Health Insurance Options for the Self-Employed?

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Permalink Reply by Truman Leung on April 10, 2009 at 6:53am

I'd like to know of a good option for me and my family, too. We pay $850/month for COBRA for the three of us!

I checked out the Freelancers Union for a possible better deal. But they do not have health insurance for Hawaii.

The Hawaii Science & Technology Council don't offer lower health insurance rates as a member benefit.

Obama should take some stimulus money and create a Entrepreneurs Health Insurance Fund to provide subsidized health insurance for entrepreneuers and freelancers to help them start up new business. Most new job creation comes from small businesses anyway. So this would be a better use of tax payer dollars than propping up mismanaged mega-companies that are not nimble enough to keep up with new realities in today's world.

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Permalink Reply by Derek on April 11, 2009 at 8:58am

For anyone who has a family or a spouse who is pregnant, you may want to consider Med-QUEST as an option. I previously worked for an HMO locally and my particular position at that HMO had me interacting with both patients on the Med-QUEST program and the actual program itself.

My employment there was a few years ago so, unfortunately I do not know of any relevant or substantial changes since then. Given the current economy, I don't know what resources are still available. At the very least Med-QUEST is very good for children and seems to benefit them the most since they may also get dental insurance (or at least that was a benefit when I was still working at the HMO). CLICK HERE for a few General FAQs. But, you may first be interested in the ELIGIBILITY FAQs.

You can also CLICK HERE for an application

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Levin on April 11, 2009 at 12:02pm

Laurence,

Can you give me some prices? There may be some benefit to being an S corporation for health insurance because you join the small business risk pool, but I can't tell without knowing just what prices you were objecting to.

For example, my firm pays in the $300 range for an individual, $600 for 1+1, and $900 something for family coverage for my 22 employees. So, the Cobra rates that Truman mentioned are actually quite competitive. And yes, everything goes up over 10% every damn year.

However, sometimes for sole proprietors, especially those with pre-existing conditions, I've seen them charge over a thousand for one person! Those individuals often have to setup a corporation in order to be allowed to join the small business risk pools and drop their rates to what everyone else pays.

Doug Levin

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Permalink Reply by Laurence A. Lee on April 14, 2009 at 2:25pm

Thanks for the suggestions, all. Neither the COBRA rates I was quoted, nor the self-employed rates I've seen with Kaiser come close to the $850/month like Truman. Seeing someone pay that much to self-insure a family's health is absolutely outrageous, and definitely burns me up. I was looking at Kaiser's plans, and even their "Platinum" package at $180/month for an individual falls short of the benefits I used to have in Honolulu, and way short of the benefits package I once had in Las Vegas. And that's the base rate before adding a spouse and kids.

I guess I was really spoiled in Vegas, where I had full medical/dental/drug coverage for self and spouse; and maternity expenses were almost entirely covered. As a self-employed developer, I'm just not finding much available in terms of "extras" like maternity coverage -- unless it's a package-deal, and only larger firms have enough pull to secure such deals.

I'm pretty surprised that Hawaii, being so Labor-Union Friendly, doesn't already have a few professional organizations that offer such Group Benefits. IEEE has something available, and heck, even Costco has something available (if you have 2 or more employees) -- so what's up with DCCA, HSTC and all these wonderful Entrepreneur Groups?

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Levin on April 14, 2009 at 3:00pm

Laurence,

Unfortunately you weren't clear about whether you are married and need maternity care. However, any standard employer plan follows state guidelines and must include maternity care. You can qualify for such a plan if you're a small business employer, but not as a sole proprietor. If you setup a small S corporation and paid yourself a salary, you'd be able to qualify within a few months. However, it still isn't cheap, just cheaper.

Next time you see an article about employers complaining about the rising cost of medical care, you'll understand why: it hurts.

Doug

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Permalink Reply by Michael Shimechero on June 4, 2009 at 7:13am

Laurence,

Not sure if this will help but you might want to look at: http://www.naseweb.com/index.cfm. There is a tab where you can get a free quote. I think they make arrangements to come out and meet you and get a more detailed picture of what your needs are. They may be working as a franchise so you will typically be interviewed by someone who runs their own business selling this insurance; just so you are aware there be nothing for nothing.
Hope it works for your set up.

Michael

Laurence A. Lee said:

Thanks for the suggestions, all. Neither the COBRA rates I was quoted, nor the self-employed rates I've seen with Kaiser come close to the $850/month like Truman. Seeing someone pay that much to self-insure a family's health is absolutely outrageous, and definitely burns me up. I was looking at Kaiser's plans, and even their "Platinum" package at $180/month for an individual falls short of the benefits I used to have in Honolulu, and way short of the benefits package I once had in Las Vegas. And that's the base rate before adding a spouse and kids.

I guess I was really spoiled in Vegas, where I had full medical/dental/drug coverage for self and spouse; and maternity expenses were almost entirely covered. As a self-employed developer, I'm just not finding much available in terms of "extras" like maternity coverage -- unless it's a package-deal, and only larger firms have enough pull to secure such deals.

I'm pretty surprised that Hawaii, being so Labor-Union Friendly, doesn't already have a few professional organizations that offer such Group Benefits. IEEE has something available, and heck, even Costco has something available (if you have 2 or more employees) -- so what's up with DCCA, HSTC and all these wonderful Entrepreneur Groups?

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Permalink Reply by Mattias on October 1, 2009 at 9:26pm

These are the problems as I see it:
1) There is no competition, could be solved by allowing interstate insurance sales.
2) There are too few insurance packages, you either have insurance or not. There needs to be more options.
3) There is no "true" health insurance. Health insurance is not really an true insurance. Insurance is used for emergencies but our so called health insurance is used for ALL medical care.
4) Healthy people are subsidizing unhealthy people. There are no incentives to be stay healthy. There are no incentives to use your health insurance less.

If I were to choose a health insurance I would like there to be one that only covered emergencies. If people paid for regular doctors visits out of their own pocket then insurance would be a lot cheaper. Since insurance covers every damn thing people have no responsibility of their health care and the cost rises dramatically.

Now, let's start with tort reform. 40% of all healthcare costs is defensive medicine.....procedures and tests that physicians perform to protect themselves from being sued. In New York, obstetricians pay over $200K per year for malpractice insurance.

Anyway, I can go on and on about this but if you need cheaper insurance we need to start with cutting costs by preventing defensive medicine and lawsuits. Universal healthcare is not going to fix that. It will just put more burden on the tax payers.

Sorry, I don't have any advice on where to get cheap insurance. I've been down the road myself and paid an major part of my business income in covering my family. I wish there was an easy answer but there is not.

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