Hello neighbors,
I was hoping to pick your brains about insurance; I’m a self-employed builder-remodeler with a wife and a nine year-old daughter. I carry the usual work-comp., liability ins., house ins., vehicle ins. and health insurance. My health insurance is Blue Cross/Blue Shield which we’ve had for several years through the local Farm Bureau. I got a letter yesterday saying the premium is going to about $897.00 for each three month period. The insurance stinks, as we have to spend a carload of money out-of-pocket before it would kick in, so it’s just money down the drain. I keep it for the big “what if” situation that could happen. Do any of you have any suggestions as to where to check on health insurance that would be cheaper?? I don’t think it could be any worse benefit-wise. I’m just drowning in insurance premiums and taxes, and it gets to me sometimes when I take a minute to think about it. If I were a single man, I’d drop it and invest the money and try to self-insure. As a married man with a child, though, I feel that I need to have something. I know some of you working men like me have or have had the same problem, and was hoping that someone might have some suggestions. Thanks for your time.
Replies
10,
Dont know how your policy is, but our group policy (Blue Cross Blue Shield HMO with $10 copay) cost me $450 each month for a single employee and $820 each MONTH for husband and wife. I personally would love to see a $887 for every three months policy. Even my wifes insurance through the her employer (State Government) costs her about $150 each month !
I would not complain,
Bill
Mr.Bill,
Thanks for the input; your insurance costs are really expensive! Guess mine is not so bad after all.
10man
Are you saying you pay $897 for 3 months? What is your deductible? Does it cover drugs at all?
That is really very cheap. Well under national averages.
In MA, you would pay about that for just 1 month with a 1k annual deductible and no Drugs, but you cannot buy 'catastrophic' policies here (by law). When I was unemployed, this was more than my mortgage and it comes out to about the same as minimum wage (for perspective).
Really important to have that 'stop loss' in place.
What a deal! My wife works in a hospital, and her group policy insurance will cost our 3-person family about $7K next year ... that's if we stay healthy and don't use it.
The High Desert Group LLC
Hello Bruce,
You mentioned another thing that irritates me about insurance companies; use it and you usually get hit with increased premiums on the next billing period. Makes a lot of us just absorb things that we've paid to be insured against. Thanks for your comments.
10man
right now we're covered under the wife's work plan ...
but last year when I suplied our insurance ... I was happily paying $605/ month for the family plan ... then .. as now .. I had the best we could buy.
Maybe spend a few more bucks up front and have a much better plan that won;t nickle and dime ya to death.
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
I have blue +...............
costs me $865............per month! Worth every penny.
Start charging more.
10MAN, you didn't say how much is the deductible?
Hello Rip,
I've got a $2,000 deductable.
10man
"Nationwide, health insurance premiums rose an average of 13.9 percent between 2002 and 2003, according to a survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. The rise in cost marks the third consecutive year of double-digit rate increases, exceeding the rate of inflation by more than 10 percentage points in each of the past two years."
And it is going to continue.
Thats one big reason why I sold my business and went to work for a major corporation. Buts its go up tooo. Was about 45.00 a month for medical & dental, 20.00 copay drugs & doc, no deductable, 2000 max out of pocket. Had hernia & knee surgery this year, I only paid out about 400.00 But total bills were about 25,000.00
I dumped BCBS for Fortis went from 5mil max to 8 mil and a $1000 year less premium Well maybe more as BS likes monthly or bimonthly payments so that they can raise the rates faster.
My agent told me to buy a new policy every year or so . Said that the companies like to sell new and will give a new policy holder a break and stick it to the loyal customer.
Hello Don,
Thanks for the tip on changing companies often. I may check into that.
10man
>Thanks for the tip on changing companies often. I may check into that.
Caution. A new company can decide that you aren't covered in whole or part for any reason they choose. And any time after that that you apply for other ins, you'll have to answer in the affirmative the question that says "Have you ever been denied coverage for any reason?" Our timeline was, old company left state Dec 1, we "had" new policy using same agent with new company so that one would start when other stopped. In mid-January we got partial refund when we found out that DW wouldn't be covered at all. So for all that time we were uncovered without having a clue, and then had to scramble. Prior company had excluded her back, and new company excluded her entirely. Switching to save some bux can cost you if things don't run as smoothly as you expect.
Careful about frequent change of insurers. If you have a "preexisting condition", new insurer will not cover that condition for a specified period, or maybe not at all.I had a thin melanoma skin cancer removed 8 yrs ago, and with that on my record, no insurer would touch me when I tried to buy long term care policy. Even for excluding the cancer risk!!
I think the quality of the agent/broker you use is the biggest thing. We bought a new (old) house a year ago and four brokers were unable to get homeowner's for it for various reasons (roof looked lousy, etc). The fifth broker was able to get a binder in about 3 hours, which prevented the purchase from falling apart. Since then I have been able to buy, without much fuss and at good prices, auto policies, commercial liability and contractor's bond, medical insurance, and a few other small policies and riders through the same broker. She basically just gets it done. Others I have talked to often start hemming and hawing early in the conversation, which is when I usually start wanting to talk to someone else.
We're paying about $500/month for medical on the two of us, in our 40s, deductible is I think $1000 each with a cap per year, not sure if they cover meds, and preexisting stuff is excluded for 9 months. Yeah it's a lot of money but if you are ever sick or injured without it you definitely will have to sell your house or call your mom or both.
I wish I could find a broker that I didn't feel like was trying to milk every dime out of me every time a premium was issued. Sounds like my insurance is not so high after all, going by all I've read on this forum. I'm down here in the Tennessee mountains and we don't have much choice locally for insurance companies, doctors and so on. It's a journey to go to a Home Depot, Lowes or even WalMart. Sure is peaceful here though. Thanks for your input.
zip,
Right on. I guess all us carpenters/builders have something going on with the wide variety of things we're exposed to...all the dust, fumes, temperature extremes...on and on. I don't know how some of us live as long as we do.
Cloud Hidden,
Your exactly right. I hadn't thought it through yet but know it would be risky. About eleven years ago my wife quit work as she was 'in a family way'. Her work insurance continued a while (COBRA) and well before we the reached the limit on that we put an application in for the BC/BS. The approval process took longer than expected and our insurance thru COBRA ran out about six days before the BC/BS was approved. Wouldn't you know it...during that period of a few days that we were between companies, our toddler daughter became very sick with a rare heart disease (Kawasaki Syndrome) and spent Christmas in ICU at Vanderbilt Hos. in Nashville. Everything connected with this condition/illness has since been uncovered as a pre-existing condition. The good news is that, praise GOD, my little girl has been and is doing very well. She's been a tough little girl; born 3 months to the day premature, spent the next three in NICU, and then the Kawasaki disease. She's a bundle of energy now, full of fun. Her older sister was also a premature, but unfortunately we lost her in 1992. I rambling now...thanks for your warning about insurance hopping.
I'm sorry for your loss. It's this exact kind of experience that leads me to favor insurance reforms. People should just not be so easily able to fall through the cracks. Our country should place a greater value on the welfare of its citizens.
I am new to this forum and this thread caught my eye and that is why I am responding. I beleive that if the government get involved in any type of reform it will only make things worth. Look at Medicare and Medicaid, it cost twice as much to be insured by them then by a private insurance company. The more we remove regulation the more the price will go down and every one will be happy.
This has been hashed and rehashed. Positions have been taken and heels dug in. My position is that any system that allows this guy's daughter to be uncovered as it did, stinks and needs to be improved. I'm not especially sympathetic to claims that this is the best we can do or that he should just grin and bear it or the numerous things that have been asserted over the past few months.
Welcome to the forum.
My thoughts exactly.
Thanks for your kind words. I'm looking into insurance with a company called Fortis that was mentioned on this forum. I just got an email from a living human representing Fortis in response to some inquiries I sent them a few days ago. I plan to call them soon and see what they have to offer. Insurance and taxes are so draining I don't like to focus on it too long. Thanks again, and have a good week.
One suggestions is to check with any organizations you may join that have insurance programs.
Some builders associations or any other you have an interest in may have such programs.
Self-insuring is the costliest way to go about it.
Our insurance is thru a cattlemen's organization we belong to that uses Blue Cross and premiums are half of what the same insurance would costs individually.
Prices for premiums have gone up very rapidly for us too, where now one person costs $413.- a month, doubled in the last three years. That policy covers everything well, including dentists, glasses and medications, with a small co-pay. High, but reasonable for what others are paying. A part of what we pay is deductible for us.
Check with any remodeler/builder associations near you, they may have such programs in place or know who does.
Hello Ruby,
Thanks for the good advice.
10man
You might want to look at getting health insurance with an associated Medical Savings Account. With the last change in the law they are now called an Archer Plan or Archer Medicial Savings account.
This tie a high deductible deductible insurance policy. But you can set a side TAX DEDUCTIBLE money in an IRA like account. You can use the money out of that account to pay deductibles, glass, dental and the like. And any money that is not spend is saved in the account and will switch to an IRA account at 65.
The government restricted the people that can join (self-employeed is one group) so there limited companies writing it and feed agents know aobut it and those that know the name often don't have the right scoop.
Do a google and you will find all kinds of info and links to agents that will write it.
If I remember Fortis and Golden Rule are two of the companies that have it, so you might want to start there.
Hello Bill,
Thanks for all the info; I'll look into the options.
10man
You do know not all the Bc/Bs are the same price. We get ours cheaper( alot cheaper) by getting it out of state. For the same coverages
The best employee you can have but you wouldn't want him as a neighbor " He the shifty type"
Well, if I ever needed a reason to feel good about living in England, I guess I've just read one, twelve actually.
John
Don't look to Congress to investigate and help you.
like it or not republicans believe in "free enterprise" and will be very slow to investigate or regulate in any way the insurance industry.
(the industry is too big for states to regulate - even tho states think they have the right to do that)