The cost of Health Insurance? (how much, unemployed, deductible)

[Babeejulss]

My husband and I are considering moving to GA and we are pricing out all of the different Ins. so we could get a feel as to how much we would really be saving if we move to GA.

I am 25 (F). Never been seriously ill, broken, or had kids. No diseases or birth defects.

He is 26 (M) - He had knee surgery when he was 12. Nothing else. No diseases or birth defects.

What would the (approx.) health insurance be for us as a couple.

Hopefully, someone can help me.

Thanks,

Julie

[Babeejulss]

Does anyone here have insurance? If so can you help me?

Julie

[Merin]

I have insurance through my husbands job. I think its around 60.00 a paycheck for both of us. We have United Health Care PPO that gives us 100% hospitalization, and even covers 3 treatments of IVF up to 70k.

[BobKovacs]

You might want to go to ehealthinsurance.com and see what comes up. You're likely to find plans ranging from $300/month to over $1,000/month depending on deductibles, co-pays, coverage, etc.

[rackensack]

Bob's advice is sound -- when I was unemployed several years ago, I used ehealthinsurance.com to find a Blue Cross/Blue Shield major medical plan to cover my wife and (then) two kids. The type of coverage, deductible, etc., you opt for will make a lot of difference in the premium you pay. For our situation at the time, we chose a plan with a high deductible, larger co-pay, prescription coverage, and other options that kept our cost for covering all four of us under $300/month. None of us had any sort of chronic problems that required regular doctor visits or ongoing prescriptions, and the kids were old enough by then that they weren't having to have well-child checkups more than once a year. Our goal was primarily to ensure that if one of us (especially the kids) had a serious illness or accident, the cost of hospitalization and treatment wouldn't wipe us out financially. We were making a bet that we could cover the high deductible out-of-pocket. We'd have been on the hook for most medical expenses up to the first $5000, but we had enough savings and investments that we felt we could make that bet for whatever period I was out of work. We also figured into the equation that we'd be paying $500 less a month than if we continued coverage via COBRA from my previous employer, for a PPO with much more comprehensive coverage, which would have cost us over $800/month. Since I was unemployed for 8 months, that's $4000 that we were able to keep in the bank/investments earning interest, and that would have been available to us for medical care or other unexpected emergencies.

It sounds like you could also manage with the same sort of policy we had -- no kids, in good overall health, etc. As long as you're able to absorb the out-of-pocket costs and don't have any reason to believe that you are likely to need ongoing regular care or prescriptions, you should be OK -- especially if you take some of the money you're not spending on premiums and put it into savings to provide you with an emergency fund.

[Babeejulss]

I went to Ehealthinsurance and I checked out the different premiums... It's funny but it seems as though the ins. in acworth, GA is more expensive than fort lauderdale, FL... Do you think it will change if i were going through an emploer?

The quote for FL was $306.77 w/ maternity
The quote for GA was $391.96 w/ maternity

I thought it was suppose to be cheaper in GA?

Julie

[BobKovacs]

I'm not surprised that we're more expensive than Florida, but I'd also bet that the coverage, riders, etc aren't exactly the same either. The cost through an employer might be higher or might be lower- companies pay different rates based on the number of employees, the coverages they select, etc.