If you have a significant other w/insurance i know you can latch on to there's... but if you are both self employed or contract workers, wtf do you do about health insurance?

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1995 E320 smoke silver / parchment

you like, go buy some. Blue Cross is a good place to start.

Write a big, fat check each month

Sounded like a stupid question looking hinesight now... but I guess its like if my car insurance is almost $1k a year, I can imagine health insurance ... but can someone give me a ball park ? low - mid 4 figures, high 4 figures....

I am going to go to blue cross online and see what's up.

thanks

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1995 E320 smoke silver / parchment

So many variables. My insurance is through United Healthcare and I pay about $450 per month. I'm 38, healthy and have no pre-existing conditions.

BTW, when I get married next year, I'll go on my spouses plan (she has the EXACT same coverage with the same company). My rate will go down to just $80 per month!

Of course it depends on the size of your business. Figure about $500 a month a head on employees for the most basic policy, if they have a history of good health and have been previously insured, at least in Texas thats about right.

In our late 40s I pay a little over 300 per month with less than a perfect health history, my SO pays about 280. We use Regence Blue Cross, and have a so-called prefered provider plan, which means we’re treated slightly better than chickens at a KFC plant unlike folks at HMOs

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Thanks $400-$500 / mth per head....... I am 56, smoke, have one lung left...asthma, diabetic... so mines might be a little more..

kidding.... I am clean and no smoking, so that figure should be in the ballpark... thanks

Being in Florida, you're in luck. The state quietly implemented something modelled on the Clinton health plan a few years ago that gives you low cost access to group health insurance. In simple terms, it treats the entire state as a "group."

There are two different paths you can choose. One is coverage under the state "group", but you have to qualify medically, and pre-existing conditions are not covered. This option is the least expensive and the one I chose 6 years ago. Last year when I dropped it at age 38 and in good health, my single coverage was about $100 per month for a 90/10 PPO with $500 deductible.

The second option you have is for your business to be its own group. You don't have to qualify, and pre-existing conditions can be covered, but the premiums will be about 50% more. The real danger in this is that if you get really sick, your premiums will get jacked up the next year because you are the only person in your group.

There are also options for HMOs, but I didn't pursue those having been treated poorly by an HMO in the past. As stated above, contact Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Florida. You might be suprised how inexpensive it is.

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
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Thanks Rick... I will look at that option as well when I address this insurance issue. Not as bad as I imagined.. I sure as hell can find better things I can enjoy with $4-5 hundre / month.... that's for sure..

Get cancer, then *****

Well, there is my famous "Get a great tan - come to Three Mile Island!" poster.

I pay about $250/mo and the taxpayer pays the same for the other half. Excellent Blue Cross family PPO policy.

You also might want to looking into picking up routine costs out of you own pocket and getting a health insurance policy with a very large deductable. I've done this for the last 3 years and, so far, I'm way ahead $$$$ of where I would have been if I had gotten a standard policy.

Of course you have to be in a position where you can risk having to pay a several thousand dollar deductable if something major happens.

It's really funny trying to pay cash form medical services - most of the providers are quite taken aback when someone actually offers to pay cash for a minor routine medical procedure.

Our current healthcare system is badly broken....

I had never thought about it, having worked for someone always... but now entertaining some "changes" next year and I will be faced with this ... good to know.... gross x per month and shave $400-$500 off the top for insurance... lol...