absurd amount of $$ for health insurance.

[Anonymous]

I am a single parent who makes about 50,000 a year. I am spending $1200 a month on health insurance for me and my kid. That's $14,000 a year, or 30% of my salary. I have applied for less expensive coverage on ehealthinsurance.com- and I am awaiting a reply, however I am not hopeful due to pre-existing conditions. What are other families paying? Does any single parent with a kid they have to get health insurance for have any suggestions? Do you save money by getting your kid individual insurance, or do you suck it up and pay the "family" rate, which is the same ginormous amount if you have 1 kid (me) or 5? Any suggestions for cutting health care costs would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Check out the individual plans for your child. My insurance is partially paid for at work, but they don't cover dependents at all. I got a CareFirst plan for $79 a month through ehealthinsurance.com for my then 11-year-old. It goes up about $25 a month each year. So I'm at $126 a month now, but still much better than the $350 more I was paying on work plan. I have a pre-existing condition but my child does not.

Do you qualify for any state medical help or will insurance reform help reduce your bills at all?

[Anonymous]

You may qualify for the SCHIP program in your state. One of the first bills Obama signed when he took office was to increase the income levels so that working middle income families like yours could get free or extremely reduced health insurance for their children. In DC it is called DC healthy families and actually has two qualifing incomes one that will just insure the child and one that will insure the parents too. I doubt that 50k would qualify for parental coverage but I'm pretty sure that your child would. Not sure about MD and VA, but it is a federally mandated program run by each state. Google SCHIP and your state. Good luck, I have been there, done that and it sucks!

[Anonymous]

I also have a CareFirst plan for $200/mo., for 2 kids and myself. $1200 sounds awfully high.

[Anonymous]

Try Kaiser Permanente directly. We pay 860/mo for family HMO coverage including dental and Rx. Individual +child has to be lower, and well-child visits have no copay.

[Anonymous]

that's how much we pay for my family of 4 in DC....I think you can get a better deal. We used an insurance agent, Alex Johnson, in Alexandria.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the advice. Anyone else have experience with Ehealthinsurance.com? Anyone get approval with pre-existing conditions? How did you do it? How long does the process take? Any other reccs for insurance agents in Mont Co?

[Anonymous]

Can you get work with the federal government? It's about $100 per month, with no disqualification for preexisting conditions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also have a CareFirst plan for $200/mo., for 2 kids and myself. $1200 sounds awfully high.

Is this through your work or do you pay yourself? We pay $753 a month for a family package and the coverage is shitty. There is a $4,000 deductible we need to meet and so far nothing has been covered.