Health insurance recommendations?

[etherealfocus]

Bought health insurance through my company (small MSP) for myself, my wife, and one employee through USHA. Decided to let her go recently and tried to contact my salesperson to remove her from the plan, but she's not responding to calls or emails.

The company is US Health Advisors, which I've seen some sketchy/pyramid-y reviews on in the process of trying to find another contact number for them.

Given that, I'm wondering if I might be better off just switching to another insurance company completely? I've been assured that this is an Obamacare-compliant plan but haven't independently verified... don't know anything about the insurance industry unfortunately. :/

Recommendations? We barely use it; mostly just a checkup and maybe an x-ray here and there... I've heard it's possible to just avoid avoid insurance completely, use a religious exemption or something to avoid the penalty, and just pay cash for our medical needs. Might be cheaper... we don't have medical needs anywhere near the 350/mo or so we're paying for USHA.

 

[zerocool84]

Sure pay cash until you actually need to use it for something that costs tens of thousands of dollars. Most people just don't have that laying around.

 

[etherealfocus]

Eh. Low risk. We're both pretty healthy. Rather focus on day to day guaranteed savings than maybe-eventually risks 2-3 decades from now.

Also, that was a tangent. Main point is whether USHA is worth the money or whether I should snag something else. It's just me (34) and wife (25) for foreseeable future. Will be sticking to contractors rather than employees going forward.

 

[fenrir]

While I hope you or your wife have no major issues for another 20 - 30 years, do you have the cash for when something happens sooner than that? I had two lower back surgeries at 38 that were completely unexpected. It was $75,000 total for those, not including the time I missed work (income). If I did not have insurance, I probably would still be paying for it.

 

[etherealfocus]

Yeah, I have a substantial savings. Not rich, just good at living efficiently and investing.

And again, that was just a tangent. I'm mostly wondering whether I should ditch USHA and get someone else. Lots of complaints about them. And my sales rep going dark doesn't instill confidence. They also weren't willing to backdate my bill considering the 3wks between when I fired her and the current date when I was finally able to take her off my account. That's around $300 down the tubes which I'm not happy about.

 

[OverVolt]

Sounds like you would benefit from a plan with a HSA and out of pocket max.

Use the tax-free HSA for checkups and you'll hit the the out of pocket max in case you get anything unexpected and expensive.

 

[RockinZ28]

Sounds like you would benefit from a plan with a HSA and out of pocket max.

Use the tax-free HSA for checkups and you'll hit the the out of pocket max in case you get anything unexpected and expensive.

Those can still cost a substantial amount. Cheapest for me + spouse is over $1,100/mo with 6,300 deductibles/max out of pocket. And why I didn't have health insurance last year.

I'd consider those Christian ministry plans even if you don't give a crap about the religion. Those were like $350/mo for decent catastrophic coverage, and don't have to dodge the obamacare fines. Thankfully my wife got a job that has decent healthcare programs so I didn't have to go that route this year.

 

[Slew Foot]

unless you get hit by a bus, you should be ok. since you cant be excluded from preexisitng conditions (for now) you can always buy it during open enrollment of the year you need it. or you can have a "qualifying life event" and buy it

 

[etherealfocus]

Yes, we're both atheists lol, and honestly while we don't have a problem with religious people, neither of us wants to give money to any religious establishment. I'll spend a little more out of pocket to avoid that... and whatever amount of phone preaching we might have to tolerate.

1100/mo is a dealbreaker. I'm looking to save cash on the cheapest credible disaster-prevention plan we can find. All the current stuff we do is easy out of pocket. My last xray for a busted rib was like 300. Meh. If we can get a good subsidy for regular preventative stuff and hit the Obamacare checkbox without having to come up with some sketchy religious exemption that's even better.

Heh... maybe I should join the Church of Satan and say I'm opposed on grounds that abortions aren't mandatory XD

 

[RockinZ28]

Well from what I found the Christian ministry crap was the cheapest credible disaster plan. Would rather give them money even if I don't share their views, than pay a cent to the insurance companies that will make every effort to fuck you out of a claim, or give more money to the gov.

I'm just ticking the coverage was unaffordable box for 2016 taxes, will see what happens.

 

[etherealfocus]

Well, when you put it that way... How much cheaper are they? And do they make BS religious exceptions for birth control, abortions, etc? Cause that's one thing that might put them in the same moral boat as the regular companies.

 

[RockinZ28]

The one I was looking at was like $350/mo for a family plan for the top tier plan, vs $1,100 for the worst traditional insurance plan possible. I didn't really look into it that closely tho. Was at the end of 2016 and I was looking for cheaper alternatives, but then my wife got a job in November and we now have regular insurance through her work.

Traditional insurance premiums can vary wildly by area/state too though. Here where I'm at in WI it's $1,1000/mo, but a better plan in SoCal is just $550/mo. Just look on ehealthinsurance.com and plug in your ages to see what's available.

 

[OverVolt]

The one I was looking at was like $350/mo for a family plan for the top tier plan, vs $1,100 for the worst traditional insurance plan possible. I didn't really look into it that closely tho. Was at the end of 2016 and I was looking for cheaper alternatives, but then my wife got a job in November and we now have regular insurance through her work.

Traditional insurance premiums can vary wildly by area/state too though. Here where I'm at in WI it's $1,1000/mo, but a better plan in SoCal is just $550/mo. Just look on ehealthinsurance.com and plug in your ages to see what's available.

My personal coverage went from $151 to $290 just for me but good luck trying to explain that to anyone on ATOT that bigger numbers costed me more.

Ultimately I'm on good benefits now, the ACA had the opposite effect it was intended to have. I flocked to a big employer because the individual market was now a cluster$%^&

For a long time I had actually enjoyed working 40-60 hours at a couple different jobs for the flexibility instead of being tied down to one place. New manager that sucked? Drop my hours at job X and pick up extra at job Y.

 

[shortylickens]

NOT aetna. They screwed me over multiple times.
Government just fined them a fuckload of money for being deceitful bastards.

 

[etherealfocus]

Yeah I've heard horror stories. Thing is, I can't think of one I haven't heard horror stories about.

I'm in North Texas and seems like most employers here use Cygna or BCBS, both of which the news seems to hate. Dunno if they're cheaper or just have relatively broad networks or what.

 

[RockinZ28]

Shouldn't be any surprise. Insurance companies exist to make money, not help you. Some are just better than others at convincing people they're on your side.