question for those of you who've been self-employed longer than I have. Who do you recommend for health insurance? The homework I've done so far seems pretty discouraging.

[PacWestGS]

Join the Army, do twenty years and retire. Great health plan I have to admit. :dunno

:ha













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[The_Veg]

I dunno. I've been in the army. I had a foot-pain problem once and the doc thought I was BS-ing for a long time then he finally got off his mental keister and actually diagnosed it (turns out I needed different running shoes). Same doc always told this one girl she was pregnant, not matter what complaint she came in for. Then we she actually did get pregnant he misdiagnosed that.
When I was in twenty years ago, Army docs were guys who couldn't pass civilian licensing exams.
I'm past recruitable age now, and four years was quite enough for me anyway. No offense...

[DarrylRi]

Who do you recommend for health insurance? The homework I've done so far seems pretty discouraging.Well, I don't have a recommendation, but you're right, it's pretty discouraging. My wife and I have a Blue Cross PPO with a $2500 deductible. We've been fortunate indeed not to have broken through that limit. But the costs go up *every* quarter. We just got a letter that said to expect another jump in prices, and that if we raised the deductible further it might almost bring the cost back to what we paid last quarter.

I looked into the plan offered by the National Association for the Self Employed (www.nase.com), but it turned out that on most points the Blue Cross plan was better. Better, but not good. On a lot points in the BC plan, they cover 50% of "customary", which will certainly turn out NOT to be customary where I live; I'm guessing I will be out of pocket in the 70% kind of range. Even if I should be able to go to/buy from an in-network provider, many things will still have a 30% cost to me. For this fig-leaf of coverage, we're paying thousands every year.

And of course, because insurance is different in every state (like bike insurance), my experience in California may (will likely!) have nothing at all to do with yours in Texas.

[basketcase]

My wife is a CPA and handles this for the company where she works, so I put the question to her.

Her comments --It is very time consuming and all of them are expensive.

Do a google search for "self-employed medical insurance plans" and go from there.I asked her about groups and she commented that if you can buy as part of a group, or otherwise join a group you can gain the benefit of the volume of people involved. (I'll come back to this idea below).

Having listened to numerous entrepreneurs and HR types for ... a long while -- like, most of my career, I can tell you the issue never goes away as a thorn in the side of the self-employed businessman, and remains a yearly contract issue for most any enterprise.

Next, our family medical insurance is now through the company where my wife works. But for a number of years we were both self-employed and had to find our own coverage. And for that period of time we had what was considered "catastrophic insurance" as opposed to major medical. That meant that we paid everything up to a certain point ($10K) before the insurance kicked in. What I am saying is that there are cheaper ways to fly, but you are gambling staying healthy against paying premiums for which you may never file a claim. For example, maternity issues. All delivery and hospital costs related to healthy baby were about $7,000 in 1990 in Meridian, MS. So in addition to the $12 to $15K or so that I put into premiums over that period, I also paid for the baby out of pocket. ... And now you know why I have only two kids!

Naturally, laws and insurance companies vary some from state to state, and there are companies operating in some states that do not operate in other states. So a specific answer about insurance in Alabama might not be on target for what you are dealing with in Texas.

Coming back to the groups idea, are you part of any networking groups -- say, BNI or some other such group? If so, you might find a plan available through them. These type groups sometimes take several months to "join," but once in, you have a lot of benefits. Also, if you have riding cronies from the area who are business types you might already know someone who has answered the same question in your local setting.

Finally, there are some others on this board who have been down the same path, and who might provide a specific in a 1-2-3 answer. But again, unless they are in Texas, their answers or suggestions may have to be filtered through Texas law. So as the restauranteur said to us Jarheads on Okinawa, "rots of ruck, GI!"

Rick (It always made me uneasy when he said that before the meal...) in AL ;)

[DarkCloud]

Have your spouse get a job with good benefits. It is a very common solution to the high cost of health insurance. JON

[boomyr]

When I was in business for myself I got hooked up with National Association for Self Employed.

Some of the other qoutes I had were nearly $1000 a month, and all were over $600. for me at age 41 and my two teenagers.
They have a group plan for members and the rate was $273/mo.with a $100 deductable.

I was prepared to purchase a policy with a very high deductable to save on the premium that would just cover major medical bills until I was offered this deal.

I had some minor claims that were handled with no disapointments.

Heres the link: http://benefits.nase.org/Benefits.asp

If this doesn't get you the info you need, PM me or post, and I'll dig out my old paperwork and try and get you a number for the agent I bought it from.

Good Luck!

[boomyr]

Have your spouse get a job with good benefits. It is a very common solution to the high cost of health insurance. JON

Health insurance is cheaper than spouses. :)

[basketcase]

Boomyr commented--When I was in business for myself I got hooked up with National Association for Self Employed.

Some of the other qoutes I had were nearly $1000 a month, and all were over $600. for me at age 41 and my two teenagers.

They have a group plan for members and the rate was $273/mo.with a $100 deductable.Veg, you may have just found your ticket. That is as good a package as I've ever heard of.

I think what this equates to is networking ... American style! :buds

Hey, is this forum a great place, or what? :type

[PacWestGS]

No offense...


None taken. I was (semi) joking anyways :)


Are talkng about only you, are we taliking a family or are we talking about co-workers.

[Montana]

If you're not truly self-employed but an employee of an S-corp (isn't that what you were forming?) you should be able to benefit from group plan provisions, even if your premium payments can't be expensed (I think the restriction is if you are >2% shareholder, or maybe it's >10%?). Besides, if they can't be expensed for the purposes of the business, then you write them off at the 1040 level, so either way you get some tax benefit.

This is a broad question, pretty broad for the forum members to help specifically, we can only help in general. Each State has different insurance regulations, requirements and provisions.

[The_Veg]

It's just me- no wife or kids or even a dog.

NASE looks bad from some reading I've done- investigations, suits, etc. over things like gaps in coverage, sales abuses, steep rate increases, false applications, forged customer signatures, etc. But even in the face of that they may still be one of the better deals out there.

[dataman]

You might try your local, regional or state chamber of commerce.

[kbasa]

Some industry associations have group insurance as part of their membership. When I was in printing, we were part of a consortium of northern California printers that bought group insurance.

[DarrylRi]

It's just me- no wife or kids or even a dog.

NASE looks bad from some reading I've done- investigations, suits, etc. over things like gaps in coverage, sales abuses, steep rate increases, false applications, forged customer signatures, etc. But even in the face of that they may still be one of the better deals out there.Yes, I saw some of that in my research as well, and the big question seemed to be whether they were a "captured" entity of the insurance company whose wares they were promoting. Still, I had one of their reps come over and lay it out. (I found their web site to be unhelpful, no real details. But this is probably because they have to offer different products in different states.)

The plan had some pluses over Blue Cross, I seem to recall that the emergency care sounded better in some ways, for example, if one assumed one might not be at a Blue Cross hospital emergency room.

But I fear that regardless of what plan you end up with, steep rate increases will be a part of it. :-(

[SheRidesABeemer]

The most shocking (simple) solution to health insurance is to call your local BC & BS. I moved from an obscene COBRA payment of $750+ to a more manageable $340. This is for individual plus one, with a 2,000 deductable. There were many other options.

I love doing business online more than most people, but I can NOT imagine using an online unrecognizable insurance company. Be careful online, I see that many esurance companies put up a front that looks like a BC/BS carrier, even the web address looks proper.

Gail