Self Employed (immigrant) Health Insurance (how much, home, schools)

[tertius]

I've started looking at health insurance through Health Insurance - Affordable Health Insurance Quotes, Individual Health Insurance but I don't know what's right to go for.

How much should each of the items be? (Still hard to figure out cost from South Africa compared to the USA)

I'm very healthy and haven't really been to the doctor all that much during my life (My dad is a doctor and I've never had any large problems).

Thanks for any help!

[tstone]

If you're young, healthy and have $5,000-10,000 in the bank and/or auto insurance PIP coverage, you can just go for one of the catastrophic plans. They don't cover doctor visits, prescriptions, preventive care, etc, but in case you get admitted to the hospital for something serious, you are covered 70-80% up to the $5,000-10,000 annual maximum.

After that happens though, good luck retaining affordable coverage, if you're not outright dropped altogether, out of money & left to rot in the street. It's all a rip-off if you ask me, but at least it will somewhat protect you in case something serious happens.

[chris_ut]

Blue Cross Blue Shield has some good affordable catastrophic plans. If you live near a Memorial Hermann hospital they have their own plan which has good coverage.

[bamba_boy]

Forget about it and make sure you have money set aside for a plane flight home where there is much cheaper medical service. Closer to home, Monterrey MX has good quality and the larger cities in Costa Rica. I've had un-insured American friends who flew down there to both places for minor surgeries and treatments. They told me it a small fraction of American hospitals' quotes. Even had some doctors trained in American Med Schools. As somebody mentioned before non-group, non-large-company-sponsored medical insurance is a criminal rip-off for any kind of decent coverage of basic needs. Also, if you did have any pre-existing illness you likely wouldn't be able to get any coverage at any price and even healthy family comprehensive (vs catastrophic only) plans are often 25-50% of the average working man's income (anotherwards completely un-afordable unless your family can sleep in the car and eat beans every meal!).

Speaking of Memorial SW, they have an aphiliated clinic on Beechnut across the FW 59 that I've used many times that only charges around $40 per visit for checkups and minor emergencies and followups maybe 5-10. Once when I had a severely infected, wounded arm I had to go back for about a dozen re-dressings and lancings and they only charged me for the first visit and a small fee for penicillin, none for followups. They opened it up to alleviate all the people with minor injuries and illness from clogging up their main emergency room with the uninsured who can't afford regular doctors.