How much $$ is your health insurance

Originally posted by zio
Y2Z, gotta burst your bubble- yours ain't free. That's one of the biggest reasons your taxes are so dang high.

Ozy- don't bother with that Blue Cross plan. Go for a Blue Shield plan called the Preferred Savings $2400. No copays for office visits or prescriptions, but a lot less per month. And for major medical stuff, your out of pocket limit is a lot lower.

No company will take you until you get a clean bill of health from your Doc. You can try a short term policy from CPIC if you want. Their Option 12 plans are renewable for up to a year. They won't cover pre-existing conditions, but that means they'll usually accept you as long as you don't have any other major health conditions like cancer or the Clap. But back to the Blue Shield policy vs. the Blue Cross one- here's the scoop: take the monthly premium, multiply it by 12 (better to get a year-long perspective than just one month). Then subtract the difference. On average, how many times do you go to the doctor? Figure a doctor visit on the Blue Shield plan will cost you roughly $55 (you don't have a copay, but you will get a discount if you use a Blue Shield doc). Do the same for prescriptions. And one more thing to consider is if you're self employed, you can use pre-taxed income to pay for medical expenses under the Blue Shield plan. MSA plans allow self-employed people or spouses of self-employeds to open up a special savings acct much like an IRA, except you get to spend the money on medical, dental, vision, etc. expenses. For most folks, the monthly savings in premium is enough to justify going with the cheaper plan. Remember- health insurance is intended to protect you from big financial losses, not pay for every splinter and sniffle.

Stay away from Health Net. They're not a bad company at all (In fact, they're one of my favorites for employer-sponsored plans) and their policies are as good as the next guy's. But their underwriting is the worst of any individual company out there. I have more trouble getting folks approved with them than anyone else.

You can shop around the net for prices. But when it's time to actually apply, I recommend using a good broker. It doesn't cost a penny more, and the good ones will help you through the whole process, and provide personal support for the life of the policy (help with claims & stuff). I haven't heard much good about the online brokers. Send me a pm with your location, and I'll give you the name of a very good agent, and i promise it won't be me).

And for the rest of you, make your agent shop around. Health insurance premiums are going to keep going up. Do a cost analysis like I mentioned above to determine if you really need to be spending so much per month.

For employers who have employees share the expenses- your agent should have you in a Sec. 125 POP plan so that they're paying their portion of premiums with pre-taxed dollars. The main purpose of this is to reduce the employee's taxable income, and to reduce your payroll taxes as well as your Workers' Comp costs (most Workers' Comp rates are based on taxable payroll). POP plans just got a whole lot easier to administer since the IRS removed the annual 5500 filing requirement. Now, you only have to do it once at initial plan implementation.

There. That's my health insurance 101 lecture. It's not often I get to give out helpful advice here on DRN. But I love it whenever I can help with insurance stuff. Come to think of it, if anyone ever has a question or claim issue, PM me & I might be able to help. I won't ever sell insurance to anyone on DRN. I just love helping people with this stuff for no other reason than it's hard to find someone willing to help without an ulterior motive. :|

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