small business owners health insurance

[MustangPoser]

I pay 125 a month for blue cross.. office visits are 25, specialists are 35, but my deductible blows at 5k

Your self insured for $125 a month?

[mustangguy289]

In May, my oldest needed an echocardiogram. The day before, the hospital called to get my insurance information. I told her that we were cash pay, and I wanted to negotiate the bill up front. Her response was, "The insurance rate is $2800 plus the report fee of $500. Because you're paying cash, if you pay tomorrow in full, the total price is $200."

Let's break that down. I would pay about $800/mo for a family plan with a $2500 deductible with a 20% copay. So 800+2500= $3300

That still leaves me paying 20% on $800, which is $160. For the bargain price if $3460, I could have paid for his echo with insurance.

No thanks, I'll gladly negotiate my cash prices.

That is alll good until a family member get's cancer or something serious and longterm. (Hope that never happens to you or anyone you know).

We have a close family friend who just survived breast cancer. She asked the doctor " what do people without insurance do when they get cancer?". He looked at her, put his head down, and said "they die". They have to go to hospitals like parkland that don't have all of the newest, state of the art, expensive treatments.

Now I am sure that is not true all of the time but you get the point.

I have always said... if you are married/ have a family... atleast one member needs to work for a company that provides good healthcare.

[mustangguy289]

Your self insured for $125 a month?

Back when I was in college I had Blue Cross for my wife. It was like $325 every 1/4. Howeve, it was a $10,000 deductible and did not even help with doctors visit until that was reached. We did not even tell the doctor's we had because it was cheaper to pay cash for normal visits. It was a "just in case" emergency type plan. It did help when she had a few months of non-stop kidney stones that were too large to pass and had to be surgically removed/blasted.

[Treasure Chest]

That is alll good until a family member get's cancer or something serious and longterm. (Hope that never happens to you or anyone you know).

We have a close family friend who just survived breast cancer. She asked the doctor " what do people without insurance do when they get cancer?". He looked at her, put his head down, and said "they die". They have to go to hospitals like parkland that don't have all of the newest, state of the art, expensive treatments.

Now I am sure that is not true all of the time but you get the point.

I have always said... if you are married/ have a family... atleast one member needs to work for a company that provides good healthcare.

Logical stance, but not always practical.

[mustangguy289]

Logical stance, but not always practical.

I agree but it only matters in the times that it becomes practical. I can come up with reasons not to pay for it and reasons to pay for it. We has humans can convince ourselves to believe anything that is most practical at the time for us. For me though, I sleep better at night knowing my wife is covered if something were to happen to her. If I had kids it would be even more important for me.

If one of us were to come down with cancer or something serious and longterm... (cost well over 100k's or millions to fix)...I would hate knowing that person didn't make it because I wanted to save a few dollars. Just not worth it to me.

She is self-employed. Insurance is one of the reasons I will always work for the man and more than likely never venture off into my own business.

[Treasure Chest]

I agree. I can come up with reasons not to pay for it and reasons to pay for it. We has humans can convince ourselves to believe anything that is most practical at the time for us. For me though, I sleep better at night knowing my wife is covered if something were to happen to her. If I had kids it would be even more important for me.

If one of us were to come down with cancer or something serious and longterm... (cost well over 100k's or millions to fix)...I would hate knowing that person didn't make it because I wanted to save a few dollars. Just not worth it to me.

Robert works for the family business and I work for a small company in a niche sector. The kids are now all covered through dad's insurance. I'm comfortable with squirreling money into savings, for the time being. There's no way in hell I'm going to give up my job, just because my employer doesn't offer health plans.

[Stephen]

Your self insured for $125 a month?

yea

[sosoe]

I'm likely going to open a shop in the new year - this very topic is one of my major pitfalls.

Get married and be placed on her insurance (if she has any)

[dblack1]

I'm with BCBS in arkansas. I'm currently paying $73 for a $1500 deductible. My wife is paying $137 for the same. She is 26, I'm 31.

Once it goes up to more than $500 or so I'm going to go to a major medical coverage only with a $10k deductible. I've used my health insurance once in last 10 years and still got hosed. Er visit for serious food poisoning and I still paid 95% of the bill, which would have been cheaper without insurance. I can talk the hospital down as my wife and I have in the past. Pr-negotiation works, but I've had good luck not paying until after. Telling them I've come into a little money and I'm debating on paying my bill or a night at the casino/hookers/blow usually works.

[Buick355]

Your self insured for $125 a month?

I've got a similar plan for my daughter and I through Humana for about $225/mo. You just have to deal with the high deductible if anything serious comes up ($5k). Otherwise it's pretty much just like any employer sponsored plan.

[MustangPoser]

I'm 25 so I have been winging it, last time I was shopping for insurance it seemed like it was around $400-500 a month (being a smoker hurts, I'm sure). I'll have to look back into it, $125 a month is doable. $500? I'll risk it.

Thanks for the heads up on the tickets.

[turbostang]

Get married and be placed on her insurance (if she has any)

We will be soon, but her insurance isn't that good as far as I'm aware. I'll be investigating that before I pay up for out of pocket insurance.

[GrayStangGT]

I'm 25 so I have been winging it, last time I was shopping for insurance it seemed like it was around $400-500 a month (being a smoker hurts, I'm sure). I'll have to look back into it, $125 a month is doable. $500? I'll risk it.

Thanks for the heads up on the tickets.

I'm 27 and not a smoker, but have had some surgeries that could end up with more in the future and mine is a little over $200 for BCBS with either a 2500 or 1500 deductible, really don't remember. I plan on building up my savings/HSA and moving to a 10k deductible in the future.