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Health Insurance When Leaving the Corporate World?
An anonymous reader writes "I've been working at a large company since I got out of college, so I didn't have to give much thought to getting my own healthcare plan. Now I'm thinking about leaving the corporate world and starting out on my own. I have a family now, so I need to make sure we're going to be covered should anything happen. Researching online turns up horror stories of people trying to get individual healthcare plans, or getting denied coverage on plans they thought they had. Does anyone else have experience going through this and what you've had to deal with, or am I making too big a deal of it?"
I found that the local grocery stores were union and part time workers could get full benefits. After looking at the cost of insurance for my family, I worked as a grocery cashier 15 hours a week (a fun job actually), received full benefits (taking up most of that paycheck) until my wife went back to work where she has the benefits. Otherwise, I would have never left corporate life because of that single issue.
Just like when planning for a very large purchase, be thorough and methodical in researching your options. Firstly, dismiss the plans that do not offer sufficient coverage. Secondly, dismiss plans that have yearly or total lifetime limits that are too low. Thirdly, read reviews, opinions, and small print on whatever plans are left. Finally, pick whichever fits your budget, preferably from a company whose last quarterly statement is not deep in the red, since the latter is sure to raise rates or compromise coverage.
Finally, remember that long-term disability is an absolute necessity in addition to life insurance (and possibly even more important). Make sure it's a policy with a completely different company.
If you go about it in a cool, organized manner, you will find the coverage you need... but don't be alarmed when you have to pay at least $15'000/year for it.
if you're rich, you have no problem
if you're poor, you have medicaid, and you have no problem
only if you are a middle class citizen in the united states do you have no healthcare options, and have to do ridiculous gymnastics like the poster above
how the hell did we arrive at this retarded status quo and why the hell do teabaggers and republicans oppose simple common sense reform of a horrible stituation?
i can hear all of their criticism of socialized medicine. republicans, teabaggers: i accept and acknowledge all of your criticism of socialized medicine. BUT ITS BETTER THAN WHAT WE CURRENTLY HAVE. do you not see that?
when you oppose socialized medicine in the usa, because of all the evils of that you see, you merely support a MUCH WORSE STATUS QUO
are you resisting because you have a better solution? (crickets)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Since you are probably in the US the easiest place to move to would probability be Canada.
And from what I understand you could still even work in the US, and getting heath care insurance for the US from Canada is very cheap.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
I quit my job in Denver in 1999 and move to Toronto. I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders: no longer was I trapped in my job, and no longer did I have to fear illness ruining my and my family's lives.
I'm pretty sure the parent post was meant in jest. But, at the same time, the United States might be the only developed nation in which such a huge chunk of the population could be so blindly frightened and misinformed. How the people formed such a masochistic relationship with the big corporations -- one so strong that they'll stand in the street and protest against their own interests -- is beyond me.
Maybe this entire American health care "debate" could be summarized with an infamous quote from a man protesting a perceived intrusion on his lifestyle by Obama: "Keep your government hands off my Medicare!"
Do you like German cars?
I don't know if you're able to move or not, but the situation isn't the same in every state. Maybe you could move to Hawaii, for example.
It might be overkill, but if you really want to go out on your own, that could be a path forward.
I worked for a large corporation. Not huge, but large enough to find shortcuts to covering employees. Instead of having insurance, they acted as the insurer and had Aetna act as a "manager" of the plan. Not only was this cheaper for them, they got out of all the regulations governing insurance. I had a kid, and they denied coverage because he wasn't a member at the time of his receiving care. But, I couldn't make him a member without a birthdate, so I fought with them for months. They I got canned, and lost access to mechanism to continuing fighting.
Long story short: State bureau of insurance couldn't do anything. Hospital hit me with $5,000 in bills, and the corporation probably got a tax write off.
I used to be capitalist until I saw capitalism in action.
I'm Canadian and very biased, so I'll just say that up front.
Move to Canada.
Canada is capitalist. Canada has universal health care. Canada's not going to take too much out of you through taxes; if they did, we wouldn't have the economy we do. Canada's tax code is fairly similar to the US, and probably fairly less complicated (and there are many, many deductions available to businesses). And you know that Canada has a stable government and isn't going to be embroiled in conflict any time soon.
Of course, you'll have to go through the immigration process to do so, though if you're running a fairly successful business you should have no trouble (I believe there's a business owner class for immigration).
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
As a USA'ian I agree. I have several Canadian friends and all of them have nothing bad to say about the socialized health care up there. In fact once when I was up there and was in a car accident (friend was driving) the hospital looked at us anyways while we were waiting for my friends cut to get tidied up. I kept telling her, I'm Alright and I dont have insurance in your country.
she said," you dont have it, this is free. even for people from outside the country"
Honestly the only people talking smack about the social health-care you have up there are the fear-mongers down here that are still believing that Obama is going to set up death panels and will start eating babies.
In 2004 my wife drove to canada monthly to buy her meds and see one of your doctors. because we were jobless and could only afford your "dangerous" Canadian pharmaceuticals, and your doctors were the only ones that understood Reynauds and were willing to treat it. American doctors poo-poo it as a "nuisance" and mostly refuse to treat it.
Only the raging idiots here knock and dog on Canadian health-care.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
We get it, lefties. You don't like the US's health care system. Get over it. This guy is not going to move out of the USA simply because of health insurance.
Weird, I was pretty sure that dislike of the US health care system was pretty universal regardless of party affiliation or position on the political spectrum. Granted, how to *fix* the system is a polarizing issue, but whether or not the US system sucks balls doesn't seem to be up for debate these days.
Though, as an aside, some people actually do leave the US because of healthcare. Many more would like to, but can't afford to move any more than they can afford their healthcare premiums (some of my friends fall into the latter category).
Total healthcare spending in Canada last year was $160 billion or so. So $10 billion was paid by the people, and the other $150 billion was magically wished into existence by healthcare fairies
Of course not. It was paid for the same way that America's massive defense expenditures were paid for, or Medicare was paid for, or Veteran's benefits were paid for: taxes. We just choose to allocate taxes toward funding universal healthcare. You guys picked missile defense , cutting-edge interceptors, and nation building. To each his/her own. *shrug*
Well, you see, we don't trust our government. We never have. We might have national pride, but we don't trust Bush, Obama, or whomever. Our nation is no longer run by the people, but special interest, with the biggest special interest being the government, mainly because of it large assumed debt. In Canada, they seem to have a fair amount of disdain for individuals in politics, but what they do have is a mutual trust that we don't have.
In the USA, we are supposed to be free, but the government continues to advance social agendas, and that plays right into health care. Once the government gets our health care, they can start using it to control us. Look at our - taxes. No longer are Americans paying a "fair share" of government costs according to uniformity, rather they pay less when they are in compliance with government agendas.(Energy tax credits, owners of corporations, etc.) the whole system has become a farce. Just look at the recent plane attack on the IRS - why? because of some 170x (4, 6? I forget) statute where technology workers are singled out. Equal protection - my ass!
The productive people of society want our money to buy the health care we need. The under productive still want the health care, but don't want to pay for it. The conservatives don't see the government as the body to be providing health care because it does not employ free-market principals, so our dollar is not maximized. The liberals see the government as the body to provide health care because they are the only ones who can legally confiscate the funds from those who have them to care for those who don't.
Whereas in Canada, as far as I can tell, people see their government as an asset and not a liability. Lets face it, the confidence in the US's federal government is shot. And I think that's the real problem.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Personal experience here.
The NHS tends to be good when you have routine or easy to diagnose problems and personally I am happy with how routine procedures have been handled.
When you have more difficult to diagnose problems which have not yet become debilitating it's pot luck if you encounter a doctor interested to getting to the bottom of things or if you encounter a doctor more worried about meeting their government imposed targets.
While I think the NHS overall is more fairer than the US system (even with the major problems I currently have with it) just remember the grass always seems greener on the other side.
I have a unusual vision problem which the NHS has failed to diagnose. Can you help? More at failedbythenhs.blogspot.com
Depending on how an Insurance company qualifies it, a prenatal procedure could be either for the mother's care or for the child's care. When I had a child, I had to call in advance to get the hospital stay pre-approved (or if I recall, within 24 hours after, maybe). Otherwise, they would deny it. On the day of my child's birth, I was suprised to see a gamut of charges, some tied to my wife's care and some to my child's. It makes a little sense when you think about it, but it was a bit unexpected to see that breakdown happen during one event.
We 'unfortunately' had the child delivered by c-section, so the date was known. If the date is not known (natural, off-schedule delivery), how do you get the birth date registered with the insurance prior to the child receiving care on their birth day?
Sounds to me like the insurance carrier/company was nitpicking and failing to keep a suitable window open for the addition of the child to the plan.
I have experienced both the US health care system and the UK health care system. While I am sure the US system is given to excess and abuse, there is a huge difference in the quality of health care.
When they diagnosed an eye infection in my kid's eye, they opted to "wait and see" if the infection cleared up on it's own. I don't know about you, but when it comes to my kid's eyesight, "wait and see" is not good enough.
When I seriously cut my hand, I waited in the emergency room for three hours bleeding all over their floor. It was not that busy, but several doctors were out on holiday. They let several obviously non emergencies go in front of me, so I guess it's first-come-first-served. Then when I finally saw the doctor, they were so short handed that I actually had to assist in the operation by sponging the blood away from my cut while the doctor sewed me up. Good thing I'm not squeamish.
The other kid had a broken arm set in one of those fiberglass casts before we left the US. After we arrived in the UK and it was time to remove the cast, they didn't know how to deal with it. They started to get out a rotary saw and I told them that it could be removed safely with scissors. They sent us to several different hospitals and then made us come back after they consulted with some doctors in the US. Of course, they removed the cast with scissors...
I had a friend who had his wisdom teeth removed in the UK. It was done with only local anesthetic and there was quite a bit of collateral damage. He was in excruciating pain and couldn't come to work for about a week and had a liquid-only diet. He complained of soreness in his jaw for several weeks. When I had the same procedure done in the US, I never even had to take pain pills, I was eating solid food the next day and returned to work right after the operation.
It's not apples-to-apples.