One of my concerns since my divorce has been finding affordable health insurance. Those of you who have been self-employed for a while know how hard this can be. It's much easier when you have a spouse whose company covers the whole family!
Millions of individuals nationwide are without health care coverage right now due to an inability to qualify for low-income programs but an inability to afford standard insurance programs. That's where I fit in; how about you? In my case, switching to COBRA coverage would have cost me $800 a month. Yes, you read that right. And I'm a fairly young non-smoker with no preexisting health conditions that would have raised my rates. Augh!
Needless to say, I'm on the hunt for some affordable medical and dental insurance, and I'll gladly pass on anything that looks like it might benefit you as well.
Today I learned about a company called HealthMarkets. Their plans are underwritten by The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee, and The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company. They claim to offer a "new approach to affordable insurance for individuals, the self-employed and small businesses." From their website:
"HealthMarkets offers a broad and flexible array of products to suit every need of our customers — from the self-employed, individuals and small businesses, to students, hourly employees and others. Our plans range from comprehensive, major medical coverage with sophisticated consumer control features, to basic, limited-benefit plans which can be specifically tailored at the time of sale to suit customer needs, preferences and finances."
So far the only coverage I've been able to find in my price range was catastrophic coverage; personally I'm used to an HMO that focuses on (and rewards) good personal health practices and prevention of illness and disease versus reactionary treatment in emergencies. That means I like the idea of being able to have a range of plans (as described above) to choose from.
You can get a quote from HealthMarkets (they offer coverage in 44 states, apparently) by visiting their website or calling 877-893-7766. I'm going to fill out a quote request online myself. I'll let you know if their rates scare the daylights out of me or not!
I had to search for health insurance recently and I used eHealthInsurance. The site and service is actually quite good and it's free. They basically act as a broker to a bunch of different health plans including most of the major ones. The search function is nice because you can really pin down plan benefits you want to pay for. I was able to get a plan for about $45/month (PPO from Celtic in IL).
Posted by: Justin | May 2, 2006 8:37 AM | Permalink to Comment