Health Insurance ??

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-09-2004
Health Insurance ??
2
Wed, 03-08-2006 - 11:03am

Does anyone have any experience with an individual health insurance policy? I work part-time and get health insurance through my husband for myself and our 2 kids. The company pays for DH but not us and the policy costs us about $700.00 a month and it is horrible insurance. We have a $1,000.00 individual deductible, $3,000.00 family. We have a $15.00 co-pay at the Dr. which is good but any tests go towards the deductible. Prescriptions are $35.00 brand/$10.00 generic. In essence we are paying about $11,400.00 a year in insurance for myself and the kids. I just feel like for the coverage we have we should be able to find something better. DH works for his dad and his dad is going to see if he can find a better plan but it is a small company (about 6 employees) and they don't have a lot of bargining room. Anyone have an individula policy or experience with this or have any advice?

TIA


iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2006
Wed, 03-08-2006 - 11:56am

I think you'll find that your insurance is pretty comparable to a lot of folks that work for smaller companies. You might encourage your FIL to explore Health Savings Accounts for his employees. I won't go into a long explanation (his insurance broker should be able to share all the pertinent details) but essentially it allows you to save the deductible on a high deductible policy like that each year in a tax deferred account that is yours for life. You can use it to pay the deductible and if you don't use it, it rolls over. It's essentially a medical IRA. Obviously doesn't solve everything but will reduce your costs. It's also possible for employers to partially fund that account so maybe they might decide to do that and help even more.

Peg

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2003
Wed, 03-08-2006 - 7:55pm

The state you live in can really determine the price.

Pumpkin

&nbs