[markbarnes19]

I'm curious about health insurance. I know the costs for insurance are on the rise nationwide. I'd like to know what people pay on average, and what does your employer pay. I know some teachers pay zero percent of their health care premiums. Are there any new trends?

[babydawn]

I know that my husband's employer pays around $750 per month for our family of 6. We do not pay any out of pocket.

[mcmama]

New Jersey stinks for insurance. Self employed people cannot form a pool for health insurance. You cannot get it through a professional association, or a union, unless an employer sponsors it. You can only get it through an employer. As an individual, certain companies will not talk to me. Dental is even harder. My professional association could only connect me to different policies, they could not form us into a pool. My real estate license is with a large broker. We tried to get group insurance for a pool of roughly 5,000. NJ won't allow it. As long as we are independent contractors, and not employees, even though our licenses hang in his office, NJ will not allow us to get a group health insurance policy as though we were employees. Tax to the max and discourage entrepreneurship. Yeah, way to go NJ.
For several years I was able to pay my former employer to keep me on the policy and avoid the high cost and bureaucratic nightmare of cobra. I was available on call to advise his staff, so he declared that I was still working for him. This year, no one else in his company needed health insurance, and the administration of it was a nightmare, so we had to call it quits. For an employer in NY state, I was paying about 310 a month for individual bare bones HMO coverage. Now as an individual in NJ, I pay 410 for even less of an HMO with a higher deductible. Some hospitals in NJ will not look at my insurance with a major carrier. My kids are covered by my ex, who works in New York, and who has health insurance through his union. He was griping that his health insurance went up an astronomical $20 a month this year.
Can't wait to leave taxmax NJ in 2 1/2 years when my son graduates. The car insurance is the highest in the nation, the property taxes are worse here than anywhere else, the corruption is accepted as the way to do business, the politicians are in it for themselves only, and even the grassroots are rotten! And they legislate and charge fees everywhere to drive these lousy roads with these aggressive people.
Meantime, I am looking into making myself a corporation (since I work for myself) and hiring myself so that I can get a corporate rate to "give" myself health insurance.
Heading back south where I was born in 995 days.....

[PearlyWrites]

I have to agree with McMama, NJ sucks when it comes to insurance premiums. For us to continue my husbands insurance through COBRA, the cost is insane! They do not encourage self-employment or even help toward that. The only thing is NYC, through the freelancers union offers some form of insurance but first you have to pay the cost of the membership and maybe NJ freelancers will be entitled to part of the coverage.

I'm with McMama! We are moving out of NJ except Southwest in 60 days
WOOhoo! Not sure if there are any other opportunities for health insurance or discount health plans though. I am also incorporating myself for the same reason.


Thanks!
Lisa

Don't forget to visit our blog at http://education.families.com/blog/

[matlee123]

Employees who work full time in Hawaii have insurance paid by their employer mandated. Sounds great. So all the businesses hire part time employees.

Insurance laws vary by state. There are many factors that affect your premium: Fraud, rising prescription costs, rising medical costs, lawsuits, malpractice insurance for overburdened doctors, etc.

As far as your credit report, most insurance companies only use that to underwrite your application. It is part of the characteristics used to evaluate whether or not you represent a good risk to the company. Once you are accepted, most health insurance policies are guaranteed renewable, meaning they can't cancel you unless you don't pay your premium.

The reason you can't band a bunch of independent employees together to purchase insurance is because it is against the law in most states and against insurance company policy. A qualified group must organize for some other reason than purchasing insurance. A freelance writing organization has other benefits besides purchasing insurance so that would be a qualified group.

The thought of a single payor system like government run healthcare sounds like the best way and it works in Europe quite well. The US government is so inept at running anything, I cringe at the thought of them running the healthcare industry (I wonder if they would turn it over to some middle eastern country). We need to get some reforms in place to help the working lower middle class and self employed. Cost containment is another important idea (cutting fraud, cutting down on malpractice lawsuits without penalizing legitimate claims, cutting waste).

Call or write your representatives and let them know how you feel. I believe healthcare and insurance will be the next big election issue.

[PearlyWrites]

Hi! So we moved to AZ and I began pricing self-employed health insurance and it is so much cheaper than NJ, it is insane! Meeting with an agent this morning so will report back after the meeting but I already spoke to one agent and she quoted $391 for group with a $250 deductable, 80/20, including maternity. I didn't ask about dental and vision because I forgot but will share my findings later this afternoon.

In NJ, it would have cost us $1600 a month for myself and husband.

[PearlyWrites]

Hi,

OK, we just returned from our meeting. If you check www.NASE.org, this is the website for the self-employed. Depending on the state you reside in depends if insurance can be offered to you. They cover nationwide so if you live in NJ or NY where they cannot sell health insurance BUT have an address in a different state, you can purchase the insurance in the other state and still be covered in your state.

I hope that made some sense. If you go to the website, they do not give you a lot of info about health insurance options but if you fill out the informational form, a representative will contact you through email or phone. If you want to meet, you can to disucss your options and with the health insurance, you get membership into the National Association for the Self-Employed which offers discounts and more benefits. The cost for a PPO for my husband and myself monthly is $366 including dental and vision. When or if I need maternity coverage, I can get it once I am pregnant and it would be an extra $179 a month. The specifics I cannot explain as I am still going through the plan before I hand over a check.

It was interesting to find and hope this helps some of you out.

Lisa

[mcmama]

Thank you for this - As I am in the process of finding an area where to relocate and buy property, this may well come in handy.

NJ is lousy even on the tax deductions for self employed insurance. Stingy and corrupt.

I hope you are enjoying Arizona! My son and I are heading south in a few weeks for vacation and I am also looking into areas where I might relocate to. I think I am going to check out those health insurance and car insurance quotes on the various states I am considering and see how I end up!