Health Insurance....Any advice? (pharmacy, deductible, income)

[Love4Big10]

Looking for a Health insurance for my family, anybody have any ideas as to what is a good insurance plan? Looking for maternity, well baby, yearly physicals, 500 deductible. Names of insurances would be great also.

[FindingZen]

Are we to assume that you're self-employed? Or are you a contract worker?

Kaiser Permanente is pretty big around here for employees and self-employed alike. Most of their practitioners tend to cluster in one of a half-dozen or so buildings; that's great if you live close by, not so great if you're a bit far from the closest. When you need to make an appointment with any doctors you call a centralized number that arranges things for you; again that could be taken as a positive or negative.

There are many other health insurance companies I would think... but their availability to you would probably depend on for whom and where you work.

[dolphinsonchest]

Health Insurance, my office does much of that kind of work. I would say that the answer to your question is complex and simple in the same, but the peanut version is this. If you can find the parameters you are looking for, doubtful, especially maternity coverage on individual medical plans, wellness, and a deductible at the $500.00 range, you would probably not afford it. If you can afford it, then if you do the math, you would actually be better off taking the high deductible plan, then taking the premium savings and depositing them into a Health Care Savings Account. The catch is that the individual medical plan must be HSA Qualified. However, it would work very well if your family is fairly healthy. If pharmacy is a large expenditure for your family, then the HSA would probably not be a fit because pharmacy is subject to deductibles on HSA qualified plans. The advantage of this plan design is that you would be able to deduct your contributions on the HSA account up to $5800.00 per year on your family, even if you were not self employed which is way cool. Also even if you do not itemize your taxes your contribution comes off the top of your adjusted gross income which is also sweet. HSA contributions do not coordinate against a qualified retirement, but at age 65 any left over funds can be used for retirement as well. If you are lucky enough to be self employed but not considered a highly compensated or key employee, you could have your employer encouraged to make your deposits on a pre-tax basis as well which will give you an extra kick of a tax break on your FICA as well and SUTA, etc. If you just take the deduction not pre-tax then you could deduct the Federal and State on your taxes at the end of the year like an IRA account. I am spending much time focusing on the HSA account because unless you have some medical issues in your family I think you will find that an individual hsa medical plan in conjuction with an HSA account is going to be the best bet. Hope that helps. For a recommendation on carriers, I would choose a blue cross/blue shield individual hsa medical plan, then jump over to GoBHB.com to obtain your individual HSA account. The cool thing about them is that you can actually invest your contributions in investments and then not have to pay taxes on the gains if you use those funds for medical, dental, or vision costs for your family.

[Love4Big10]

Thanks for the info. I am actually looking for a plan that fits my family right now and the additional kids we are going to have in the future. We have BC/BS right now that fits us here in Michigan, but we are moving in April and we were told that coverage might be questionable. Why.....I am not sure. I was under the assumption BC/BS is accepted pretty much everywhere. My wife and I are still checking with the insurance company directly. I will be working for a company, but they do not offer medical plans.

[dkf747]

MAMSI: Main They have good insurance at a reasonable rate.

[firefightermom]

Originally Posted by Love4Big10

Thanks for the info. I am actually looking for a plan that fits my family right now and the additional kids we are going to have in the future. We have BC/BS right now that fits us here in Michigan, but we are moving in April and we were told that coverage might be questionable. Why.....I am not sure. I was under the assumption BC/BS is accepted pretty much everywhere. My wife and I are still checking with the insurance company directly. I will be working for a company, but they do not offer medical plans.

I worked in a doctor's office for 8 years and dealt with all sorts of insurance plans. If you have BCBS and it is a PPO plan, it is accepted everywhere. Even if it is directly from a state, for example yours may be BCBS of Michigan. Most doctors who participate with BCBS would see you. PPO basically means no referral required from your PCP to see specialists. If you do have an HMO or Open Access plan you will need to see if your current company offers a PPO you can switch to when you move. Look at your BCBS card; if your PCP's name is listed, you will have no choice but to switch.

We had a problem when we moved from MD to PA with my husband's BCBS insurance--we had an open access plan, which meant we had to choose a PCP but were not required to get referrals--but there were no doctors here in PA on the plan. We talked to his HR, and got him switched to the out-of-area plan, which his company offers b/c they employ people who live in numerous states and commute to MD. If we had paid more for the PPO plan, we could have kept the same coverage.

Good luck!