Medical Insurance for the Self-Employed
As a person who has spent the majority of his life being part of the corporate cubicle hamster wheel, I’ve never had to give medical insurance much thought. After all which ever company I was working for at the time made the choice pretty easy. HMO or PPO. The decision regarding which provider to pick wasn’t up to me and as long as I could have coverage for my family and myself all was well.
Most companies carry insurance plans whether they are HMO or PPO’s and all have basically the same amount of coverage, co-pays, etc. Most of the time I chose a HMO because I could easily find a doctor in my area, the co-pays were low as well as the deductibles and all the services were there.
But when I struck out on my own and started my own business, getting decent comprehensive medical insurance was a bit more of a daunting task.The challenge became a balancing game. How much coverage would my policy allot me without requiring that I sever an arm and a leg. And if I did have to cut off an appendage to pay for it would my insurance cover it? Would that be above the deductible?
It comes down to really investigating your options and understanding just how much you need vs how much you can afford.There are some decent carriers that can offer fairly creditable policies but make sure you look over the deductible clauses as well as how well they handle emergencies and almost as important, will they accept payment plans when you don’t go over the deductible.
If you’ve got a $5,000 or even a $10,000 deductible as part of your plan don’t think that if you are in an accident the hospital bills will most certainly go over it and the insurance will kick in and take care of it all. Not always the case and sometimes you get “lucky” and your injuries aren’t that bad. Just maybe about $4,000 worth.Do you have $4,000 in cash available for this? No? Better make sure your insurance company will be willing to take payments. Either that or get into another accident while in the emergency room.
As a former employee of the corporate world and an advent user of the HMO system, I was accustomed to having low co-pays like $10 to $15 office visits and getting full vision and dental coverage with my employer’s fully catered plans.The stark reality of being self-employed means, unless you can make really good money, and for just starting out it’s not that easy, buying the full boat won’t be available. Better start with one that will give you coverage for accidents, doctor visits and in general, the basics. You can always add to it as you grow.
Dental insurance plans as well as most vision plans aren’t that much different than those of corporate plans although I did find the vision plans to be better through a company. At least it was cheaper when the company paid for most of it. But that’s always the case.As for the Dental insurance policies, I have yet to find one that was much different than the rest.
There really isn’t that much coverage to them. They tend to be more like a kind of group discount for the services. Some offer the basic check ups and cleaning as part of the policy but not much more than that. When you need more than the usual dental work is when you get into the plan’s “special rate” charts.There are many dentist out there that offer check ups, cleanings and some dental work for very low prices.
Before dumping load of cash into a dental policy, check out the dentist in your area and find out how accommodating and cost effective going solo will be.Bottom line is always the same; get coverage and shop for the best buy. Insurance companies want your business just like any other business so make them work for it. Tell the agent what you’ve found in the way of coverage and prices and see if they can do better.
In today’s economy it pays to not only take the time to research but to get the companies that want you to buy from them to work for your business.After all, you work hard for your money. So should they.