Health insurance

[Ninedays9]

Anyone know how to pick out the best health insurance? I went to ehealthinsurance.com as recommended by Cosmo, and there's a bunch of different plans on there.

I have absolutely noo idea which one to pick, so if anyone has any advice, it'd be much appreciated. It's a bit scary not having insurance!

[NurseLau84]

It depends on how often you visit the doctor, how many prescriptions you take, medical conditions, etc. If you need medical care often, I would pick the "highest" plan.
My insurance is Blue Cross, and it's excellent. My prescriptions are $5, and a max of $15 so I never go broke there. Emergency room copay is $30. Dr's office visits are either $10 or $15, depending on if it is a specialty or not.
I get it through DH's work, and we pay nothing for it (it's fantastic). But, if we were to get the same plan for the both of us on our own, the premium would be $1250/month.
If you don't need much in the way of medical care, and basically only need that once-per-year checkup, I would get a lower plan and save yourself some money

[Whitewater]

Yep, that's what my brother does. He only has major calamity insurance, so he's only covered if he has to go to the ER because a tree fell on him, or something. But he doesn't wear glasses, he's perfectly healthy, etc, so that was really all I needed.

I, on the other hand . . . am a medical disaster. Asthma, allergies, high cloresterol, female troubles, and potentially some kind of thyroid/pituitary disease, yeah, I need the full wahooni. I have 4 prescriptions a month, plus another one that's 'as needed' and have yearly tests, ultrasounds, whatever.

A LOT depends on your own personal health and your family history to figure out what level of coverage you need.


Whitewater

[Jacklynn]

Matt and I have our own personal insurance (not through work) because it was cheaper than the insurance they offered us.

We pay $455 a month to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. That includes both of us (and children if we had them) and Maternity for me and also dental. There is a $500 deductable, $1,500 for maternity (the maternity adds on $116/month). We pay $20 for a family doctor $40 for a specialist (such as my gyno). We pay nothing for teeth cleaning.

Those are the basics of our plan. All states offer different plans (blue cross isn't a nationwide company, they are grouped (like IL, OK and TX are all merged but Florida is separate, but still the same company in essence) My mom works as a supervisor for BCBS IL so I know a decent amount about it :)

Hope that helps on a general cost, at least for what we pay in our area at our age.

[Ninedays9]

Hmmm... I'm not really sure what kind of coverage I would need. I would at least like yearly check-ups, but what happens if there is something wrong and I suddenly do need more prescriptions and check-ups?

Does anyone know anything about income-based insurance? I'm only working part-time, so I was hoping I could find something that is based on that... I wonder if I should try looking into the ones that cover students. Ahh, such a big decision!

[tortoisegirl]

Student insurance (sometimes even through the school) is cheaper. Part of health insurance is a gamble. Right now I have full coverage through work, but we pay for a catastrophe-only plan for fh (very low monthly cost, very high deductible). Having insurance is important more for the point of having continuous coverage, in my opinion. If you end up developing a condition and are not insured, and then try to go get insurance, they may have a waiting period.

Based on the information you've given us I'd think a rather high deductible plan is for you, to reduce monthly costs. Look at the co-pay for doctor visits, and if you need to pay a certain % in addition to the co-pay. The way to keep monthly costs low is to take the risk that something could come up and you will end up paying cash for just about everything. That is another reason to have some savings built up.

I've never been able to find dental coverage that reduces costs for us that just need the cleaning/exam/x-rays.