Considering a good % of us either have or have to get our own health insurance, I figured I'd start a thread where we can all share some good/bad experiences and places/ways to go about getting your own health insurance.

Someone get the ball rolling...

wl,

www.ehealthinsurance.com

I've gotten both individual and small-business insurance plans from there and have been very happy w/ their options and customer service.

same here

They actually don't provide insurance themselves? I think they just collate health insurance products from various companies and get commission from selling them. I used the Sklansky method and bought some shares of EHTH. Hopefully this is a trend.

J,

Yes, they are an insurance agency, but in addition to just selling the plans they also will deal w/ lots of customer service issues for you. When changing or canceling plans I've gone through their online customer service and it has been way smoother than having to deal with the insurance company directly.

+1. Good experiences thus far.

If you're getting your own insurance, you should strongly consider a high-deductible, HSA-compatible plan. You can contribute money to an HSA tax-free, it grows tax-free, and you can spend it tax-free (only on healthcare costs obv.) and it never goes away.

Who offers these plans?

edit: can those of us who are self-employed gamblers qualify?

i'm not an expert. here is the IRS on HSAs. I'm pretty sure though that self-employed/unemployed people do qualify.

Ehealthins is the nuts

ehealthinsurance was confusing to sign up .. bastards had me sign up for 2 plans. They kept sending me emails: "complete your application today!" We'll see how cancellation goes.

out of curiosity what are you guys paying for health insurance? its always a consideration for me when i think of quitting my job to play cards but i dont know how much my free company paid insurance is worth.

Indy

My wife and I have way different plans because we were planning on her getting pregnant (she now is.)

I have a $5,000.00 deductible, 0% copay, no charge office visit after deductible PPO plan that's HSA compatible. 25 and tobacco free. We pay $64/mo.

She has a $0 deductible, 0% copay, $20 office visit HMO plan. She's 24 and tobacco free. We pay $175/mo.

I was really surprised at how relatively affordable it was when all you hear is doom and gloom about healthcare costs.

These are both Aetna plans through Ehealthinsurance.com. Its really easy to shop for plans, just type in your age and browse through them.

Most of the gloom and doom is because people think that EVERYONE should have PERFECT health care, and that would cost more i'd imagine.

My god that sounds cheap, i mean, wow, is there really even any kind of healthcare crisis in this country?

Sounds like they are young and in perfect health. The problems come when you have pre-existing health conditions and/or fit into some at-risk populace (e.g., smoker, morbidly obese, etc).