Health Insurance in US

For those of you that are self employed in the States, who do you use for health insurance? What are typical premiums for Southern California?

Cheers

I'm also interested in this. My current policy requires me to be outside the US 6 months of the year which won't be the case once I get my residency and I will have to find a new policy.

Obamacare? Kaiser? Blue shield?

BCBS has good plans, at least in FL market. Do the math for your situation on higher deductibles as that was the best solution for us.

BCBS has good plans, at least in FL market. Do the math for your situation on higher deductibles as that was the best solution for us.

we have agents all over the country if any members need solid advice. pm me with questions.

Thanks SV I'll be sending you a message since it looks like I will be moving in the next few months

I am SE and it sure feels like i am paying over the odds...about 1k a mo for myself, wife and newborn.

I am SE and it sure feels like i am paying over the odds...about 1k a mo for myself, wife and newborn.

 

 

California is more expensive. That is a little high, but it depends on the plan that you have. That said, before the ACA kicked in, I had a gold plan with BCBS with a 1k deductible and 25 dollar copay, and the cost to my family (2 adults, 3 kids) was 485 a month. Now it is 1k for 5k deductible, 35 copay, worse coverage (they call it a bronze plan). ACA is a nightmare, but we have to make sure that the kiddos can stay on their folks plan till they are 26 years old! Last I checked, that isn't really a "kid".

Age is a factor for your premiums too. And obviously location. Not sure about SoCal, but on Jan 1 BCBS in AZ just cancelled anyone who was on an ACA plan. You simply can't buy a plan anymore, at any cost. Shitty situation out here for self employed people who don't have an original/grandfathered plan.

 

Last I checked, that isn't really a "kid".

No doubt. Predictable clusterfuck when you require extension of coverage to young adults and people who didn't want insurance until after they got sick.

 

 

 

 

Age is a factor for your premiums too. And obviously location. Not sure about SoCal, but on Jan 1 BCBS in AZ just cancelled anyone who was on an ACA plan. You simply can't buy a plan anymore, at any cost. Shitty situation out here for self employed people who don't have an original/grandfathered plan.

 

 

No doubt. Predictable clusterfuck when you require extension of coverage to young adults and people who didn't want insurance until after they got sick.

 

 

Yep, I suffered the same fate. Everything was going great, then whammmo, the ACA hit and I got fucked. No way around it, I got screwed.

Yep, I suffered the same fate. Everything was going great, then whammmo, the ACA hit and I got fucked. No way around it, I got screwed.

 

You actually meant to say UACA "Un Affordable Care Act".

Yep, I suffered the same fate. Everything was going great, then whammmo, the ACA hit and I got fucked. No way around it, I got screwed.

 

 

But think about all the people who now have insurance!

 

Never mind that the middle class got fucked in the deal. Never mind that so many provisions were written so that lazy people could buck the system. Just pass it then read what's inside.

 

Let's hope Trumpcare fixes some of the pitfalls of Obamacare.

Is it because now insurance companies had to spread the cost of previous high risk or low income persons onto the paying public? In Canada they say free healthcare.. only issue is... they take 48% of your pay off the top and you wait 19 hours in the emergency room to be seen. I flew to Texas when my L4-L5 collapsed and I couldn't move. I would have had to wait 2 years for surgery.

 

You actually meant to say UACA "Un Affordable Care Act".

 

You are absolutely correct. What a way to shit on the middle class. How the program isn't a redistribution of wealth, I will never know.

But think about all the people who now have insurance!

 

Never mind that the middle class got fucked in the deal. Never mind that so many provisions were written so that lazy people could buck the system. Just pass it then read what's inside.

 

Let's hope Trumpcare fixes some of the pitfalls of Obamacare.

 

Man, I know this sounds heartless, but I am not rolling in money. I do ok, I have a decent life, I have a happy family and they are healthy (wife does have a pre existing condition, but we were always easily covered), but they are my primary responsibility. I am happy to help people, I do all the time, but not at the expense of my family having what they need. I was put on this earth to be their caretakers, their shepherds, not the rest of the people out there that are (for the most part) unwilling to make it happen for themselves and require people to fund their lives.

 

I am just not sure what problem we were fixing. The healthcare system might need work, but for the middle class that was paying their way, keeping themselves somewhat healthy and working hard, they were doing fine. Did we have some problems like non covered pre existing conditions, people that blew past a lifetime maximum, sure we did, but fix that problem by itself. For some reason we felt the need to burden the rest of the country with the needs of the few. I don't appreciate that.

 

As for the system in Canada, and what Szabo said, that is what worries me about socialized healthcare. That is why I shy away from single payer. Raj, what do physicians think about it? How do you guys feel about the system moving in that direction? I just don't understand how healthcare is a right. I don't know anyone that should have a right to the hard work of another person, for free. That makes no sense to me. Although, obviously, it isn't free when the rest of the working class pays 50% of their income in taxes.

Bill, if $1000 a month for a good BCBS family plan with $5000 ded isn't dirt cheap, please pm me! I wish I paid that.

Most of my income but not all was from Royalties so I got fucked with paying the 3.9% extra AHC tax on royalty income and rammed up the rear for normal income plus the extra .9% AHC tax, then I sold my intellectual property and got fucked all over again with the same 3.9% extra AHC tax, we are talking many many extra 100000's of $'s in taxes for AHC less than a mill but not much.

Now I am retired and have to insure myself and wife on an individual policy and pay around $1200 per month with family deductible of 12k per year

I have to pay $26k per year before I receive a penny from my insurance, how the F is that affordable?

 

Sorry for the rant but needed to get that off my chest.

Bill, if $1000 a month for a good BCBS family plan with $5000 ded isn't dirt cheap, please pm me! I wish I paid that.

thats pretty typical depending on age, pre existing, location etc..

Bill, if $1000 a month for a good BCBS family plan with $5000 ded isn't dirt cheap, please pm me! I wish I paid that.

 

That isn't available anymore. I pay 1k for a shit plan through Humana or something. It is a grand, 5k deductible, and crap coverage. I used to pay $500 a month, straight from BCBS, and it was rockstar.

Just pass it then read what's inside.

fcuking Pelosi, man. THAT was the moment I gave up on politics.

Most of my income but not all was from Royalties so I got fucked with paying the 3.9% extra AHC tax on royalty income and rammed up the rear for normal income plus the extra .9% AHC tax, then I sold my intellectual property and got fucked all over again with the same 3.9% extra AHC tax, we are talking many many extra 100000's of $'s in taxes for AHC less than a mill but not much.

Now I am retired and have to insure myself and wife on an individual policy and pay around $1200 per month with family deductible of 12k per year

I have to pay $26k per year before I receive a penny from my insurance, how the F is that affordable?

 

Sorry for the rant but needed to get that off my chest.

 

 

Shit, that sucks. On the other hand, royalties means you didn't have to work as long as the next guy. (I'm an author)

 

 

 

 

Being in Russia this moment, there is a thing I want to say about free healthcare. It is a huge, huge, rock off your shoulders. To know that I can go play football and if something happens I can go see a doc and not worry about the cost is almost unbelievable. The service is not horrible as our Canadian friends describe. I've been to a public clinic 5 times in the last 2 months and I haven't waited over 20 mins once. In US, because at times I couldn't pay for my insurance, or because I would be scared of what the bill would be and debate whether I should even go get checked, (or it's all under the deductible) I wouldn't go to the doc for years. And in the last 6 weeks I've gotten a chest xray, a cardiogram, appointments with 3 specialists and tomorrow I get my urine and blood tests before I go for more xrays. They just passed a bill here that your MRT appointment must be performed within 2 months, because before people waited too long. Sure, I wouldn't go to a dental public clinic (unless I went to a recommended doc there), but overall I am very impressed with how much this helps people. To you guys with insurance in America, do you feel like you have gone to the doctor for all the issues with your health and body that you're wondering about?

 

Sounds like Russia has a better grasp on their health care. There are so many things here that kill the quality of service in Canada. Underfunding of the system as a whole, lack of equipment, hence the year long wait for an MRI or specialty equipment. You cannot choose your doctor. When I went to Texas I could review doctors qualifications and experience. Big bonus in my eyes when someone is going to be cutting into your spine. Doctors here get paid the same overall and its shit pay, so a lot of surgeons go south of the border where they are more appreciated from a financial standpoint. Also we allow WAY too many people over 65 into the country. Its not to be a cunt, but when people come in that are a burden to the system from day one and have contributed nothing to it, why should the rest of the citizens fund it?

You're damned either way. In the US everyone ones the latest and greatest for everything done right now. Expensive study upon study, there is a lot of 'don't get sued' medicine practices as well as don't get in trouble by some governing body that makes up random rules that have nothing to do with hard science.

 

Single payer system with a private system as well is probably the best system. It's kind of what we have in the US now. Of course if you're high tier private it's 'unfair' and suddenly you're taxed extra for a Cadillac health plan.

 

It seems to me like maybe if primary care was covered by a national plan, and big stuff was private that would be better. The primary care physicians should have the cost of their education refunded to them in this system imo.

 

The Russian system that Dennis is talking about sounds great, I've heard similar things about the British system. For primary care that's how it works. Once you escalate beyond that you get shortages. I had a patient who broke his ankle in France. He went to two different hospitals and they didnt have the recourses to fix him so he got a cast and came to the US and git it fixed.

 

Is healthcare a right? My answer. Sort of. General health is good for a population. When I was in residency on call we'd be up all night at county hospital knocking out gall bladders on Hispanic men. Well if you delved into why you're up all night doing what could be done as day surgery you might get annoyed, but the backlog was huge for these poor people. Dig a little bit and find that they can't work with the pain. Get their operation and they can get back to work in 2-3 days and provide for their family. Once I learned that I never complained about those cases.

 

Sorry for the rambling. I'm just kind of talking.

You're damned either way. In the US everyone ones the latest and greatest for everything done right now. Expensive study upon study, there is a lot of 'don't get sued' medicine practices as well as don't get in trouble by some governing body that makes up random rules that have nothing to do with hard science.

 

Single payer system with a private system as well is probably the best system. It's kind of what we have in the US now. Of course if you're high tier private it's 'unfair' and suddenly you're taxed extra for a Cadillac health plan.

 

It seems to me like maybe if primary care was covered by a national plan, and big stuff was private that would be better. The primary care physicians should have the cost of their education refunded to them in this system imo.

 

The Russian system that Dennis is talking about sounds great, I've heard similar things about the British system. For primary care that's how it works. Once you escalate beyond that you get shortages. I had a patient who broke his ankle in France. He went to two different hospitals and they didnt have the recourses to fix him so he got a cast and came to the US and git it fixed.

 

Is healthcare a right? My answer. Sort of. General health is good for a population. When I was in residency on call we'd be up all night at county hospital knocking out gall bladders on Hispanic men. Well if you delved into why you're up all night doing what could be done as day surgery you might get annoyed, but the backlog was huge for these poor people. Dig a little bit and find that they can't work with the pain. Get their operation and they can get back to work in 2-3 days and provide for their family. Once I learned that I never complained about those cases.

 

Sorry for the rambling. I'm just kind of talking.

 

On primary physicians salary - that's the issue I forgot to include. It is ridiculous, plain and simple, what doctors in public clinics get paid here. Imagine $500-600 a month salary for a gynecologist? A friend of mine has to work 3 jobs so she can pay her bills. When she works at a private clinic over the weekend, she makes a commission based off the fee of the service. Another doc said it's basically 2, up to 3x their salary if they went to a private clinic, but then 'how will all these grandmas afford to come to a public clinic?" So yeah, someone gets the shaft either way.