Should I even buy insurance?

[tinrobot]

I'm finally to a point where I'm back on my feet financially and have enough surplus to buy health insurance. I'm a freelancer by trade, so I usually don't have an employer to provide it for me.

I'm starting to shop for health insurance and the rates are pretty steep. After reading all of the horror stories about people being denied coverage, it makes me wonder if it even makes sense to get insurance. Am I just paying through the nose for a false sense of security? Are there any decent insurance companies out there that don't pull these sort of bait and switch schemes?

Any experiences/advice would be welcome...

[Towlie]

1. I'm in the same situation, so I'll be interested in replies you get and what you find.

[ThirdWorldJohn]

2. If you do decide to buy Insurance get with an agent that specializes in policies written for owners

of a business. The price is cheaper and usually the coverage is more like a group policy. It may be a group since it is for a select group (business owners). It will be much better than an Individual policy. If you are free lance then start up the company by that means. You may need to get legal advice about the company creation. I do not really know much about doing that. But that will be you best course of actionm. As far as I know the business will have to be legit for this to work.

Good luck. I have given up on insurance for myself.

[Captain Hilts]

4. I've given up on it too and I know a lot of self-employed who have. nt

[Strong Atheist]

11. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[Captain Hilts]

3. As an individual, you will pay an arm and leg for it. If you are not traditionally 'employed' many

firms will not sell you insurance. this is what happened to me, even though I could afford it.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

5. Are there any groups that you belong to - or can join - that

offer insurance ? Premiums will be lower and you have the power of the group behind you to prevent any shenanigans.

Consider a high deductible plan that is HSA eligible and put some money in the HSA. Your premium will be lower and you get a tax break right off the bat on the HSA contributions.

[Schema Thing]

6. my calculation, in similar circumstances

is that it's better not to buy it. I could by cheap insurance w/ huge deductibles... but they would just raise the rates and some worrisome things (like a skin cancer - since I've already had one) they would probably not cover anyway. And even cheap insurance would be a huge burden on my financially.


I felt better about my decision after reading an interview with a woman who is an freelance insurance salesperson and made the same calculation for herself and kids as I have made.

[YewNork]

18. If you've had skin cancer they might not sell you ANY insurance.

More and more, insurance companies don't simply exclude the preexisting condition from their policy.
They just decline to cover you at all. I have a preexisting condition, and I can't get any coverage
at all, even for things that are totally unreleated to that condition. Imagine yourself being told
that because you had skin cancer they don't want to sell you coverage for an appendicitis attack, or
if you trip and break your leg, or for an ear infection. I was told by several carriers that they
would cover only after I could show that my preexisting condition had not needed any new treatment for
at least ten years, and only then would they issue a policy that would cover everything except that
condition. Then after three more years, a total of thirteen years, would they be willing to cover
my preexisting condition.

Note that I was continuously covered until I had to change jobs. My currently employer
doesn't offer health insurance and I can't get any on the individual market because of this
preexisting condition - one that my doctors have told me is no longer an issue.

[izquierdista]

7. No

Do what I did. Investigate flights out of the country to places where health care is affordable. I'll be going to the Yucatan to have my physical and dental check-up this year.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. 2 thoughts

First...on not buying it.
Mr. D. and I chose not to buy insurance.
But...that is because we live in a small rural town where Dr. visits are 60.00 and we have no serious chronic health problems, we try to be healthy. The occasional prescriptions we request generic whenever possible.
And we are creating a medical savngs account " cushion" by budgeting a couple hundred a month which we do not use now for premiums.
Medicare Hosp. Plan A will be available in a couple of years to us both. So far, that is free.

Second : When I was working, I used a credit union which offered group insurance.
That is an option for self employed folks, perhaps.

[YewNork]

19. What would you do if despite being healthy you were diagnosed tomorrow with bone cancer or

multiple sclerosis, or rhumatoid arthritis, or melanoma, or .... a hundred and one other things that can hit people despite them leading relatively healthy lives.

Do you have the financial ability to withstand such an event? Would you have to sell your home or would you have to declare bankruptcy in order to get by, in which case everyone else would be absorbing your costs.

Just a few things to think about.

[uppityperson]

9. We are doing the same, looking at catestropic with high deductibles

Basically it would save us if something really bad happens.

[Shagbark Hickory]

10. Unless you're in a group, if you start costing them money, they'll drop you like a sack of potatoes.

MAybe a Health Savings Account in the interim until we have a reliable public option available and we will.

[Why Syzygy]

12. Have you ever been to the doctor in your life?

Your doctor may have made a note in your file but never mentioned it to you. Insurers will consider that PRE-EXISTING and refuse to pay for any other medical expenses. (See thread in Health forum)

Have you ever been treated for a medical condition? Insurers will consider that PRE-EXISTING and refuse to pay for any other medical expenses. (See thread in Health forum)

It doesn't look good. One thing this debate has given us is a look into the dark underside of the insurance industry. If they were even doing the job for which they've been paid, the crisis we face wouldn't be so widespread. THEY created much of the crisis, and not for our benefit.

[lindisfarne]

13. How much damage would it do to you if you had to declare bankruptcy? Do you own your home and intend

to stay in it?

Never ever pay a medical bill with a credit card, and never ever take out a home equity loan to pay off a medical bill. You have more bargaining power with the medical provider/hospital than you have with the credit card company, and home equity loans only endanger your home.

I would think seriously about apply. If you apply, everything you report will be shared with almost all insurance companies - or at least, accessible to them in the future.

Have you ever thought of taking on a part-time job strictly for the benefits? (I know this isn't the economy to be looking). At least in a group policy, you don't have to list out your entire medical and mental history. Can your skills somehow be made to fit some job that will give you benefits?

If you're a freelancer, this isn't just a temporary situation for you - I'm guessing you're not planning on getting a job with benefits in the next year or two. If your situation was just temporary, I'd say possibly. But eventually, you're going to have some bigger medical issue.

Perhaps consider moving to a state with better public programs? But those are getting cut, too.

[tinrobot]

14. The Catch-22 with job-based health insurance...

...is that, if you get seriously sick, you can't work.

And if you can't work, your job and your insurance both go away.

[lindisfarne]

15. I'm not sure I understand your point. First of all, most people don't get so sick they cannot work.

Second, many employers are very flexible when employees get seriously sick. Third, you have the option of COBRA if this happens.

If you get individual health insurance and you get seriously sick, then they somehow find out you didn't tell them you suffered from headaches 20 years ago and they decide to cancel your insurance, you're in a worse situation. Or, you get ind. health insurance which excludes the things you are most likely to need insurance for.

I was just giving you things to think about.

It your decision!

[tinrobot]

16. Here's a few points...

First - if you never get so sick you can't work, then you'll probably never be so sick as to be denied coverage.

Second - Can you really trust employers to be flexible if you need a long stretch of time for an illness, particularly when being sick and collecting insurance often hits their bottom line? And if you do lose the job, will the COBRA payments even be affordable?

Third - Most employers only insure full time employees, not part time - and I honestly don't see myself working 20 hours a week at Starbuck's just for health insurance.

Fourth - I make significantly more with freelancing than I would in a staff job, plus most people in my business are freelancers, so staff jobs are few and far between anyways. Freelance also allows me to take jobs that create a stream of royalties, which can tide me over in lean times - or pay my bills if I ever get sick. That doesn't happen when you work for someone else.

Fifth - I like the freedom of freelancing, it allows me to spend more time with my kids, travel, and work for a variety of clients.

But you do make some good points and give me something to think about. Other people here also confirmed my suspicions that individual health insurance is probably not worth the money. You could easily put years of payments into a plan only to have your coverage yanked when you really need it. It's rather sad that the only way to get insurance that can't be canceled is to either work for a large entity, such as a government or corporation, or be so poor you qualify for government assistance. Those in the middle, people who make decent money, but don't work for the man, are kind of screwed.

I am a member of the Producer's Guild, they have some sort of a plan, though I don't think it's technically a "group plan," more of a discounted individual plan. I'll investigate to see if the power of that organization will help keep me covered.

[lindisfarne]

17. Your first point is completely wrong. Someone just the other day posted & said he was denied coverag

for something quite minor (can't remember what it was); I've heard similar things. Here's a thread on that topic:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2402232


Either they really up the monthly premiums, or they exclude that problem, or both. Or deny. I haven't figured out what throws them into "deny".

COBRA payments are currently affordable because government is subsidizing 65% of them. That's temporary.

Some states regulate insurance companies more than others.

Good luck!

[YewNork]

20. What part time jobs offer health insurance anymore?

Have you ever thought of taking on a part-time job strictly for the benefits?

Part time jobs that offer benefits are usually few and far between these days.