Slashdot Mirror
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)?"
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.
I expect a decent enough society to want to care for people who actually need health care.
Do you believe society can only exist as part of the government? Form a society and help pay for people who actually need health care if you want to. I might join. Especially if you hire administrators who are motivated by personal profit to administer the business as effeciently and usefully as possible.
But why argue with someone like you? You are essentially saying "I want to force other people to pay me money, let their children die, it's not my problem." And you are also saying "I am both too stupid to comprehend, and willfully ignorant of ethics to bother thinking who the money I steal comes from." Forgive me for wondering if your DNA is worth contributing to the gene pool.
It's the old fool's dream of a free lunch. Congratulations, you've just made the classic blunder that every government employee (and elected politician) loves to see the mindless masses make: "If I don't pay at the time of service, it's free!"
Hello, McFly! Canadians are taxed at an outrageous rate to pay for a system run as inefficiently as California's DMV. On top of that, getting top-rate care (the kind that's currently tagged as "experimental" by HMOs) is practically impossible. You're not ALLOWED to go outside the system to get better quality care. The capper is that not only are you taxed at a ridiculous level and the care is "barely adequate" but you don't have any choice in the matter.
Here in the States, when I was single I had the cheapest, high-deductible plan my employer sponsored. I think it cost around $40 a month. I made that choice because as a single guy I wanted to keep as much of what I earned as possible. When I got married and had a kid, I chose to switch to a more comprehensive (and more expensive) plan, because that made sense now that I have a lot of responsibilities and commitments.
So, no thanks. You keep your commisar-run clinics where some Politburo member decides what's too expensive for everyone. I want state-of-the-art and I'm willing to pay for it.
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.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.