Personal Health Insurance, not through employer

[Anonymous]

Hello all,
I am seeking recommendations for health and dental insurance, from those who do not get this coverage through their employer. Any self employed folks who love their insurance provider? I would love to hear who you get your coverage from.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I had an individual policy with Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield for many years. The medical coverage at the time was reasonably priced, if you opt to higher deductible plan, the premium goes down significantly. Be careful though about high deductible plans because there was something about either not being able to or very difficult to switch to a lower deductible plan at a later time so I limited the deductible for $1,000. The medical coverage was great but the prescription coverage was very limited. fortunately, I did not have a medical condition that required expensive medications and when I needed a prescription, I would ask for a generic medication if available. There's a wide range of prices for generic drugs. for example, one generic medication for hypertension could be $4/month while another generic is $75/month. My primary care doctor rarely prescribes/gives out samples of expensive brand names. He usually uses generic drugs so that wasn't an issue.
.
When I shopped around for an individual policy, Carefirst and Kaiser seemed like the only two companies that offered individual policies in the D.C. area. I decided to go with CareFirst since most of the health care providers and specialists are in network for Carefirst and did not want to limit my options by going with Kaiser.

[Anonymous]

Thank you PP, that is helpful.

[Anonymous]

We are very happy with CareFirst BCBS. We have a family plan with maternity rider for about $400 a month. Deductible is around 5K, but all pediatrician well visits, annual physical etc are fully covered except for small co-pay. We actually chose BCBS over an employer sponsored plan with Cigna, which was about 3x the cost, with a much more limitednetwork of doctors.

[Anonymous]

Ditto the PPs. If you don't need Rx coverage, I would recommend the BCBS policy.