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Individual Health Insurance |
The basics of buying individual health insurance
Buying an individual policy to cover your (and your family's) health care needs can be a difficult endeavor.
The first problem is cost. While group policies offered by employers are almost always cheaper than private plans, that doesn't mean health care should be priced out of your reach. But you may have to sacrifice some degree of choice to keep costs reasonable.
The second problem is choosing a plan. An employer usually offers a limited range of benefit options, which does have the advantage of making your choices simple. When you're on your own, you may suddenly be faced with a lot more coverage choices, and the confusion often leads to higher costs.
How to choose an individual health insurance plan
This is primarily going to be a balancing act between cost and coverage, but your philosophy of care will come into play some too.
Managed care is almost always a more affordable option than the traditional fee-for-service (or indemnity) policy. If you don't mind playing by a health network's rules, such a plan can be a good way to reduce the cost of an individual policy.
Managed plans stress preventative medicine too, so if most of your annual medical expenses come from check-ups and the like, this may be a good bet.
An indemnity plan, on the other hand, will almost certainly be more expensive, but if you have a trusted physician you'd like to keep, or suffer from frequent illness, the additional cost is probably worth it.
Covering multiple family members under an individual health insurance policy, however, can rapidly become unaffordable with an indemnity plan. Managed care may end up being the only sensible solution, even if you have to sacrifice choice.
Looking for individual health insurance because you're currently paying high premiums for a Cobra policy?
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Self Employed Health Insurance |
The self employed health insurance options
People who work for themselves run the gamut of trades, ages, and incomes. Consequently, there's no one-size-fits-all approach to health insurance for self-employed Americans. You need to evaluate both your current situation and your business's future before you choose a health plan. Here are four common situations:
- You're a one-man (or one-woman!) show, and don't foresee your employee roster growing in the near future. In this case, your best bet is probably a standard individual or family policy. You can choose from both indemnity and managed care plans.
- If you're working on your own, but see that changing in the near future (whether you'll be hiring more help or expect to be hired by a larger organization yourself), a temporary policy might be a better option. These plans are fairly inexpensive, and you won't have to make much of a commitment. (This option is strictly short-term, however; don't substitute it for permanent coverage.)
- Health insurance for the self employed plus a few employees is a more complicated matter. If you employ between 2 and 50 people, chances are you qualify for (and would greatly benefit from) a group health insurance plan.
- Finally, there's health insurance for self employed individuals who fall somewhere in between, (a business run by you and your spouse, for example). These special situations have to be evaluated on a case-by case basis. Keep reading for more information on how to choose a policy in these situations.
Self employed health insurance costs and benefits
Health care coverage isn't cheap. And unfortunately, that can be especially true in the case of insurance plans for the self employed. Insurance is least expensive when rates and care are pooled among a large group of people. The larger the group, the more evenly the risk is spread, and the lower the individual premiums.
Health insurance for the self employed doesn't fall into this category. Meaning that you can expect the coverage to cost more, especially if your business consists of just you or you plus a couple of others.
Happily, the situation is improving. As of 2002, self employed health insurance costs are now tax deductible, at a rate of up to 70%. And that percentage could rise.
Another recent improvement is the growing number of health care options. Insurers are starting to offer plans that combine elements of fee-for-service plans, together with managed policies, so that you (and your employees) won't have to choose between good cost and good care.
What type of insurance should you get?
Whether you get regular or group coverage depends largely on the type and size of your business.
But the type of health plan you buy depends mostly on you, and what you feel is most important about coverage and cost.
Often Cobra isn't the most affordable health insurance for the self employed. Click below for a free quote!
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