By Andy, on November 21st, 2010
I live in an recreational vehicle full time and I am also self employed. I have obtained my own health insurance for the past 6 years. I participate in several online RV related forums. This is a thread I recently contributed information to regarding health insurance for people living full time in their recreational vehicles.
Original poster:
Escapees sent me some literature about the Texas BCBS plans and I am going to call them on Monday to get quotes but I was just wondering about your experience with this company and how often they have raised your rates? The disclaimer in the brochure said something like: ‘guaranteed rates for 6 months’ which makes me wonder if you start at a low, introductory rate and then they ratchet it up every half-year.
We are now legally residents of Texas (yahoo!) and our $2,500 deductible PPO in California is $401/month – but we only have that for 6 months after leaving California. Both of us are in good health: I am 48 years old, self-employed, and my son is 9 years old – so all we need is catastrophic insurance (high deductible) and all of the annual exams, etc… will be paid out-of-pocket.
Also, has anyone found going through an insurance agent gave you better rates than contracting with BCBS directly?
Any advice you can offer is gratefully accepted – thanks! I replied:
I have had a Texas BC/BS plan for 6 years. As someone said, they raise the premiums every year. My Blue Choice HDHP has a $5k deductible and the increase this year was $18/mo. After the deductible is met, they pay 100% of all claims. not 80/20 and I like that.
I used to be an insurance agent and see no advantage to going through an agent unless you are totally clueless about the whole insurance process. I have used eHealth for years because I can compare plans side by side and sign up online. The thread then got off course as threads usually do. Medicare came up, different health insurance companies were bashed and so forth.
I contributed this final note to the thread:
Little early for me to be worried about Medicare.  In the half dozen years I have used eHealth, I have always had the opportunity to choose between several insurance providers and multiple plans. Never have they ‘collected’ my info so an agent could call. eHealth in effect becomes your agent when you sign up online. They do have live agents to speak to on the phone should you need help.
From an ex-insurance agents standpoint:
Health Insurance premiums get jacked up because of all the bells and whistles. Doctor visits, vision, dental and prescription plans are things people are going to use. The insurance companies know that; there is no free lunch. Check a stripped plan with a high deductible and then add on all the bells and whistles — you will see what I mean.
When you get a new policy, you go through underwriting to see how healthy you are. The insurance companies feel you are a pretty ‘safe’ bet that first year. The second year, the odds for the insurance company go a bit more negative— and your premiums go up. Third year–even more so. You become more of a liability the longer you keep the same policy. If you are healthy and are not dealing with alot of pre-existing conditions, it may pay to get a new policy, rather than renewing the same one. I did this last year and got basically the identical BCBS plan as previous for $42 less per month. One caveat. Keep the OLD policy in force until you are approved for the new one.
Step back and take a look at what your REAL priorities are.
Can you afford to pay the doctor visits out of pocket for the 1 or 2 times a year you go?
Is dental and vision a necessity?
Are prescriptions prohibitively expensive? Mine is $8 a month (generic) at Wal Mart.
Since I am self employed, my greatest fear is a catastrophic health event — a major surgery, hospital stay or bad accident. I don’t get paid sick days. Whenever I go to the doctor, the insurance lady gasps a little when she sees my deductible. It is $5k annually. The part they don’t realize is that once my deductible is met, BCBS pays 100% of EVERYTHING up to $2 million. The most I will ever be out of pocket is $5k….. I can live with that.
My plan is an HSA. I fund my HSA savings account with pre-tax dollars and use a debit card to pay for the doctor visits and such. This may not be for everybody but it suits my needs. 
By Andy, on November 12th, 2010
“In the wake of the federal health care overhaul, large companies are investigating the advantages of dropping medical care as an employee benefit. A recent article in Fortune magazine, for example, notes that internal documents subpoenaed by Congress indicate that AT&T, Caterpillar, John Deere, and Verizon all were considering eliminating the health care coverage they currently provide to their workers and paying a penalty fee to the government instead. They are doing the math and beginning to recognize that there are cost savings associated with the dropping of health care as a benefit.”
The health care environment if you are self employed or a small business has never been worse. Health insurance companies are in business to make money – as are all businesses. Your health insurance policy is an agreement between you and the insurance company. In exchange for money (your premium) they agree to underwrite the monetary risk of your future health care. Health insurance companies figure all of this out by having huge databases of information. They are pretty darned good at predicting whether or not you are going to get sick and how much it will cost them. That is one reason they exclude injuries which are a result of say auto racing or an act of war. It takes the predictability out of the underwriting process.
Another thing that will drive insurance premiums up or cause health insurance companies to exit the market all together are government mandates. And that is exactly what the new Obamacare does. It tells the health insurance companies they have to cover people with pre-existing conditions for example.
A sad sign of the times is that many individuals who are working for smaller companies are finding themselves without health insurance. Since small companies have smaller risk pools, the insurance premiums sometimes get so high the small business can no longer afford them and stay in business. Sad, but true.
So how do you go about finding self employed health insurance? The best time to buy anything is when you don’t really need it. It allows you to do your homework and not buy something under undue pressure. Health insurance is the same way. If your employer is struggling financially or if you are contemplating starting your own business, you need to be researching health insurance now.
eHealthinsurance is one of your best resources to research the many options available in the personal health insurance category. They have many articles related to the problems self employed people have finding health care coverage. They are also the only online insurance site that gives you the opportunity to compare policies side by side.
By Andy, on November 11th, 2010
Many people have heard that there is a self-employed health insurance tax deduction available for income taxes. Here are the basics of how this deduction works and how it can benefit you as a self-employed individual.
Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction
Currently, the IRS allows self-employed individuals to deduct the amount of money that they pay for health insurance on their taxes. Therefore, at the end of the year, you can total up the total amount of money that you have paid in health insurance premiums and out of pocket health expenditures, and then deduct that amount from your taxable income. This will lower your tax liability and place you in a lower tax bracket.
Guidelines
Generally, most self-employed individuals will be able to take this deduction. In order to qualify, you cannot be eligible for a group health insurance plan with any employer. Also, you can only deduct the premiums for health insurance if your business earns a profit for that year. If you are operating at a loss, you cannot deduct this amount from your income taxes.
With this deduction, you can deduct the money that you pay for your own health insurance. You can also deduct the money that was spent on your family’s health insurance.
Special Rule for 2010 Only
Self-employed persons will be able to deduct their health insurance premiums as a business expense that reduces their self-employment tax and their income tax for the year 2010 only. Accordingly, I expect the health insurance deduction to show up as a line item on the 2010 versions of Schedule C and Schedule F. This change is included as part of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.
For 2009, health insurance reduces income tax only; it does not reduce the self-employment tax. For 2011 and later years, the health insurance deduction will revert back to being deducted only against the income tax, unless Congress decides to extend this particular tax break.
eHealthinsurance has been a source for self employed health insurance plans since 1997. They currently offer over 10,000 plans from 180 different health insurance companies in all 50 states. eHealthinsurance is the only online health insurance company that allows you to compare multiple plans online and then sign up via their eSign option. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
By Andy, on November 10th, 2010
What can you do as a self employed health insurance subscriber to reduce your premium?
It is really pretty simple. You reduce your liability to the health insurance provider.
You can increase your deductible. I currently run a $5000 deductible on my Blue Cross/ Blue Shield plan here in Texas. Whenever I go into the doctor’s office, the gals there at the front desk always suck in their breath when they discover how high my deductible is. It doesn’t phase me. $5000 is a drop in the bucket if you have a major medical catastrophe. Once I meet my deductible. I am covered 100% up to 2 million dollars. Read that again… 100% coverage…. not 80/20. I like those odds.
You can change coverage. Most of the time your health insurance premium will only increase slightly the second year it is in effect. The third year it will probably take a BIG jump. This makes sense. Remember the health insurance company is all about the money and the law of averages. The first year, you had to clear their underwriting for them to agree to cover you so they are pretty comfortable you are healthy and present a low risk as far as major medical expenses. The second year, the averages go slightly against the insurance company and they raise your premium. The third year— watch out! If you are still reasonably healthy and don’t have any pre existing conditions, you need to shop your health insurance at least every two years. If you are willing to go through the underwriting inspection , chances are you will come out on the other side with cheaper health insurance and remember, Self employed people tend to be healthier and use their insurance less. That is in your favor.
Keep the frills to a minimum. If you have a health insurance plan with all the bells and whistles like doctor visits and dental and vision and prescription, it is going to go up dramatically each and every year. Do the math. You will probably discover as I did that it is cheaper to go with a stripped down health insurance plan and pay for the frills out of pocket.
I change health insurance plans every two years. This year I changed plans but I just went from one Blue Cross / Blue Shield plan to another. Same basic benefits, I went through underwriting and they accepted me and THEN I canceled the old plan. Never cancel your present insurance until you have the new insurance in place. I saved $32 per month.
eHealth Insurance continues to be my preferred choice for obtaining health insurance. If I get stuck on something, I can always call them up for clarification. Most of the time, I am able to do it all online and that sure beats a pushy salesmen sitting at my kitchen table!
By Andy, on November 9th, 2010
Self employed business people are used to operating under a slightly different set of circumstances from someone who is employed by a large company with company provided health insurance benefits. If you are self employed, you need to really look at your health insurance needs in an objective light.
Most self employed people don’t visit the doctor very often. The can’t afford to miss work for a sniffle or a sneeze… and they don’t have paid sick days off.
Does it make sense to have a health insurance policy that includes the expensive doctor visit option?
Most self employed health insurance plans don’t include dental or vision plans either…. for the same reason. Adding additional coverage to a basic health insurance plan quickly increases the monthly premium.
So why even have health insurance if it is not going to pay for the little stuff?
Of course, the main reason to have health insurance is to provide financial help should you incur a major medical event. People tend to lose sight of that fact. Insurance companies are not stupid. They know if people have policies with low doctor visit co-pays and dental and vision insurance, those add ons will be used… and the insurance companies charge accordingly.
What many people do not realize is having minimal health insurance will benefit you even if your deductible has not been met or your health insurance does not cover the procedure. Doctors and hospitals have a ‘street price’ they charge. It would be the same as full retail price in a store. However, if you have health insurance they will only charge you what the insurance company allows –even if your deductible has not been met.
It works like this. Say you need an x ray of your shoulder. The hospital charges $125.00 for the x ray. The girl in insurance administration at the hospital calls your health insurance company while they are performing the x ray. When you get ready to pay the bill, it is only $85 — which is what the health insurance company allows for this procedure.
Why don’t you review your present coverage and then check one of the online health insurers like eHealth? You may find that reducing a few benefits that you seldom use will drastically reduce your health insurance premium.
By Andy, on November 8th, 2010
I was ‘downsized’ in 2003 effectively causing my recession to start well before the rest of the country. I had been part of Corporate America upper management for years. Because of that I had never lacked for health insurance. Health insurance was just a given and it was good insurance. Low co-pays, dental and vision insurance and a great prescription plan along with a low deductible were a hallmark of group health insurance back then.
Imagine my surprise the first time I went out shopping for self employed health insurance! The health insurance plans I had been used to via my former employer were far, far out of reach financially. Tough decisions had to be made regarding cutting benefits like dental and vision plans. My co-pays were increased and my health insurance deductible went up substantially. People talk about sticker shock — it was more like a sticker coma!
I bought health insurance through my local agent; the same guy that carried the insurance on my car. He spent maybe 30 minutes with me, presenting and explaining the plan and filling out the paper work. I really wanted to think about it at least overnight but looking back now, I know he pressured me into closing the sale immediately. That is what a good salesman does. I walked out of his office feeling relieved that I had secured health insurance and the premium wasn’t all that bad. Deep down in my heart, where I didn’t want to look, I knew I had been the target of a high pressure sales tactic and I had been pushed into the health insurance purchase.
Fast forward a year and it is time to renew my self employed health insurance policy. Of course the premium was going up, it always does. That is what my health insurance agent told me. My family and I had occasion to use the insurance policy a few times in the previous year and it was just not quite as good as the agent had promised. I was determined this time to be a more knowledgeable and cautious consumer. And it the computer age, where do you go to research anything? Online of course! So I googled ‘self-employed health insurance’ and began my education. One name kept popping up. eHealthinsurance.
eHealthinsurance pioneered online health insurance way back in 1997. These days they are licensed in all 50 states. They have over 10,000 health insurance products available and represent over 180 different health insurance companies. Two things struck me about eHealth.
One.) You can shop multiple health insurance plans from different companies with different benefits and then line up all the quotes side by side and do a line by line comparison. I like that.
Two.) State government approves the rates health insurance companies can charge in each state. eHealth promises the lowest rates allowable by law. Local agents commonly jack the health insurance premiums sky high by ‘upselling’ the client. They add on mostly useless bells and whistles to increase their commission and increase your premium. That is the way salesmen make a living. ALways has been; always will be.
I decided to give eHealth Insurance a try. I was able to find a viable health insurance plan for myself in my family in about 30 minutes. The insurance premium was considerably less than I had been paying and I was able to do it all online — without talking to a single salesmen — using their eSign technology. That’s right. I was able to virtually sign all my health insurance application documents right online.
Since 2005, I have changed my insurance policy a few times to keep my insurance premium as low as possible. I even changed my health insurance carrier after I got a divorce and the kids had all left home. Through all those years and all those changes, eHealth has always been the health insurance company I used to find the best deal.
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