Question on health insurance for those of you who are self-employed

[Anonymous]

Just wondering what others are doing....my husband and I are both self employed at the moment, and I feel like we are getting robbed on our health insurance. We went through an independent broker and chose a PPO with Carefirst. Our deductible is pretty high, and two months ago they just raised our monthly rate by $100 without notice. I cannot figure out why, we have not had any recent changes in health status except for a new pregnancy, but I have already been paying extra for maternity coverage. I am very frustrated and just wondering if there are better options out there. TIA!

[Anonymous]

In our healthcare system individual health insurance (this is insurance not paid for through an employer) will cost as much, if not MORE than a normal COBRA insurance payment. If you are unfamiliar with COBRA, this is when an employee terminates employment -either through being fired, through death (in which the beneficiaries can still qualify for coverage), through legal separation (through which a spouse can still retain coverage) or when a child becomes ineligible (with age, or if under 24 but over 21, only going to school PT). In any case, on COBRA you pay 102% of the premium. This is to say, that if when you were normally paying $370 a month for family coverage and your employer was paying $800 dollars, you would then pay $1070 dollars, plus a 2% administration fee that lines the pocket of the COBRA admins...

So, you are paying $1091.4 (if you are lucky to get a premium that low for family coverage!!) and you are eligible for a maximum of 18 months.

Hope this helps. And NO, there is nothing more economical or practical. Thus reinforcing the fact that insurance companies are in it for the money and out to get you.

[Anonymous]

Carefirst sucks-had them along time ago-really bad with claims, customer service, etc. Also had Kaiser which kinda sucks, but not as bad as Carefirst. I've had Optimum Choice/United Healthcre (Mamsi) for a few years now-we pay around $700 something for a family of 4-excellent coverage, no hassles, no arguments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering what others are doing....my husband and I are both self employed at the moment, and I feel like we are getting robbed on our health insurance. We went through an independent broker and chose a PPO with Carefirst. Our deductible is pretty high, and two months ago they just raised our monthly rate by $100 without notice. I cannot figure out why, we have not had any recent changes in health status except for a new pregnancy, but I have already been paying extra for maternity coverage. I am very frustrated and just wondering if there are better options out there. TIA!

We've had Carefirst for about four years and it now costs $800 for a family of four. That includes the extra maternity rider, which is a little over $100 a month. It's tax-deductible, so we consider it an expensive cost of doing business. (We love being self-employed, so it's a trade-off.) Our premiums have risen each year - have you had your insurance for a full year yet???

I did call the first year and asked about the increase and was told that it was an "across-the-board" annual increase.

I'm really sorry you're dealing with this during your pregnancy and I'm curious to see other responses. Frankly, we found it very difficult to even find health insurance b/c I've had several skin cancers removed - the pre-existing condition thing, which is why we chose Carefirst. So thank you for bringing this up, and I hope that someone out there will have better answers than me!

Oh, PS: do you have a $5000 pregnancy maximum? I do, and I hate to say this, but it's making me re-think having my third child.