Health insurance options for the unemployed?

[Russell]

I'm really curious about what options are out there besides COBRA (which is expensive!) for those who are now unemployed - 7.2% of us as of today!

My wife 'feels' she'll be losing her job soon, I have insurance so there's a bit of a safety net, until of course I lose my job too. While we have 6+months of living expenses that doesn't include health insurance.

For me somthing with a high deductible, flex type health insurance will be OK but the wife visits the doctors a lot more than I so she'll need something comprable to our current PPO plan...ideally.

[poundwise]

I would recommend a HDHP (high-deductible health plan) and a HSA (health savings account.) Don't be put off by the high-deductible term; a health insurance plan that has a deductible of $1,100 for an individual or $2,200 for families, qualifies as a HDHP and is HSA-eligible.

Plans can vary greatly, including how (or if) they handle well benefits, co-pays, and the like, so make sure you shop around and investigate different aspects of policies.


Whether you end up with a HDHP or not, these links may prove useful:

A good source to get started is eHealthInsurance.com

I also highly recommend JLBG Health

[maat55]

Originally Posted by poundwise

I would recommend a HDHP (high-deductible health plan) and a HSA (health savings account.) Don't be put off by the high-deductible term; a health insurance plan that has a deductible of $1,100 for an individual or $2,200 for families, qualifies as a HDHP and is HSA-eligible.

Plans can vary greatly, including how (or if) they handle well benefits, co-pays, and the like, so make sure you shop around and investigate different aspects of policies.


Whether you end up with a HDHP or not, these links may prove useful:

A good source to get started is eHealthInsurance.com

I also highly recommend JLBG Health

I had one of these, but with an accident rider that would cover a majority of the deductable for not much more cost. The accident rider had a 200 deductable, so if you have an accident, you are not much out of pocket.

[MonkeyMama]

Something else to check into is Kaiser (since you are in Cali).

Rates are about cheapest out there and coverage is excellent IMO. We have always self-insured with Kaiser because it is both cheaper and better than anything we have ever been offered as an employee.

They have HDHP plans as well. I can't say I would consider their other plans as affordable though. But their HDHP is a pretty good deal. They are positioning their HDHPs to be pretty competitive right now.

[gamecock43]

I have been unemployed for several years and pay $200 a month to Golden Rule for a $1000 deductible- then everything is covered 100% policy. Its about what some of my employed friends pay for their company health insurance.

[Troyrb]

I had Golden Rule with a 1000 deductible for a while when I was self-employed. I never had a problem with them paying. I think I was paying $130 per month then it jumped to $160 per month the following year I had them. They said it was a customer wide price hike.

[Goldy1]

I've never bought individual health but may need to soon. From my research there are a lot of options. Some are catastrophic ie no office visit or rx coverage but cover for hospitalization or emergency type things.

These plans were cheap but obviously limited. I don' t know what would happen if you suddenly had a chronic condition. It almost seems to be that say getting a disease such as, oh I don't know, acid reflex needing officer calls or something would be more likely to occur than breaking your leg.

I know one plan I looked at EXCLUDED any injury obtained during sports, and my dh is an AVID softball player so that would suck for us.

I also found it can be cheaper to have your own plan instead of family b/c deductable were combined often ie. instead of 1G each, it went to 2G for either or of us!

By the way, I put my phone number into insweb.com to get some quick quotes b/c they made me do it. I trusted the site b/c I saw it in Money magazine. I started getting telemarketing calls literally 2 mins later and so I called to get off the list to share my number. They took it off but the number was instantly blasted to all these places. THe harassment continues and when I do not pick up b/c I am low on cell phone minutes, some numbers keep calling dozens of times for weeks on end.
It has slowed down though finally but I fear it happening again.