Personal Health Insurance
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I'm not sure if this is the right place for this. I'm interviewing for a position with an employer who does not provide health insurance, but does pay for half "within reason". In the past, I've always had insurance for my wife and I through my employer. Are there any Americans here who have purchased their own health insurance in recent years? How big a hassle is it? How much does it cost for a good plan?
Edit:
I've gotten a small indication of the pain involved if I have to be my own benefits administrator. I went to the state site, and there doesn't seem to be any way of finding out the price without actually applying. Then they decided that my wife wasn't eligible at this time.
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Doesn't really help you, but I recently had a recruiter try to get me to interview for a job like that. I literally laughed at him. Didn't help that they couldn't even come close to my current salary. Being
now, health insurance is very important to me. I haven't priced it, but for a policy like I have with work, it's probably in the $2000/mo range (from talking with others).If the employer doesn't offer health, I'd be very cautious/leery of the job. It may be fine (maybe they're just really small), Ask lots of questions during the interview so you understand it well...
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@dcon said in Personal Health Insurance:
Doesn't really help you, but I recently had a recruiter try to get me to interview for a job like that. I literally laughed at him. Didn't help that they couldn't even come close to my current salary. Being
now, health insurance is very important to me. I haven't priced it, but for a policy like I have with work, it's probably in the $2000/mo range (from talking with others).If the employer doesn't offer health, I'd be very cautious/leery of the job. It may be fine (maybe they're just really small), Ask lots of questions during the interview so you understand it well...
"They" are really small. I looked up the company, and the woman I spoke to appears to be the owner. It is a sub-contract to a large, well-known technical contractor. She sounded like she understood that I would have to add in the cost of benefits to what I would require, and that this could be substantial.
Thanks for the warning.
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@jinpa said in Personal Health Insurance:
Are there any Americans here who have purchased their own health insurance in recent years?
Stupid "Marketplace" thing.@jinpa said in Personal Health Insurance:
How big a hassle is it?
They told me I'd be getting government assistance, then a few months later said I didn't actually qualify (because of really shitty wording on the application form), and now a year later the IRS has basically withheld my refund because of it.
@jinpa said in Personal Health Insurance:
How much does it cost for a good plan?
I'm on one of the high-deductible ones. It's > $400/mo. I can't give an opinion on whether it's a good plan or not.
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@jinpa I did the marketplace thing. AFAIK it's something each state implements independently. The marketplace I was on was provided by the state, anyways, although it very well could be just a whitelabeled federal site or something. There were some annoying things, though, like I have a daughter who they required a birth certificate to verify she's eligible to be under my family plan and stuff, and when I uploaded the documentation, it kept saying "documentation isn't valid" and when I called they said that was normal and to wait a week or two for it to pass.
Then there were some other things, like having to wait for verification for weeks and then getting my cards, but the only thing that it would tell you was "awaiting verification" or something like that. In the meantime you had to just wait... and it would be like that until like January 5th. Then you get your cards and the rest is pretty normal. The premium payments were straight forward enough and it basically works like any health care plan your employer would give you otherwise. For the most part, I just had to worry about the whole process once a year. At least the marketplace was about as bad as, say Expedia but if run by a bunch of idiots. It's hard to explain, but there were a lot of little things that were annoying about it, yet at the same time there were some decent parts, like being able to compare two plans side by side with a table and stuff.
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@The_Quiet_One said in Personal Health Insurance:
Then there were some other things, like having to wait for verification for weeks and then getting my cards, but the only thing that it would tell you was "awaiting verification" or something like that. In the meantime you had to just wait... and it would be like that until like January 5th.
I hope it's not like that for me. My wife has a pre-existing condition, and I don't want to wait for a gap between when my previous employer's insurance ends and the new one begins.
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@The_Quiet_One said in Personal Health Insurance:
AFAIK it's something each state implements independently. The marketplace I was on was provided by the state, anyways, although it very well could be just a whitelabeled federal site or something.
States could choose to roll their own or let the Feds handle it. There's just one joint Federal site for those states.
It's hard to explain, but there were a lot of little things that were annoying about it, yet at the same time there were some decent parts, like being able to compare two plans side by side with a table and stuff.
That seems like a fairly basic feature to me. (Then again, I help support (and used to develop) software sold to employers for letting their participants enroll in benefits, so maybe that's not something our competitors offer.)
@jinpa said in Personal Health Insurance:
I hope it's not like that for me. My wife has a pre-existing condition, and I don't want to wait for a gap between when my previous employer's insurance ends and the new one begins.
Even if there's a delay in verification like that, the coverage will generally be active back to the original date the coverage should have been effective (1/1 if you're enrolling for the next year; whatever the state/employer rules are for midyear events). Retroactive coverage - or even enrollment (e.g., you get hired; you have 30 days to enroll; even if you wait 29 days to enroll, coverage will have a start date of your date of hire) is common for employee benefits.
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@Unperverted-Vixen said in Personal Health Insurance:
@The_Quiet_One said in Personal Health Insurance:
AFAIK it's something each state implements independently. The marketplace I was on was provided by the state, anyways, although it very well could be just a whitelabeled federal site or something.
States could choose to roll their own or let the Feds handle it. There's just one joint Federal site for those states.
It's hard to explain, but there were a lot of little things that were annoying about it, yet at the same time there were some decent parts, like being able to compare two plans side by side with a table and stuff.
That seems like a fairly basic feature to me. (Then again, I help support (and used to develop) software sold to employers for letting their participants enroll in benefits, so maybe that's not something our competitors offer.)
The private sites I expect that from. Public government sites I'm lucky if they work on anything besides IE8 so yeah.
@jinpa said in Personal Health Insurance:
I hope it's not like that for me. My wife has a pre-existing condition, and I don't want to wait for a gap between when my previous employer's insurance ends and the new one begins.
Even if there's a delay in verification like that, the coverage will generally be active back to the original date the coverage should have been effective (1/1 if you're enrolling for the next year; whatever the state/employer rules are for midyear events). Retroactive coverage - or even enrollment (e.g., you get hired; you have 30 days to enroll; even if you wait 29 days to enroll, coverage will have a start date of your date of hire) is common for employee benefits.
Are you saying this in defense of the system? Because having a doctor's visit on new years day only with faith that everything will resolve in the end is a pretty shitty experience.
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@The_Quiet_One said in Personal Health Insurance:
Are you saying this in defense of the system? Because having a doctor's visit on new years day only with faith that everything will resolve in the end is a pretty shitty experience.
No, I'm not defending it; as someone with coverage I don't like it (although I also don't know how I could fix it either). Just trying to provide reassurance that it's a common scenario for insurers, so they should be able to handle it.
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Well, if you figure it out, let us know. I know I'm considering retirement (at least partial) which means I'll be paying for health insurance for > 10 years. Considering doing my own consulting again, and going with an association group for insurance (did that once before). I could answer specifics in lounge if wanted.
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So I found out the prices of health, dental and vision insurance if I purchase it myself, and it's quite hefty (> $2700 per month for my wife and I put together). I'm at the negotiation stage with my prospective employer. There was a surprise in the offer letter, (she tried to add a 40 - 50 hour per week requirement), and so I upped my price. I responded by giving her two prices, one at 40 hours per week, and one at 40 - 50, both including extra so I could purchase my own health insurance. What's a polite way of saying, "No other changes are possible, take it or leave it."?
