Health Insurance

[Duane Polcou]

Although this has been discussed previously and is not exclusively LF business, there are some knowledgeable people here who can add something so here goes. I am in need of purchasing individual health insurance, and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions, leads, preferred companies, organizations that can provide discounts, etc. I live in NJ (gulp!!) Thank you.

[Richard M. Coda]

Oh, God... Jersey! I used to live there until 2005. Moved to AZ and overnight my healthcare costs were reduced by half. And I was self-employed. I seem to remember that the laws in NJ were not kind to small, especially REALLY small business owners like me (employees one). And I also recall, although this may have changed since, that you could not get insurance through a Chamber of Commerce or similar. Out here in AZ that's exactly what I did. You'll have to check the laws. Until the government gets healthcare right (implying that it was not done right this time) I don't know what to tell you. Good luck.

[SW Rick]

Do you belong to any professional associations which might offer it to their members?

[ASRafferty]

Duane, a couple of thoughts that may help, I hope (the product of 25 years in human resources management -- doing it and teaching it!).

If you ever had insurance, you want to put your hands on the paper you got from the insurance company when it ended, which "testifies" to your having been insured at some point. Not knowing the circumstances (and not needing to!), one of the first bars you'll need to jump for your next insurer is providing some history, and having been insured before gets you past that bar (i.e., things get easier if any company ever considered you insurable!).

More importantly, you do NOT want to apply for any coverage that you're not certain you'll get; this is NOT one of those times when putting in as many applications as you can is a strategy likely to work. All the insurance companies share a database of applications that are denied for any reason (not necessarily health-related!), and you have little chance of ever getting written if you've ever been turned down anywhere. Your better bet is to hook up with an agent you trust (like, talk to a few), who can "scout" for a situation where your application will be accepted, and who will not let you put an application in print anywhere where it might be rejected, so you don't risk getting put into the Poison Pile. (Any agent who tells you different isn't the agent you want.)

You may already have this bookmarked, but just in case:

http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/ihcseh/ihcrates.htm

I'm going on COBRA for a year and a half when I retire in July, and when that ends, I'll still be nearly four years too young for Medicare at that point, so I too am watching for what happens with the federal options. I'll certainly be looking at what AARP has to say at that point...don't know how old you are, but 50+ gets you into their part of the sandbox, and it's one of the few "associations" I'd even consider as an avenue for health insurance. (YMMV)

Good luck.

[Leonard Evens]

When the new law takes effect in 2014, you should be able to buy insurance at reasonable cost through one of the insurance exchanges set up by the law. If your income is low enough it will be subsidized.

Until then, unless you can somehow attach yourself to a group and obtain group rates, you have to use the individual market. Such insurance will be expensive and limit coverage. In addition, if you have anything smacking of a pre-existing condition, you won't be able to get insurance at anything like an affordable rate. However, the new law does set up immediately state exchanges for people with pre-existing conditions so they can obtain insurance at acceptable rates, also, subsidized for those who meet income restrictions. How long it will take to put that part of the law into effect is anyone's guess, but I expect it won't be very long.

Finally, if you are 26 or younger, the new law specifies that you can be included under your parents' insurance.

[QT Luong]

I have noticed that NANPA (the North America Nature Photography Association) has a plan for members to buy insurance. What about the (more) professional photography organizations ?

[jeroldharter]

When the new law takes effect in 2014, you should be able to buy insurance at reasonable cost through one of the insurance exchanges set up by the law. If your income is low enough it will be subsidized...

Hmmm... By 2014 the whole tower of paper will either be unconstitutional, repealed, or else any "savings" that you have will be offset by higher taxes. Of course, the obvious answer is to not work at all and let someone else pay for you - perhaps even a future generation of taxpayers with no current voting rights.

I would look to major insurers like BCBS, United Healthcare, Cigna. At many places you can check out rates online. I agree with the other person that if you have any red flags or significant health problems then you should use an agent. Otherwise you can apply online. If I were self employed I would get a very high deductible policy attached to a health savings account (HSA).

[Nathan Potter]

Duane, joining a national, professional organization, even if out of your field of endeavor might help a great deal, assuming they offer health insurance plans. But remember that currently the average individual medical cost per year for all 300 million US citizens is $8000 per year, (collectively $2.4 trillion). (Average family of three, $24,000 per year), Ouch! Generally, any individual plan costing less than about $4000 per year will start to have limitations, unless you are in an exclusively healthy group.

It's interesting to note that the 50 million seniors on Medicare cost the Gov. about $450 billion per year - or also about $8000 per person per year, just about the same as the other 250 million US citizens who are presumably much healthier. Haven't quite figured this discrepancy out yet. But it's quite interesting and seems huge.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Leonard Evens]

Let me add that I do have one bit of experience with the private insurance market.

My adult daughter was too old to be covered by my employer health insurance, was living at home and did not yet have a job. I got her heal th insurance through her college alumni association. It was pretty expensive. Also, unlike my group heal th insurance, the coverage terminated when the policy did, even if she was still under treatment for something. Employe r based insurance typically pays all costs incurred for any specific disease condition/incident even if it extends beyond the period of the policy.

We had one occasion to avail ourselves of this insurance when my daughter got a bad case of the flu and got so dehydrated that she had to be hospitalized for several days. This is the sort of thing that can happen to any heal thy young adult. Despite the insurance we still ended up paying the bulk of the hospital costs. And, of course, if she had developed some serious disease, the policy would not have been renewed, and we wouldn't have been able to buy any other insurance. I wasn't sure we wouldn't have been just as well off without the insurance.

Despite the naysayers, who have decided on the basis of little or no evidence that the current law will be a disaster, that law has some real immediate benefits. So, I won't have to worry about health insurance for my grandchildren after they finish school.

[Rakesh Malik]

I have noticed that NANPA (the North America Nature Photography Association) has a plan for members to buy insurance. What about the (more) professional photography organizations ?

I haven't checked them out in detail yet, but both the American Society of Media Photographers and the Professional Photographers of America have insurance policy discounts. I'm going to be checking them out soon, since as a contractor my benefits aren't that good, and as I make more progress into self-employment, my benefits will be increasingly up to me anyway.

[srbphoto]

I have purchased insurance privately on and off for the last 5 years. I am in Washington (state). The company I used was Asuris (connected with Blue Cross/ Blue Shield). For my family (4, w/ 2 kids under 18) it was $600 a month for pretty good coverage. Most recently (I was unemployed and the state covered the kids) I just needed it for me and my wife, we paid $275 a month for the same coverage as I had from work.
If I had used COBRA, my family of 4 insurance would have been around $1200!!! Twice as much as buying myself for the same coverage.

[Duane Polcou]

Thank you all who replied.