Health Insurance: Can’t live with it, can’t live without it
April 3rd, 2009
I originally posted this on April 18, 2007 but in redoing my blog, lost the post. I just found it thanks to the RSS feed! I’ve edited it slightly.
One potentially very large obstacle to self-employment is health insurance. I need to make sure my husband, my two stepsons and myself are covered. My employer provides a health insurance plan that covers the four of us for about $360 a month with a standard low deductible.
Growing up with self-employed parents, I know that corporate-world health insurance is not a given when you’re on your own and that I need to do a little research to meet my goal of working for myself.
My options that I’ve discovered so far:
- Self insuring (i.e. no health insurance) — This would require some major lifestyle changes in the form of eating better and exercising more for my husband and myself. We need to do that anyway, but these things do take time. It’s not an option for my two stepsons as we are contractually obligated to keep them covered under an insurance plan.
- Private insurance — We found out through a mistake of mine a few years ago that it doesn’t take much to be denied individual health insurance through a company such as Blue Cross / Blue Shield. Unless you live in a state that has laws preventing flat-out insurance denial (apparently there ARE some states like this), this can be a problem.
- Group insurance — I am still researching this and hoping I can find group insurance through a professional organization that is comparable to what I could get through an employer. However, several articles I’ve read indicate that this option is becoming scarce.
- Insurance through spouse — An option for some people but probably not for me. He works for a small employer that essentially has the same issues as a self-employed person would have because of the number of employees.
Supplemental options:
- Medical discount program — You can subscribe to a medical discount card such as CAREINGTON. This appears to give you a similar discount to what you would get through an insurance company.
- Holistic medicine — For every medical treatment, there are hundreds of possibly natural or holistic treatments available to try. Many of them are questionable in their success, but I’m definitely not ruling this out as one part of the health care equation.
- Just plain good health practices — Eating a well balanced diet, exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy weight go a long way toward preventing health care costs. (If only this weren’t the most difficult option.)
This is something that will require a lot more research and will definitely play a factor in my own personal goal of working for myself.