GoodSense
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2007
- Messages
- 678
I am contemplating leaving my employer to become an independent contractor. One of the major questions, of course, is health insurance. I've never purchased individual health insurance before, so would really appreciate any feedback on this board.
Our situation:
- 32 and 34 years old (DH is on my plan currently)
- No children and no plan in the next 3 years (hard to plan too much ahead)
- In great health
Currently we only use our insurance for an annual check up and a dental cleaning 1-2 times a year.
I live in MN. The two large health insurance providers are HealthPartners and BCBS. Both offer similar individual insurance plans. The ones I am interested in have the following:
- $3,000 to $5,000 deductible
- one annual check up is included
- $200 - $400 co-pay for first ER visit
- pretty low co-pay for generic drugs (neither of us have been on any medication for the last 10 years)
- No maximum insurance pay-out
We'll need to pay the dental cleaning out of pocket, but it won't be too much. The plan is mostly a catastrophic insurance for us.
The monthly premium for these plans is only $120 - $140 or so per person. Does that seem right? I am nervous because I have never purchased health insurance before and am afraid I'm missing something major.
I am also currently looking for other employment, so it's possible we will only be on this plan for 6 months to a year. Hard to know in this environment. If we decide to have kids, we'll definitely need to switch to a family plan. DH owns his own (extremely small) business so we may be able to buy insurance under his company, after more parts of the health-care reform are implemented.
Thank you in advance for your insights!
Our situation:
- 32 and 34 years old (DH is on my plan currently)
- No children and no plan in the next 3 years (hard to plan too much ahead)
- In great health
Currently we only use our insurance for an annual check up and a dental cleaning 1-2 times a year.
I live in MN. The two large health insurance providers are HealthPartners and BCBS. Both offer similar individual insurance plans. The ones I am interested in have the following:
- $3,000 to $5,000 deductible
- one annual check up is included
- $200 - $400 co-pay for first ER visit
- pretty low co-pay for generic drugs (neither of us have been on any medication for the last 10 years)
- No maximum insurance pay-out
We'll need to pay the dental cleaning out of pocket, but it won't be too much. The plan is mostly a catastrophic insurance for us.
The monthly premium for these plans is only $120 - $140 or so per person. Does that seem right? I am nervous because I have never purchased health insurance before and am afraid I'm missing something major.
I am also currently looking for other employment, so it's possible we will only be on this plan for 6 months to a year. Hard to know in this environment. If we decide to have kids, we'll definitely need to switch to a family plan. DH owns his own (extremely small) business so we may be able to buy insurance under his company, after more parts of the health-care reform are implemented.
Thank you in advance for your insights!