health coverage for the self employed
 

I get the feeling that there may be a few self made men in here. I need decent coverage for a family of 5. Self proprietor. Non compliant is fine as long as the coverage is decent. The exchanges simply don't add up for my personal situation. I had Freedom Life and while the premium was competitive, I found the benefits were about 50c on the dollar for normal stuff. Where this coverage would really shine is worst-case stuff.
This is not meant as a discussion regarding the AHCA . That horse has taken beating enough. I simply would like some suggestions on companies I may not be aware of or ones that haven't actually called me at dinner time.
Thank you,
John

I am on Kaiser, full coverage, with $100 emergency room visit copay costs me $425 a month. Im sorry I cant chime in about the family plans.

I had a plan with these guys for several years: https://www2.unitedamerican.com/

It was the most basic of basic - it you get hit by a truck you can say you have insurance and you will get admitted. Reviewing their site again it looks like they were forced to drop most of their crap plans that they were selling mostly to rural folks who had little to no money.

When the ACA came out I switched to a Blue Cross Plan that cost me about $450.00 a month - same plan cost about $1400.00 a month before the ACA - but I digress.

With as many people you're covering it's not going to be cheap no matter where you go.

I tried everywhere and everyone to get decent coverage for my family....I'm 50, wife is 45, two kids 15 and 17. Couldn't find anything that offered anything over major calamity coverage for less than 2000 per month. In the end, my wife quit helping at the shop and took a corporate job with a decent plan (4500 per person annual deductable, 12k Max annual out of pocket) that costs 775 per month on our end. Routine care and office visits only 30 co-pay, which is what we typically only ever use. Biggest concern is our boy, 3 sport athlete with the potential to get a costly injury on most every play during football season.

Did a lot of looking on CA's exchange website, only plans that offered any real coverage without extreme deductibles were crazy expensive. Lower price plans had very thin coverage and not many doctors in our area who seemed to be on board.

Blue cross in NC is below that for pops and I with him being a self employed smoker with a heart attack.

family of 4. Blue Cross
$10,000/year family deductible
$700/ a month

mine is up almost 50% since that idiot took office

Ohh I see we are making progress give me a minute I'm coming with the supplies!

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08...445e72b251.jpg

OK, I guess I had better go crawling back to Freedom Life, hat in hand. Thanks guys, I was hoping for better news.

It's been a while since I paid for private care, but I had to with a previous employer. I used United Healthcare, similar to a BCBS, but better rates and coverage in my opinion. I'm sure things have changed, but worth a look.

https://www.uhone.com/Quote/

I've got BCBS, its $750 a month with a $6,000 family deductible. HMO so I have that going for me. smfh

I also had coverage through NASE - this was years ago - the coverage was decent but they jacked my rate by over 100% at the end of the first year and I was forced to drop them - might be worth getting a quote - not sure who the carrier is these days.

http://www.nase.org/request-insurance-quote

I have found the best "bang for your buck" is a high deductible plan (HDP) in combination with a private Health Savings Account (HSA). You get the tax shelter from the HSA just like your premiums, and the high deductible plan will have a much lower premium. I dump money into the HSA heavily until I have the family annual out of pocket (OOP) maximum in the HSA account and then I cut off the savings until I have spend some money out of the HSA. At which point I save until I have reached that family max OOP again.

I also watch my health care utilization, refusing care for items that I can fix on my own (anything from poison ivy to a broken toe to high cholesterol) in order to keep my expenses down. Remember those doctors are not your friend (well unless they truly are your friend), they get paid to do stuff - not to save you money or keep you healthy. One example of this is during the annual visit, when they ask you if anything is bothering you or if you have any problems, say "no" unless it is something bad enough that you were going to go to the doctor for anyway. If you mention any ailment then the provider can bill a "sick visit" in combination with your "preventive maintenance." The preventive maintenance portion of the visit will be covered at 100% by your insurance company (thanks Obamacare) but your sick visit and any tests resulting from that ailment will be 100% towards your deductible (a/k/a your HSA). Insurance should be used as a safety net, not as a free lunch. Follow these steps and you will have no health expenses that you can't cover while saving money.

Obviously, this plan works best for those that are healthy and not on maintenance medications, therapy or some other kind of constant drain on the HSA.

you might want to check out www.ehealthinsurance.com that is a health brokerage site where they can shop several options for you. I have used them in the past with some success. It's a mess right now for health insurance that's for sure!