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Ask Slashdot: Health Insurance for the Self-Employed 111

Posted by Cliff from the searching-for-options dept.
A nameless submittor wanted to voice this very valid concern: "I'm a self-employed contract programmer whose COBRA benefits are going to run out early next year. I was wondering what experiences others of similar employ have had obtaining health and disability insurance? What is available? What about rates? Is the coverage any good? What do I need to look out for?"
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Ask Slashdot: Health Insurance for the Self-Employed

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  • Yeah, but your beer sucks. - Adam Schumacher cybershoe@mindless.com
  • but I'm single and without dependents.

    You may want to consider getting some insurance with a huge deducatable to protect your parents and their finances in case something really terrible happens to you. Many parents would sell their house to pay for health care for one of their children. Thats not a decision I'd like to force on my parents.

  • It is recommended that you go to the dentist every 6 months for a cleaning.
  • Hang on there, pardner. HMOs can be quite nice, and they can be a nightmare. It depends on the nature of the HMO and how you manage them. Tales of personal experience follow:

    FIRST THERE WAS KAISER...

    I was covered by Kaiser Permanente when living in CA, and they were an absolute dream. I walk in, They copy down my membership number, I wait a not-unreasonable period of time, they treat me, and I leave. When I got run over by my boss on my motorcycle (another story entirely), they took care of the whole mess. I had been carted off to a local chop-shop clinic by my employer, which sewed my missing digit back on, and Kaiser had to *undo* the surgery and sew it back on correctly.

    I never saw any paperwork, I never had to pay anything other than my premium, and they even packed up a bag full of dressings & other medical accoutrements for me to take on my non-reschedulable road-trip 10 days later.

    AND THEN THERE WAS GROUP HEALTH...

    Having been blissed-out by my experience with Kaiser, I joined Group Health in Washington State. I quickly discovered that they are (imho) expensive, paperwork-intensive, mired in referral bullshit, and generally client-unfriendly. They insisted on assigning me to a GP, and then assigned me to a team of seven GP doctors so that I never saw the same GP twice. (Kind of defeats the purpose, no?)

    It was impossible to see any specialist without seeing Dr. RandomGP(N), who would defer to Dr. RandomGP(N-1)'s experience, except that I couldn't never get in to see Dr. RandomGP(N-1) again because clients are only allowed to schedule appointments with Dr. RandomGP(ANY).

    When I finally did get to see a specialist about the RSI injury to my wrist... well... I had a ~0.75" fluid bubble poking out of a rupture in the muscle wall. What does the GH doctor do? He had me look away and hit my wrist with a motherf*cking book to burst it! And because I didn't flinch when he thought I would, he hit me a lot harder than intended, and had to send me in for x-rays to make sure he didn't break my wrist. (On later visits he tried cortizone injections, then finally surgery as I had requested.)

    And imho I got better treatment than the average Joe because my Group Health card was green rather than blue. What does green mean to them? Cash. I was a full-cash-paying customer. Blue-card clients (work-paid-insurance), from what I could see, got treated like shit and had to wait longer, too. Me, I got to go to the front of the line and get my poor service much faster.

    IN THE END

    The bottom line is that every individual's experience will be different. The kind of hands-off independence that Kaiser provided for me would be perceived as poor service by someone of my parents' generation, but I couldn't stand the way that GH did business. I'm sure that there are people out there who are happy with GH's service, I've just never me t any of them. But I wouldn't take that experience and condemn all HMOs. YMMV.

  • Ditto s/Canada/UK/

    Free healthcare [doh.gov.uk], everything is within a day's drive (even most of Europe), ADSL [bt.com] and GPRS [gsmdata.com] are being rolled out nationwide next year, no mad people with guns (not even the police), we have strong beer and even stronger cider, you can get laid at 16 and drunk at 18, we don't have daft crypto laws, and most people are atheists.

    London sucks, petrol (gasoline) prices suck (70p/litre, US$5/gallon), but other than that it's a pretty cool place to be.

    I know a couple of people who telecommute to jobs in the States. Once you have remote reboot installed on your machine, being on the same continent doesn't really matter anymore.

    --

  • I got set up with NASE for $149/month for their PPO plan (similar to HMO but not quite as draconian). The limitation on this is that I have to be in-network (meaning here in the greater Houston TX area) if I get hurt - they'll pay for the trip back if I can be transported.

    For another $30/month, you get the indemnity plan which covers you regardless of where you are, etc.

    Also, NASE plan has the best vision plan I've ever had. My vision plan history was:
    Andersen Consulting: jack shit
    Informix Software: crappy voucher based system - some decent savings
    Houston Chronicle: jack shit
    SELF-EMPLOYED BARNEY BADASS: free lenses and eye exam, 60% off of frames (even fancy schmancy ones), 40% off of extra crap (coatings, etc.)

    Not to imply that /. readers are of the bespectacled set... :)

    WG
  • I wonder if the depatment of health realised that their URL looks like it would be for a UK governments Simpsons site www.doh.gov.uk!

    Newcastle is the best place to live in the UK, FWIW. It has everything you need and much better than London. If you need to get to the capital there's plenty of trains and planes serve the area frequently. Newcastle has been voted the party capital of the UK and the best place to work in the UK.

    On the subject of healthcare it should be free in every country as it is so important. We do have private healthcare in the UK for those with money and want to have extra benefits but free healthcare is available to all however rich or poor you are.

    The only exception that I know of is road accidents. In this case the person who is responsible for the crash has to pay for the hospital bills (but by law they have to have insurance for this).

    Petrol is dear, and public transport in most of the UK is crap. In London it's overcrowded. That's another reason why Newcastle is cool as it has decent public transport and fairly cheap beer.

    The cost of living in the north is cheaper than in the south (I know I'm in London now and can't wait to get back to Newcastle).
    --
  • getting a part time job on the side just for the benefits seems popular lately.

  • A option (Score:1)

    by Gray ( 5042 )
    Move to Canada, never worry about health care again... Smokes are 4 bucks a pack, heart transplants are free..

    As an added bonus, moving to say Toronto or Ottawa, you get cheap DSL or cable modems, and pretty good cable TV (59 channels 30 bucks)..

    There is also that whole clean, polite, non-gun carryingness thing... I live in city with over a million people, (Ottawa) there is about 3 murders a year and maybe 5 non-domestic violent crimes.. I like them odds..

    Downsides would definitly be the weather (compaired to Silicon Vally) and the taxes..
    Vancouver gets you out of the snow, but you get rain instead.. Taxes are what they are, take it or leave it I guess..

    Don't want to start a Canada rules/sucks thread, but if I was a self employed geek in the US, I'd at least figure out what it would cost me tax wise if I relocated north..

    One other perk, no drug tests.. :)
    Great green north and all that..
  • If all the republicans would just shoot each other, you'd have healthcare inside a month..

    The rest of the first world laughs it smug ass off at the big ol' US.. "How can they call it a civilized nation if you can die on the street because you can't afford a doctor.." is the general comment.. Seems like a valid point to me..

    The US of A: Booming economy, goverments books in pretty good shape, world strong superpower, and its poor dieing on the steets every day, how nice..
  • I don't know about that your parents specific case, but generally, waiting time is inverse of urgengy.. If you're dieing, it's straight into the ER, if you've got a cold, you get to wait until all the people in the ER are good and alive again..

    Northern Quebec is probably about as bad as it gets.. It's basically the Canadian version of the deep south..
  • The UK/ECC is where I plan to end up after I eject from Ottawa.. The Neatherlands probably, or Ireland.. Luckly I have an Irish passport out of one of my parents, so immigrating to anywhere in the ECC is reliativly easy..

    Amsterdam is like Las Vegas for stoners, and has a raging newmedia industry to boot.. A little more school, and I'm off.. Last time I was there I was tempted to just drop out now and start selling DSL to all the internet cafes..

    18,000 feet covers alot of ground in the old world.. One NOC in downtown amsterdam would have no problems making money off all the bars/cafes inside loop range..

    Not to mention, normal old unix admins are seriously in demand, speaking dutch totally not required..
  • Get catastrophic (high-deductable) coverage. That's what I did ('til I went back to full-time work), $2,500 deductable but with a very nice hospitalization rider, cost me a bit over $50/mo (cheaper than Mediscare taxes). You can get a lower deductable for more money. Routine stuff (checkups, prescriptions and what not, up to the deductable) gets paid out-of-pocket. It would be even cheaper if MSA (Medical Savings Account) legislation gets passed (pairs catastrophic insurance with a savings account for those routine expenses and tax deducts the whole lot), but as this would give people a good deal and a lot of freedom the Clinton Administration is fighting it in favor of heavily regulated fascist HMOs (just a short hop from socialized medicine). Steve Forbes is the lead proponent of MSAs in the current crop of presidential candidates.
  • Ask your primary doctor which insurance company they prefer working with. (Assuming you trust your doctor.)

  • When I was living in California, I used Blue Cross, which was fairly reasonable (~$130/month, and I was about 33 at the time).

    Here in New York, insurance is a *lot* more expensive. I'm currently getting coverage through the National Writers Union at $277/month.

    Others have pointed out that IEEE has insurance - so does the ACM, and if you're a hacker with a degree or have been in the field for a while, it's easy to join and includes some other useful bennies as well.

  • check with your insurance agent about state laws regarding coverage of self-employed people. In Massachusetts, if you have been continually insured, you can purchase coverage at group rates without worrying about pre-existing conditions or cancellations because you're a small business.

    We are currently using united healthcare PPO plan and spending something like $500-$600 per month for family coverage. This includes $15 co-pays on office visits and $10 co-pay on drugs.

    we have had some small hassles with them but usually, if you're a persistent pain in the butt, they pay.

    Disability insurance is a whole different story. Individual rates are extremely high and if you have anything even vaguely wrong, forget about coverage. I'm living with an RSI based disability and I can't get coverage even excluding my RSI.

    So, I self-insure. Save as much money as possible and don't forget the corporate shield (you did incorporate as an S-corp?).

    good luck, and start bribing your Congress critter to eliminate health insurance as a tax deduction for corporations!
  • I don't use IEEE for health (my wife's an IBMer),
    but I do have term life, and just applied for
    disability. The rates on all their insurances
    are very low, and they offer almost all types
    of insurance.

    The journals (most available online now!) from
    IEEE are also an awesome source of info, so you
    do get something else out of the yearly membership
    fee. :-)
  • I don't use IEEE for health (my wife's an IBMer),
    but I do have term life, and just applied for
    disability. The rates on all their insurances
    are very low, and they offer almost all types
    of insurance (incl home and auto, I believe).

    The journals (most available online now!) from
    IEEE are a good source of industry info and
    research, so you do get something else out of
    the yearly membership fee than cheap insurance. :-)
  • It's expensive but you're in control of your own destiny. Many of the agencies offer insurance packages that are cheaper but then you're locked into that agency. I've used several agencies but mostly one in particular but I refuse to take their insurance and have to requalify after each contract. You should be making enough contracting here to cover the lost "benefits" from being perm. Best of luck with the baby.
  • I've been contracting for 12 years since leaving my last employer and I found I was able to buy group insurance coverage by joining my local chamber of commerce as a small business owner. My CORBA payments were about $650/month and getting in on this group policy dropped them toabout $400/month. This is for married/family coverage. I believe the single coverage at the time was $189/month. The biggest thing is to calculate it into your rate when you quote. Listing it as $3/hour is a lot easier to take.

    One more datapoint.
  • Move to a civilized country, that is one where your hard-earned tax dollars are returned back to you in term of free health-care instead of corporate welfare for the friends of those who are in power...
    -- ----------------------------------------------
    Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
  • here in Ithaca NY, I use Support Services Alliance (SSA), which provides me with Major Medical ($2200 deductable) and provides various business services like legal searches for small businesses. Total cost, $89/mo. plus $15/year.

  • Quite on the contrary, I'd suspect. My experience with membership organizations such as IEEE has been that they seldom make a decision without contemplating how it will affect recruiting.

    Now, they probably want to you *staying* a member...
  • If I'm not mistaken, it's the
    Congressional
    Omnibus
    Budget
    Reconciliation
    Act

    and is a federal statute, not a state one. I certainly made use of it here in Minnesota.

    Regards,
    JFB
  • is an accident whilst you're uninsured.

    I gambled and lost, shedding COBRA and benefits in exchange for mucho dinero, and, as fate would have it, a sprung achilles tendon.

    If you think that, say, a shit-hot Oracle kernel engineer makes big bucks, just wait until the bill from the anestheologist's office arrives. $3500 for forty minutes of work ... not bad, eh?

    I'd make the same sacrifice again, but I'm single and without dependents. How you approach the issue is almost wholly dependent on your specific situation.

    Good luck,
    JFB

  • If you are an IEEE member, you can sign up in their open-enrollment period this January. Rates are typical of a business that is 300,000 employees, only you pay 100%. But it is still MANY TIMES BETTER THAN YOU ALONE!

    Even if you don't go for the medical, the Life Insurance is a no-brainer! Definately check out Life regardless!

  • I had their policy for a year. I was pretty happy at $70 per month. I didn't know that I could do a bit better, but I did know I could have done a lot worse.

    But it got worse. I never found it necessary to make a claim in that year. However, inside 6 months, the rates were hiked to $100 per month. Hmmm, I thought. Time to shop around. By the time they hiked to $135 per month, I decided it was definitely time to bail. I was back in school by that point, and used BYU's health plan (fairly nice to single students).

    MEGA (the insurer of the NASE plan) said the cost increase was due to rising medical costs. %100 in 1 year? I think not.

  • I'm turning 23 in October and therefor will be loosing all of my health benefits from my dad's work. I am employed but only part time so I don't qualify for any of the plans offered through work. The closest thing I can come up with that's even in the affordable range is a Kiaser personal plan for about $80 a month.


    As a poor college student, $80 (although cheap for health insurance) is still a lot of money when you concider all I shell out a month in rent and beer.


    Has anyone given any though to starting our own national health insurance benefits program for those of us who are in these sorts of situations? Self employed, partly employed but no benefits, would like to do nothing but code but have to do the 9 to 5 to get the benefits. We all fit some where in to this sort of a situation.


    I would like to think that the community that was able to take a small time operating system written by a college student would be able to pool it's resources and come up with somehting ingenious.
    ----
    "War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left"

  • Blue Cross is pretty good on the PPO plans. Don't buy into an HMO from anybody, for any reason!

    If you look for coverage against major costs, and pay doctor's visits out of pocket, it's a good deal cheaper.
  • In addition, the "drunk at 18" thing is just the law, it bears very little relationship with real life.

    When I lived in South Wales, there was a pub near where I lived and a school across the road - quite frequently when you went in the pub during the day it was full of people in school uniform.

    Generally sixth formers (school kids between 16 and 18) don't wear uniform, so that kind of suggests that the pubs daytime clientelle were, somewhat ignorant of the letter of the law.

    WONDERFUL

  • I have several pieces of advice:

    Caveat

    This is for US types only, can't comment on Canada, UK, or elsewhere. . .
    1. If you're young,single and basically healthy, instead of a "comprehensive" health plan, get a "catastrophic" policy, that pays all expenses over a given amount, say $1000.00 or $5,000.00. And THEN get a disability income policy. Reason ??? Your most likely problem is going to be an accident of some sort. You can live with colds and flu, there's very little the docs can do about it. You'll have to absorb minor medical costs, but for the most part, a decent medical cabinet, stocked up at the local Wal-Mart or K-Mart, will cover 99% of your problems. Your real worry is a major accident or injury that lays you up for a while: that's why you want a catastrophic policy and disability income (it's tax-free, so set your disability income level at about 60-70% of your current salary or expected income. . .)
    2. If you're older, have medical problems, or are married and/or have children, you're best bet is to find a group to get into for coverage. IEEE and NASE have been mentioned. You also might want to look at paying to get into your spouse's coverage (and in some areas, domestic partner's coverage)
    That, in a nutshell, is my best advice. Mind you, the vast number of insurance agents are lowlifes, ranking with lawyers, bureaucrats, reporters, and politicians at the shallow end of the gene pool. They will attempt to also sell you life, home, auto, and whatever. Only buy what you came in for: turn down any subsequent "service" calls. Tell them : don't call me, I'll call you. And remind them that if they bother you, you can go down the street to company X. And do so, if they keep bothering you after that. . .
  • Be careful of which area of Canada you decide to move to. My parents just moved out of Northern Quebec, and the health care system there is abysmal - they both got pneumonia within days of one another, and the only way they could see a doctor was to wake up very early one morning, head over to the local health clinic and wait in line.

    This may be different in larger cities (or in different provinces), but even so - like the tech industry, the medical industry is seeing a lot of Canada->US brain drain, so the situation is bound to worsen with time.

  • In it's basic form, a PPO (preferred provider organization) is like an HMO with out-of-network and self-referral coverage.
  • HMO's are a great option for young, healthy, non-travelling customers.

    I use an HMO, and have been very happy with it (even though I am diabetic, I have no other health problems).

    The only problems I've had have resolved around seeking coverage when travelling. The rules are fairly restrictive, and claim payment has taken too long at times.

    Otherwise, it's been great and economical.
  • Asking your doctor isn't a bad idea, but there are a few caveats: first, he may not have the foggiest idea. Many practices, the doctor just fills out the superbill, and it is the other staff people who know who is easy to deal with, etc. Ask the doc, but make sure you double check with the receptionists.

    Also, some states require a doctor to mention more than one company (much like if you ask your local bell company what long distance carriers are available). So, legally, he might not be able to come right out and say: "Pick XYZ PPO. They're great."

    Good luck getting decent rates. With the consolidation of insurance carriers, rates are getting worse (and reimbursement is going down).

    From a purely cost-benefit POV, check out the HMOs. As long as you have a good relationship with your primary care physician, you'll not have much trouble getting the *needed* specialty care. At the office I manage, we have three full-time people whose jobs are to make sure referrals get through and our patients don't pay beyond their co-pay.

    If you have a chronic illness that requires specialty care, make sure your PCP and specialist are in the same HMO. Also check out eye care benefits. Most of the benefits are garbage, requiring you to go to an optometrist for primary eye care rather than an opthamologist. YMMV, but with a family history of diabetic blindness and glaucoma, I'm going to an opthamologist.

    Good luck.

    -George
    (that's olg.com)
  • My wife worked for Mega Life and Health for a couple years. This is an organization which provides health insurance for the self-employed. I can tell you that from what she knows the benefits really suck, and the rates are simply ridiculous.
    I would never take a job where I could not get benefits, unless my wife's job was able to provide good quality benefits. I would say check out a part time job or something, because you don't want insurance for self-employed people.
  • I've been in the same position in Massachusetts (USA). My health plan had been HCHP (aka Harvard Community Health Plan), an HMO there; I kept in via COBRA until COBRA ran out; then I switched to just buying it on my own. Sometimes it can be hard to buy insurance -- my then fiancee had a heck of a time getting convincing HCHP that she wanted to just pay for some insurance, and that she wasn't indigent or covered by someone else's coverage.

    Paranoid suggestion #1: be sure to pre-pay the first month and get the cancelled check *before* the switchover. Just in case there's a claim that there was some sort of "gap" in the coverage, you have your proof that there wasn't.

    Happy Ending #1: I actually had an operation in the last few days of COBRA coverage, followed by recuperation in the first few days of regular coverage. There was never even a hint of problems, service denied or delayed, or extra bills or paperwork.
  • you forgot the part about the 60% tax rate...
  • I started my own business and my business partner and I insure ourselves independently. I pay less than $60 per month for full coverage (life, health, medical, drug card, etc), though I live in a smaller town where the rates are likely to be a little lower than average. You should be able to find something reasonable if you have a decent health history and shop around a little. Don't let anyone sell you dental coverage unless you anticipate more than one visit to the dentist per year.
  • As a fellow college student I have some advice. You know all that paper work that they handed you when you started attending the university? I believe that somewhere in there you will find an insurance info pack. I cleaned my room this year and found that my college has a plan that picks up the co-pay part of my parrents insurance, and I got a check for more than $500 as a result. Your school may be different but as I understand it at least basic and emergency care are covered by almost every college. If you have questions email me.
  • Check out professional organizations like the IEEE Computer Society. I know that IEEE used to offer insurance to their members. I don't know any details however.
  • Both the Association for Computing Machinery (http://www.acm.org) and the IEEE Computer Society (http://www.computer.org) offer benefit packages aimed at the independent consultant, including professional liability insurance. I have never used them, but the rates look competitive. For my insurance needs I currently have life insurance through a credit union plan, and I have a Kaiser Permanente personal plan for health insurance. The Kaiser plan is a roll-over from my former employer's plan; we got into Kaiser as opposed to the other 3 offerings (BCBS, a local PPO, and Cigna(?) ) because they were the only plan that offered a nurse-midwife as part of their ob-gyn plan, which my wife wanted to use (we have been very happy with that, using her for children number 4, 5, 6, and 7). So if there are special features you want, particularly non-traditional ones (though I could argue that midwifery is *very* traditional), be sure to shop around.

    As I move more toward independent consulting (as opposed to W2 contracting), I am looking at getting an IEEE professional liability coverage plan.
  • At first I thought you were asking a CORBA question. heh.
  • I did the independent thing for a year, my wife checked the health plans up and down for the four-person company we started. Blue Cross coverage plans, quality of service, and financial soundness vary quite a bit between the various US states. In Florida the application process is tedious, most any carrier will be very agressive about cancelling coverage if the monthly check is ever even slightly late, and if you're not coming in with a big group, send the mail registered!

    Too many stories from other small business owners about the insurance carriers just ignoring those potential customers they don't want to deal with.

    Next time around we'll look much closer at going in with some group coverage like IEEE.
  • NASE got a bad review in Consumer Reports a few months ago, and I understand why. The rates start out fairly low to bring you in, but they raise them quickly after you're on. My rates went up by $30/month (that's a 30% increase) over the course of just two years.

    Do what I did, marry a nurse. The hospital has excellent health benefits, and it's dirt cheap.

    -TT
  • An S-Corp does give you some options for health insurance. For one thing, it makes it easier to buy from some sources (like the Mass. Business Association, that we deal with). Also, it provides ways to fully deduct the insurance costs from taxes.

    In general, the self-employed can only take a partial deduction for medical coverage. However, with an S-Corp this only applies to coverage for owners of the firm. This gives two ways to get full deductibility, at least for married people:

    let E be the Entrepreneur who runs the business, and
    let S be E's spouse.

    1. E owns the business, which employs S and provides family medical coverage, thus covering E indirectly, or
    2. S owns the business, which provides coverage for E.

    Talk to your accountant if you are interested in using one of these methods.

    (Aside: We used NASE for a year, and I got a bad feeling about it. The salesman said 'no paperwork' and no hassles for coverage. We didn't have any major medical problems and therefore did not reach the deductibles, so I didn't find out about coverage hassles, but the paperwork was a chore. When they said 'no paperwork' they meant 'no paperwork from us', so I had to deal with bills from each medical provider, sometimes months after the date of service. We're now with Harvard Pilgrim's POS plan, which is more expensive but easier to deal with.)
  • So much of any of this kind of insurance depends on your situation in life. For example, I'm single, 23 years old with no children and a decent paying job. (I was contracting for a while which is why I know about the insurance :)).

    For me, all I wanted was something that would cover me in major medical expenses. I had to pay out of pocket for doctor visits and prescriptions, but anything over about $1000 was covered. What this allowed me to do was avoid a situation where I would be bankrupted by one large medical bill. But, little thing I had to cover. The advantage was it was under $100 a month . . .

    So you need to asses your life (do you have kids, are you married, etc.) and figure out what kind of coverage you need. I would definetly reccommend what I did if you are in a similar situation. I never really go to the doctor, maybe once a year tops, so the out of pocket expenses are negligible.

    Also look into a 125k plan. That's a medical expenses savings plan that is taken out as pre-taxable income. Then you can use this 'savings' account to pay for any out of pocket medical expenses that aren't covered by the insurance plan you get. OF course if you don't use the money, you lose it, but you can use it for all kinds of stuff if it's getting to the end of the year (glasses, contacts, massages :))

    Hope that helps . . .
  • You're likely to get a better deal through a group
    policy. A co-worker of mine had a nice PPO policy
    through the IEEE. It was basically the same policy as was provided by our employer. You need
    to be a member of IEEE, but there are other benefits such as lower conference fees and book
    discounts which make the membership fee worthwhile. It's likely
    that there are policies available through other
    professional organizations as well (ACM?).
    This may even be worth doing if you have company
    coverage, in order to have portable insurance. You
    can usually get your employer to pay for your
    outside group policy rather than theirs.

  • could anyone please post some online resources for insurance-related info (especially for foreigners). thanks beforehand.

    ...is COBRA somehow related to CORBA?
  • Hi there,
    I've been self employed for 5 years now. I've also graduated to running a small company which has 4 full time employees.
    When I started I just went to the bank. They were very helpful at taking my money, but I also got very comprehensive medical cover. The cost was in the order of hundreds of pounds, £, but offset that against peace of mind and a years income. I also went to a financial adviser and got a number of insurance covers: for instance if I'm permanently out of work due most reasons, other than mountain climbing unfortunately, I'll receive a salary until my retirement age, at which point I'll get my pension, another company extense.
    The short of it is the cover is pretty thick out there and it's really a question of finding the best deal and also making sure you're not over covered, which I was for a while. A good way to do this is through a financial adviser.
    Cheers,
  • Has anybody out there had NASE pay a claim?

    A few years ago, a friend's wife (insured through NASE) went through a rough (and expensive) childbirth. A year later, NASE still hadn't paid up.

    It doesn't matter how cheap/good the plan looks if they don't pay off.

    From the comments here, talking to an independant insurance broker looks like the best idea.


  • When I was looking I was quoted $195/mo for family $155 individual from bluecross (IMHO, the best plan for Metro areas). I moved to a rural area and through a broker got an HMO/PPO policy from a local HMO that was $75 less and much better overall coverage. I got this rate via an indepent broker. You'll find brokers in most areas. The one I used was a friend of my sisters which probably yielded better rate options but they don't get a commission unless you buy.
  • Have you actually used the plan? Do they pay? And how long have you been with them? People seem to have a love-hate relationship with them; either they think it's the best deal they've ever seen, or the biggest ripoff. I keep hearing about big premium increases, too, even though they claim that won't happen. Scary stuff.

    I'm very hesitant to go with this plan, because once you go off your COBRA coverage you can't go back. But I haven't seen any other plans that I would consider going with, so I'm tempted nonetheless. I guess I still want to believe there are good deals out there, even when logic tells me I should know better...
  • I see someone posted a positive comment about the NASE [nase.org] (National Association for the Self Employed). This is particularly timely because I just spent an hour on the phone listening to their insurance rep go on about how great their plan is. Frankly, it sounded too good to be true, so I'm out roaming the ol' Information Superhighway looking for more info.

    Supposedly, this plan is like a traditional indemnity plan in that there is no managed aspect whatsoever. You can go to any doctor, any where, and they will pay the entire bill. No negotiated rates. You pay a copay for each procedure, none of this percentage stuff. The agent made it sound just about perfect; they pay whatever the doctor bills for whatever you want to have done, no questions asked. I suppose there are probably limits on cosmetic surgery and such but none of this fighting with the administrators to get medically necessary care approved.

    There were a few twists I didn't quite follow; something about a deductible per injury or illness, but then there was something else that covers that, and a really funky provision where you pay a little more each month, but when you reach 65 you get all the premiums you ever paid back. Huh? I suppose that assumes that you stay in their plan until age 65, and what are the odds of that...

    So, anyone care to comment on experiences, good or bad? Is it really as good as it sounds? I'm very skeptical, especially since they don't have an info packet they can mail you; they send an agent to your home instead. But if it really is a good deal then I'm all for it.

    Oh yea, the plan is underwritten by Mega Life and Health. They do the student health insurance at most universities, and they seem to have some traditional plans for small businesses as well. So far I haven't found much in the way of user feedback on them out there, which is why I'm asking here. The plan they offer through NASE seems to be different from all their other offerings, anyway.

  • Unfortunately, according to their website you have to have been a member for two years before you're eligible for the health plan. Makes sense, I guess, if they don't want people joining just for the insurance.
  • You might want to shop around for a low overhead contract firm. In my case I get 80% pass-thru with full benefits out of the 20% they keep (not matching funds in the 401k, though).

    The benefits are obvious. Detriments? Not a big bench, plus you might have to beat the bushes for quality assignments and gigs.

    Not bad, and it suits my lifestyle. Unfortunately I tend to be too absent minded to keep up with little details such as TAXES and INSURANCE PAYMENTS.

    Seriously, though, going with a low overhead firm isn't going to shut any more doors than being independent will.

    Mojotoad
  • I was considering the IEEE insurance at one point. You can only apply in December and I think you have to be a full member of the IEEE for two years to qualify. The rates were pretty decent if you were willing to set a pretty high deductible.

    I've also been on the NASE plan through my job (very small company) but nothing ever happened to me so I didn't use it...
  • first we need to close the borders and stop letting just anybody in...
  • I had NASE a few years ago and was very disappointed.
  • You have now entered the twilight zone of life.Lie,Lie and Lie some more.If you have had a hang nail most won't insure you and those that do will want a fortune.
    You smoke?Forget good rates or maybe even getting insured at all.If they take you your rates will be really high.Smokers are BAD.
    Getting insurance on your own because you are selfemployed in a real feat.Move very slowly and read the fine print carefully.Some insure you for High deductables or for EACH sickness or injury.
    Good Luck now you will see how good you had it being insured by your emplyer.
  • There are companies that provide health insurance, 401K, Payroll services and expense reimbursement for Freeagents/Independent contractors. They mimic your benefits of being a freeagent while offering corporate style benefits and you still retain your autonomy. This way you can get comprehensive coverage but still have group/low rates. See www.freeagent.com and see their back office service section.
  • Can't comment about the States, 'coz I don't live there :-) However, here in the UK, it's relatively straightforward. When I started contracting, I saw an independent financial advisor, who told me to do a number of things (in the UK, contractors typically form their own limited companies -- this may be different in the US):
    1. Personal permanent health insurance. This provides benefits should you be unable to work for an extended period of time. They typically start paying out after either 4 or 13 weeks, depending on how much premium you pay. Look for a policy that covers same occupation, i.e., if you can't program for a while, they won't force you to work in McDonalds (this is sadly suprisingly common).
    2. Executive pension. Not a lot to say about this, other than pick one of the rare ones (less than 5%) that don't do front end loading, otherwise your pension fund won't break even before about year 6 or so. This is a big issue with IR35, and you may be forced into a permie position and need to transfer to a personal pension.
    3. Executive permanent health insurance. Pays out for pension contributions should you be unable to work, with similar conditions to the personal equivalent.
    4. Life insurance. Covers your dependents if you die (I already have this as part of my mortgage), and may also pay a lump sum should you be permanently disabled.
    5. Private healtcare. Unlike the US, we have the NHS, and private healthcare is strictly a luxury item. That said, if you ever need a stay in hospital, you'll be glad you got it. Just pick one you like the look of. Now being offered by banks and building societies at a discount the normal PPP / BUPA etc. premiums, but check the exclusion clauses.
    All this adds up to be quite expensive, but it's probably worth it. Off the top of my head, I think I'm paying about 100-150 quid per month for the insurance, plus a shitload for the pension (about a grand a month!).
  • You might want to try calling BlueCross/Blue Shield. Here in Connecticut, they just added a "non-group, group plan" or some such thing. Basically you get the same prices and benefits as being on a group plan, even on an individual policy.

    I don't know if that's a policy plan for just BCBSCT or if its something nation-wide through BCBS. Worth a shot though.
  • I am an independant consultant and have been for about 4 years now. I have had a Blue Cross PPO plan for about 6 months now and I am pretty happy with it. I agree with slag, you must access your situation. I started out with some pretty plain coverage. Then I started spending a lot more free time playing soccer and snowboarding. I got a few bumps and bruises along the way so I decided to get a plan that covered doctor visits better than my previous plan. Right now I have the cadillac PPO plan that has a $10 co-pay and some other crazy stuff. I pay about $120 a month if memory serves me correctly. This is about $30 a month cheaper than I paid in COBRA from a former employee. Have you looked a online Insurance services like www.insweb.com? They might be worth a look as well.

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