Business Owners - Health Insurance Help?

[OregonSteeler]

For those who own their own business, I'd love to hear how to possibly save money on health insurance. Here is our situation:

My wife and I each have our own separate small businesses. We have two children (13yrs & 16yrs). We currently have Kaiser Pemanente and already pay roughly $1k per month. Next year we are looking at a monthly expense of $1600/mo and with the shittiest coverage possible ($9200 individual and $18500 family deductible).

We are both healthy adults and kids are also. We do use our health coverage, but not nearly to the amount that we are paying. Going without coverage is just too risky and not an option.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to find/get reasonable health coverage? Looking at our annual payment of nearly $20k next year for bare-bones coverage is just ridiculous!

 

[alaska_bou]

I own a business, and in my state I am not required to offer health insurance. My employees all have insurance through their spouses, so I chose to pay higher wages rather than higher benefits. For my own family, we are dumping insurance and going with a health sharing company, but these also have risks to consider with the much lower cost.

 

[Yellowknife]

Only tip I have is to try and get it through a state or national industry association if you are in an industry that has that type of thing. We get ours through a contractors association for a slight break.

That said, it won't help much. It's brutal. I'm way over $20k for my family this year. In the last two years we are up 25% and the increases never stop. Employees expect it (I can't recruit without that as a benefit), but I can't raise rates fast enough to cover the increases.

If somebody has an idea, I'm all ears as well. .

 

[mtnbiker208]

Bend over, take it and write the check.
A shitty plan for my employees cost me $150,000 a year and i expect a 25% increases every year.

 

[kipper09]

I work for a company and am not self employed and I pay two grand a month for my family. I don’t have a clue how people afford to live like they do. Wages aren’t raising like everything else is. I’ve contemplated hard just dropping it all together. Self pay seems to be about 1/2 the cost anyways but I’m scared to death something catastrophic would happen. No easy answer that I’ve found or heard.


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[Joe Holden]

Do you and your wife employ additional people that would enroll on a Group Health Plan? Or is it specific to your wife, children, and you? Depending on answer would change my response.

Full transparency: I work with employee benefits in Missouri / Kansas / Nebraska / Arkansas. If there's questions you've got I can help with (or anyone), shoot me a PM. I'll give all my contact info and we can chat. More than happy to help.

 

[JEck]

Farm bureau health insurance ish what I use

 

[OregonSteeler]

Do you and your wife employ additional people that would enroll on a Group Health Plan? Or is it specific to your wife, children, and you? Depending on answer would change my response.

Full transparency: I work with employee benefits in Missouri / Kansas / Nebraska / Arkansas. If there's questions you've got I can help with (or anyone), shoot me a PM. I'll give all my contact info and we can chat. More than happy to help.

No employees, just us 4 on the plan. Neither of us have employees.

 

[OregonSteeler]

I work for a company and am not self employed and I pay two grand a month for my family. I don’t have a clue how people afford to live like they do. Wages aren’t raising like everything else is. I’ve contemplated hard just dropping it all together. Self pay seems to be about 1/2 the cost anyways but I’m scared to death something catastrophic would happen. No easy answer that I’ve found or heard.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Same here. If something tragic were to happen to any of us and we didn't have a health plan, it would surely bankrupt us. Just not worth it.

 

[Broomd]

For those who own their own business, I'd love to hear how to possibly save money on health insurance. Here is our situation:

My wife and I each have our own separate small businesses. We have two children (13yrs & 16yrs). We currently have Kaiser Pemanente and already pay roughly $1k per month. Next year we are looking at a monthly expense of $1600/mo and with the shittiest coverage possible ($9200 individual and $18500 family deductible).

We are both healthy adults and kids are also. We do use our health coverage, but not nearly to the amount that we are paying. Going without coverage is just too risky and not an option.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to find/get reasonable health coverage? Looking at our annual payment of nearly $20k next year for bare-bones coverage is just ridiculous!

Man, we feel for you. We're going through the exact same thing, only ours is more complicated due to Idaho Regence not paying for some local good healthcare providers leaving them out of network. It's ugly.

Fortunately for us we're right at the point for qualifying for tax credits. Our insurance will remain roughly the same ($750 a month) by making slightly less as we enter retirement age. We could pay nothing if we opted for just catastrophic coverage, but at our ages we want assurance. Without those credits we'd be paying 18k+ a year for a husband and wife! That is almost 250% higher than this year's premium! We've been paying 20 years out of pocket and wife has never had a single claim.

It's getting outrageous right now for self-employed folks paying out of pocket.

 

[noisy]

Monthly premium for my family of four with Blue Cross Blue Shield was going to rise from $1,900 to $2,700. Shitty bronze plan with high deductible. I ended up switching to Mountain Health Co-op for $1,900. It's basically the same coverage as the bronze plan, i.e. catastrophic. We're very healthy and almost never use it.

The system is broken, folks, and we all know it. Unfortunately our politicians lack the guts to address the problem in the only way that makes sense.

 

[DuckDawg22]

Take a look at something like CrowdHealth if your state isn't like CA and using your premiums to offset care for illegals

 

[Crowmangler]

I've been using Christian Healthcare Ministries for around 10 years & I love it.
Several of my friends recommended it to me after they had been on it for around the same amount of time.
They have numerous levels/ options for whatever your situation may be.
I'd recommend at least checking it out.
www.chministries.org

Good luck

 

[loganwayne]

This is one reason im still employed while having my own business.
That said I got a letter yesterday saying the insurance company is no longer going to offer services to small businesses in our state.