Private Insurance - West Jordan,UT

That sounds like a good deal! My high deductible individual plan is $179 for me alone, not the kids or my husband.

We have Humana for 386.00 month with a 35.00 copay and 7500.00 deductible for a family of 4. Love it!

My husband is self employed so we have to have private insurance. I love the piece of mind it brings me. If he ever did decide to have a corporate job again we would keep our private insurance. I don't like insurance being tied to a job.
My friend developed a heart condition. Since this is now considered a pre-existing condition her husband has been unable to leave his job to start his own company because no one would ever insure her. I am glad both parties agree this needed to change.

That sounds like a deal to me...

Our insurance is private and through our company we own and for the 3 of us... I pay about $1200 a month, have a $15,000 deductible (which we will never hit unless of some freak accident or sickness)

Whe we do go to a Dr., which is rare, we pay FULL price and then the Dr. does the claims and we (sometimes) get the difference back, (only if you are meticulus like me with receipts and keep track)

Also we opted out of dental and vision because my personal opinion is that dental is not worth it when you pay the extra premium and any treatments you get are not covered at 100% unless it is the twice yearly cleaning. Therefore, it is cheaper to pay the cash price and our company still pays that portion of our insurance. I pay about $300 once a year for each of us to have the full cleaning, etc and then for the 2nd cleaning for the year, it is around $90. (CASH price)

If you are hard set on getting something else, I strongly suggest that you go through a broker so you will know exactly what you are getting and know all the breakdown points of the policies.

Sounds to me like you already have a deal worth keeping.

It depends on what you want covered. Some people want to pay for prevention and office visits, and just have catastrophic care (major hospitalization). Others want prescription coverage and prevention, and will pay hospitals out of pocket. There are a million combinations, and you choose based on your current needs as well as your anticipated needs. Frankly, $600 a month is incredibly cheap, and I cannot imagine you will find a non-group plan that is cheaper unless it covers basically nothing.

We pay about the same that you do, for a really low deductible/out of pocket medical and dental plan that keeps us with the providers we've had for alot of yrs.

Does he have plan options for health insurance thru his work? Usually companies offer employees some choices. We spend about $8000/yr on family medical and dental coverage with a small copay for most visits (like $15 for a clinic non-preventive visit) but there's little to no out of pocket after that.. I think that's pretty cheap. We both work full time so we always do the math on all my company's options and all his company's options to figure out what's the best coverage, for the least cost given our typical annual visits plus adding in an ER visit and an in-hospital stay in the hypothetical analysis, just in case. We also put a priority on being able to stay with our current plan and provider (HealthPartners insurance, HealthPartners Medical Group, can do a ton of things online to see my care and to communicate with my provider, and the 24:7 nurse line I couldn't live without), since there are so many features that we like with what we currently have, so the alternative would have to be loads cheaper to make us consider switching.

To really select a plan with eyes wide open, it takes a couple hours of work. You print out or have access online to the benefit package summary for each plan. You have to make yourself a grid that lists on the top for each column the types of services that make up your usual care in a year plus some possible unexpected care. So - I'd make a grid that lists monthly premium, cost to you for the # of primary care visits for preventive for the family in a yr, cost to you for the # primary care visits for non-preventive for the family for a yr, cost to you for 1-2 UC visits, cost to you for 1 ER visit, cost to you for 1 inpt stay, and the cost to you for the # prescriptions you typically fill in a yr that you fill with your benefit vs the uber cheap Walmart way, and a column to note each plan's out of pocket max. Then list down the left side all the plan options available to you - both thru his company and a couple private options you found. Then, you spend a good hour or so filling in the grid. It's a pain, but it's the only way to really see what each plan is going to cost you in your hypothetical year ahead.

Once the grid is done, you can see, for each plan available to you, if you have none of the unexpected events (UC, ER, Inpatient) what each plan will cost you out of pocket (monthly premiums, plus copays and deductibles up to the amount that you usually use services, up to the out of pocket max), and how much each plan will cost you if you have all the unexpected events (2 UC, 1 ER, 1 Hospitalization).

I'd be surprised if a private plan would end up being cheaper, because most employers are kicking in a bit of the cost, shielding you from the true cost, and because, to compete for your employer's business, health plans give better group rates than they need to to compete for self-pay plans on the open market.

Private insurance tends to be more expensive but not because of the group you are pooled with but because your employers is already paying a large portion of your policy expense. What people are charged for COBRA coverage is how much your insurance actually costs per month.

I do HR, and a fair few other things, so I know how much our insurance costs our company. A family policy costs 1,600 a month for our PPO option yet we charge our employees 795 a month for it. The other 800 is part of their pay package we cover. So even if our employee could find a plan that costs less, say only 1,200 a month they are still paying more because they lose the employer portion.

I am saying unless you have the worst employer on earth you will not find a cheaper out of pocket plan than what your employer is offering.

My husband and I carried high-deductible private insurance plans for 30 years. We never even got close to the $6000 yearly deductible (each). Our combined premiums finally totaled nearly $1000 a month, and that included exclusions for me because of pre-existing asthma. Your insurance sounds like a dream if the deductible is low. If you find something better, I hope you'll share it with the world.

I have been insured through Medica for five years. I pay $188/month for just me, I'm 51, very healthy, don't smoke. I have a $6000 annual deductible. My policy includes annual exams and some preventative tests, along with some lowered negotiated rates.

My husband consulted for years and we bought our own insurance through a "small business buying group". An HMO plan that had doctor copays of about $20-$25 and paid all preventative care for a family was around $1,200 per year and that was 2 years ago. There are cheaper plans but then you get more out of pocket expenses. We compared a lot of plans and since we are basically healthy I thought some kind of catastrophic insurance plan where you pay the first $10K every year would be really cheap but it wasn't! If we just paid every doctor bill ourselves the last 10 years it would have been way cheaper but it is for those unforseen big bills that you really need coverage. A friend was without insurance and required a blood transfusion and it bankrupted them.

Currently, the only way I can get health insurance is through an employer sponsored health plan: Group Health Insurance.

I am considered "uninsurable" for Individual health policies due to my health history.

Have you considered contacting a local insurance broker if there isn't one who handles your husband's group policy? A broker can, free of charge, take a look at your existing coverage and provide rates for Individual policies. Some families only have the husband and wife on the group plan and the kids on an individual plan. Some families have the employee and one kid on the group policy, and the spouse and other kid(s) on an individual policy. For instance, young children don't need maternity coverage and sometimes you can save money getting them on a policy that doesn't have benefits for what they don't need.

In California, insurance rates typically are revised once per year. Employers get quotes, individuals get quotes and look into other options. That's what brokers are for. They help you evaluate your needs, annual-out-of-pocket costs, etc.

It's always worth the time to look into it. If you're better off with what you have, at least you know you did a comparison.

Best wishes.

private insurance is typically VERY expensive, and you lose some of the protection of a "group" policy... look at every aspect very carefully before making a decision - good luck!

currently we pay 255.74 per month for my family of three. we went through BCBS and we all have separate policies because it was way cheaper that way. it is a PAIN in the butt, but it's worth it "i guess"....(grrr)...

but we have a family of three too - and we would be paying (if we went through work) the same as someone would for a family of six, so to me, it is WAY worth it to go on our own.

Usually a company gets the best rates because they buy the policies in big numbers. The larger the company it's usually the more choices and better policies.

If your insurance is that high you might want to cut back on some of the coverage. We had all kinds of stuff on our insurance that we didn't need.

If it's $600 for just you and him that's too much coverage, if it's for a family then it might not be enough. You just have to go through it with a magnifying glass to see exactly what you are buying.

We pay 330/mon, 5000 deductible, all preventative covered.

$600 a month is a good deal. You could probably find something a bit cheaper with a very high deductible. My daughter pays $1225 a month for herself.

Can you sign up for a high deductible plan? That will be the cheapest way to go.