Author Topic: Health Insurance - Self-Employed Family of 3  (Read 2521 times)

mamagoose

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Health Insurance - Self-Employed Family of 3
« on: February 08, 2017, 09:48:16 AM »
We will soon be a family of two self-employed adults (both 32 yo, no previous conditions, non-smokers) and one child (3 yo), and need to shop for health insurance. COBRA through my husband's soon-to-be-former employer is $1800/month for our family (yikes!). I did a quick exercise on healthcare.gov and the lowest premium plan (we want HSA-eligible) is going to be $811/month in Florida, and $772 in Oregon (did I mention we're moving across the country in a few weeks?). We are deciding between going with COBRA until we are settled in our new house, or buying Florida insurance & then swapping to an Oregon plan. Listening to this podcast with MMM, and he quotes $400/month for a family of three with a $4,500 deductible. Am I missing something obvious???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYKqrz2bD_U


TheDudeReturns

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Re: Health Insurance - Self-Employed Family of 3
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2017, 11:55:52 PM »
Going to bump your message to see if someone can respond to this.

I'm in much the same boat and can't get help anywhere on this. Tried finding union/membership group plans. Tried private agents. Hell, tried posting on multiple threads on Reddit and other places. Nothing.

Really, I've been searching for stuff on health insurance for the self-employed off and on for well over a year and there's like zero info for purely self-employed.

Also, sorry to say that, depending on your state, a lot don't even have a single HSA plan.

Additionally, the prices are fairly "flat" in my experience, in that the lowest bronze plan and the most sensible silver plan are usually within $100-$200 of each other. To illustrate with some numbers: Junk bronze plan with $13k family deductible is $900 a month. No copays, meaning you pay full price anytime you go to the doctor until the deductible is met. Mid-range silver plan with $1.5k family deductible is $1100. Since you're already getting so screwed so much on pricing, may as way pay the extra $2k to actually get some coverage.

Would really like to know what MMM is doing to get such low rates. I watched my premiums double this year :(


Heroes821

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Re: Health Insurance - Self-Employed Family of 3
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2017, 06:57:06 AM »
I'm a self employed single earner with 2.3 kids and a SAHM wife at the moment.  In order to utilize the HSA we had to do two health insurance policies since 1 child and my wife have pre-existing conditions and wanted a more normal health plan for them.

We pay $650 +40 dental per month for the pre-existing condition plan and $700 +50 dental for the HSA qualified plan.  The HSA plans were all close in cost and the pre-existing condition plan didn't have that many options.  I'd say for all of you with HSA on the same plan those numbers are accurate with what I saw as healthcare.gov.

protostache

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Re: Health Insurance - Self-Employed Family of 3
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2017, 07:59:27 AM »
Moving to a different state is a qualifying event, so you could just buy a Florida policy for a month and then buy an Oregon policy when you get to Oregon. That will almost certainly be cheaper than COBRA.

The numbers that MMM throws out aren't relevant to you because you're not living in his insurance market.