Looking for afforable private health insurance

[A home for their hearts]

Our premiums, and deductables have gone through the roof, about 25% of our income now goes to health insurance. It is just getting ridiculous, and this is insurance through my dh employer. I don't know if we will be able to find anything cheaper privately but it's worth looking into.

[BakersDozen]

I'll be watching this thread as we have looked for cheaper alternatives and have found none. I think 35-40% or so of dh's income now goes to health insurance...ouch.

[Halcyon]

We are in Fl and pay for insurance independently as DH is self employed. We use Blue Cross Blue Shield. It ain't cheap, but it's about half what we were paying in New York. There are varying rates of coverage, depending on what deductible you want. We went "middle of the road" (not the cheapy, only for emergency coverage and not the over the top pay for everything under the sun coverage). We pay about 1200 a month for a family of 4--I need to double check this as DH pays this months, but I know there was a 1000 option as well.

[Kipling]

We also use Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Dh gets coverage through work, but it is too expensive for the family. The kids and I had a traditional plan with BCBS that was pretty good, and about 10-12% of Dh take home pay. We just recently changed ours to an HSA plan (still through BCBS), which means lower monthly premiums, and some really great coverage (like 100% on well-child visits). However, it is riskier because it has a $10,000 deductible. We're paying under $300/month for one adult and three kids.

[Dobela]

It all depends on what preexisting conditions you have and all that. My dh sells health insurance and the prices are just outrageous. My parents are not old enough for medicaid yet and are paying out of pocket $36,000 a year for a policy with a $25,000 deductable.

 

You need to call several agents locally. Sometimes they can write different policies from the same company because they may have different contracts. Also, agents may be able to write with different independent companies as well. Get quotes in writing so you can compare things like deductible, what is out of pocket and not, prescription coverage, and so on. If any of your family is on any medications, call the pharmacy first and find out how much it will cost if not covered by insurance. That may determine if you want pharmacy coverage or not.

[Cricket]

If you are Christians, you could check into MediShare or Samaritan Ministries. Seems like they advertise that the cost is never more than $400 per month no matter how big your family is.

[jentancalann]

We pay $477.65/mo for Medishare for a family of 7. I agree, if you are Christians you should definitely look into it.

[FairProspects]

If you are Christians, you could check into MediShare or Samaritan Ministries. Seems like they advertise that the cost is never more than $400 per month no matter how big your family is.

 

You can only do this though if everyone in your family is completely healthy and no one has any pre-existing conditions. Any ding on the health record of even one of you will disqualify the entire family.

 

I hate health insurance. It is such a racket!

[creekland]

We pay roughly $325/month for our family of 5 through Samaritan's Ministries. It's NOT insurance - it's a non-profit health share plan (like a co-op sort of), but it is allowed to continue under the new Health Care bill as it's very effective for its members. I know we have no plans on changing. I much prefer this over traditional health insurance and it's much less expensive even if regular appointments (check ups, etc) are out of pocket now.

 

You must be church going Christians to join and it doesn't cover most pre-existing conditions. Otherwise, our deductible is $400 (I believe they raised it from $300 not too far back) and coverage goes to $250,000. If you choose higher coverage (we do), then you're covered for amounts higher than 250K. There's also an annual membership fee that runs just under $200. That's to pay for office expenses as all of your monthly payments will go directly to someone with health care bills. It's non-profit, so there's no stockholders or owners who get a cut.

[mommyoftwinboys]

We just recently went through this because my husband's company changed plans and it got to be outrageous.

We joined Samaratins Ministries and pay $320 a month. And although we feel comfortable with it-my husband just wanted to *MAKE SURE* we were covered so we got a high deductible plan that doesn't start covering until you hit $10K. So, if something happened and Samaratin's for some reason(which I don't believe would happen) didn't follow through with paying we would be covered over 10K. So with both we pay $479 a month. So, really we are paying Samaratin's to cover from $300.00-$10K and then over that we have Humana for $10k and above.