What do you small business owners do for health insurance? I'm sick of not having any health insurance and if I can't get it through one of the companies I work closely with, then I'm just going to have to set something up for myself through my LLC. Anyone have any suggestions for providers? Or links to some info on health insurance for entrepreneurs, because I've really never looked into this before for myself. Thanks!
Thats a great question. Im going throught the same situation myself. Im gonna try to hook up with one of the design firms i work with. I think the cheapest way is gonna be to get on someone else's plan.
Also, I'd like to hear what people making big money, like Shoemoney and (DigitalPoint) Shawn, do for health insurance. I remember Jason Calacanis mentioning that he didnt even have health insurance, until AOL bought out Weblogs. Do people really overlook health insurance?
We get our coverage through Blue Cross. I call it "really bad day insurance" as we maintain a really high deductible. Until recently we kept our deductible at $10,000 per person/$15,000 for entire family (we recently lowered it to $5,000 per person). The important thing to remember is that all insurance companies are out to make a profit. Thus the lower your deductible and the more the insurance covers the more you pay. It is cheaper to pay for "routine" and easy to absorb stuff out of pocket than it is to pay for insurance coverage for this stuff. We only keep coverage to pay for the highly unlikely and really expensive stuff that we could not absorb (e.g. major illness, serious injury, etc.). By doing this we bring insurance costs down tremendously and have better control over our healthcare costs. In fact if one pays out of pocket for "routine" stuff some doctors will give substantial discount for "cash" payments that do not have to be submitted to insurance companies. One simply needs to ask around to find doctors/medical practices who are willing to do this. Taking the insurance company out of one's healthcare loop for all but the most serious expenses can really save a great amount of money over the long haul, it just requires one to set some of that "insurance savings" aside in a savings account for routine medical expenses.
OK so I talked to one of my part time employers today, which I work very closely with and have a good relationship with, and even though I'm not full time, they're going to look into health insurance for me. It would cost $3,000 a year for coverage with a $1,000 deductible. So I'd have to pay like $70 a week or something The funny (or sad) thing is that I only make about $250 a week from this company. I really need to request a raise or to be put on salary.
See how much it would cost if you raised the deductable. You may find that simply raising the deductable to $2,000 or $3,000 would save you a substantial amount and if you are generally a healthy person you would probably come out ahead after two or three years (I haven't needed to go to the doctor for three years).