Health Insurance for the Self-Employed?

SharkJumper writes "Looks like this question has been asked before, but might be due for an update. I'm a self-employed programmer who is about to become a father. Previously, my family's insurance has come through my wife's employer, but she is eagerly looking forward to being a stay-at-home mom. We must look for that elusive low-cost insurance in order to enable her to do this. Losing her insurance is not a huge loss as, due to failed negotiations, the hospital in our city (3rd largest city in the state), along with most of the doctors that refer to it, is dumping the network (largest in the state) that our insurance uses. On the individual coverage plan front, my research shows story after story of deception, fraud, and general run-around or obfuscation by most of the major players and nearly all the minors. With all of the bad experiences out there, I've yet to see a good review of an insurance company. What does the Slashdot crowd use and recommend? Company and plan-type? PPO? HMO? HDHP + HSA (High Deductible Health Plan + Health Savings Account)?"

Comments

Quit being moral about it

[NekoXP]

You have read some news in some newspaper about some shady goings on at every insurance company?

Oh My God.

Who cares? Just pick the one that gives you the BEST HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN for the LEAST MONEY. Why does that have to be so difficult? Ask your doctor which one he would choose, and just go with it.

Re:For better health coverage?

[maxume]

Of course, Canada and the rest of the world have the advantage that the US health care system pays for much of the research and development that goes into their care. Drug companies sink huge amounts of money into developing drugs and then Canada says to them "You can only charge $x here." and they go ahead and say "OK" because $x is higher than their marginal cost of production, and they just make sure that they charge enough at home to cover R&D. Yippee.