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12

Freelance Writers: Your Thoughts on Health Insurance for the Self-Employed

By Jennifer Mattern on 29th September, 2009Filed in General

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Just a casual topic today that I’m hoping some of you will share your thoughts on – health insurance for the self-employed (specifically in the US). It’s on my mind lately because of my own health issues. I don’t personally have health insurance. I pay for everything out of pocket.

I don’t mind doing that. This year I’ve spent a small fortune on dental work and have another small fortune to spend on the next round of it (my teeth suck, what can I say?). And today I’ll be going to the doctor due to illness for the first time in 7 years. I just never get sick, so I don’t have to make these kinds of appointments.

The medical and dental basics aren’t really that unaffordable if you set money aside for them. But I’m not naive enough to think I’m invincible. I know there could be serious health issues at any time, from a car accident to coming down with a serious disease.

Because of that I’ve looked into some health insurance programs recently. I have to say that there isn’t a single one I really found attractive at all. With the dental plans specifically, they tend to cover so little that it’s frankly cheaper for me to just pay out of pocket for the more complicated work than covering the premiums, deductibles, and remaining payments due. So that I’ll probably avoid. But I’m still keeping my eyes peeled for decent general health insurance.

Being a woman nearing 30, it’s important to me that health insurance cover maternity benefits in case I decide to start a family in the foreseeable future. The vast majority of plans I’ve looked at (through organizations I’m involved with) don’t even offer that as an add-on option. That’s just crazy to me. And then of course you get the plans with ridiculous deductibles like $20k or something — at that point, again, you’re likely better off just covering the costs yourself outright.

I don’t know. It’s not a huge issue for me personally right now, but I figured I’d get your thoughts. Are you insured? What was it like for you choosing health insurance as a freelancer (or were you covered by a spouse’s plan perhaps)? If you have any tips or recommendations you’d like to share with other freelance writers who might be interested in securing insurance, feel free to leave them in the comments.

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About the Author: Jennifer Mattern

Browse all posts from this author.

Jenn Mattern is a professional blogger and freelance business writer. She owns All Freelance Writing as well as several other sites and blogs covering PR, small business, and related topic areas. She is also currently writing a nonfiction book for freelance writers called The Query-Free Freelancer, and is the author of the Web Writer's Guide e-book series.

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12 Responses to “Freelance Writers: Your Thoughts on Health Insurance for the Self-Employed”

  1. Yo

Casual topic my ass. Okay, I know, for young ‘uns like yourself it’s casual. My husband has a chronic heart condition and just this year we’ve had over $40,000 in expenses–things I could not have paid for without insurance. When I left my corporate gig, we opted into COBRA because Hubby is uninsurable (even those ridiculous high deductible plans decline him). Right now we pay $718 a month for COBRA premiums (incidentally, that’s more than our mortgage payment). This of course doesn’t include the out-of-pocket expenses like his meds (copay =$140 a month), cardiac rehabilitation ($50 a month), specialist visits and stress tests.

In October 2010, our COBRA benefits will run out. We can get insurance through the National Writer’s Union, but it’s $1,400 per month. We may be able to get a plan through HIPAA but there is no guarantee that it will have similar benefits to what we need or that it will be affordable.

In short, we may be completely screwed in about a year.

Really, this would be so much easier if I didn’t actually love my husband and want him to be alive–but apparently I’m a romantic.

  • Jennifer Mattern

    • lol yeah, well that’s what you get for marrying an old man. :-P j/k He’s awesome. And I feel for you Yo. I actually mentioned the ridiculous rates you’re likely going to be stuck w/ to someone recently when they were complaining about paying about a quarter of it monthly. Just insane. But I hope you guys get that all worked out. :)

  • Lissie

    • I self-insure – much older than you but we moved to Australia and their insurance schemes are going down the same path as US insane prices. One of the downsides of being a nomad is you lose your cover if you move countries ever few years. I need a tooth capped – but they want over US$1300 for it, I can get it done for $300 in Malaysia – so I will be taking a holdiay there soon- you might want to check Mexico or Costa Rica from the states.

    Yo I don’t get your country’s insurance at all- you husband is obviously sick – is supposed to just die? Mortgage the house? At those prices you guys really should consider moving country – almost anywhere is going to be cheaper and there are lot of places with better outcomes that the US

  • LaToya Irby

    I’m paying $418/month for COBRA until March 2010. That’s just for me. I had to switch my 1 year old to an individual plan. Otherwise, I would have been paying $800+/month for COBRA. I’m paying more for health insurance than I pay for taxes. After that COBRA runs out, I may have to self-insure.

    In my state, a small business needs two people to qualify for group health insurance, so I thought about hiring someone else just so I can get decent, relatively affordable health care. I was reading a NYT article yesterday that said in some states, like Florida, a self-employed individual can qualify for group health coverage. You can check with your state’s insurance agency to find out if that’s applicable for your state.

    I hate to get political here, but I get so angered at all the people who oppose a national health plan. They don’t care if people die because they lack health care and it’s sickening.

    At the end of the day, it’s my choice to be self-employed and I realize I can always go back to full-time work if I need coverage.

  • Yo

    Lis, we have talked about moving to Canada, but it’s not always easy to get citizenship. Not really sure what we’re going to do. It’ll be fine–I’m more than willing to pay $1400 a month if I have to. I think globetrotting for health is hysterical and actually makes it sound fun :)

    I hear you Latoya. That’s the thing, individual insurance for me would be cheap but I have to have COBRA in order for Hubby to have COBRA. The problem with the small group coverage for states like Florida is that your rates can skyrocket when 50% of the group has a lot of med bills. That being said, I haven’t attempted to get any rates for that yet–I think because I’m scared to find out the cost. Group underwriting is obviously what we want, but after one year that experience rating is going to come into play and…well…scary :)

  • florida weather Ross

    here is my deal! i have heath care with blue cross of florida! 175 a month and im 33 years old male.

    my girl we are trying to get insance for but they might turn her down! witch is getting me upset as there is nothing wrong with her.. just that the docs could not figure out a bad gullbladder so it took 5 docs to figure that oen out .. years later she had it removed and now they might not give her insuance from that! thats not right and it makes me upset.. oboma needs to figure something out as i need the heath care for my girl

  • florida weather Ross

    THE USA HEALTH CARE PRIVET PROGRAMS SUCK~
    they need to help the people that cannot aford it.
    they turned down my girl and she is heathy 27 years old.

    thanks oboma!

  • Alexis

    There is one thing I completely do not understand on most health policies for women is that birth control is part of maternity. If you’re even offered it, to get your birth control pills, IUDs or what have you covered, you have to buy the add on that is supposed to cover all the expenses of child birth.

    As for medical travel, I know several people who have gone or are going to Thailand for health care. Medical expenses, travel expenses, and accommodations during recovery there can still be thousands or tens of thousands less than in the US.

    And I completely agree LaToya. I don’t see how people can call a national health plan evil they way they do in this country. I’m lucky to have good insurance now, but if I ever make the jump to full time writer, I’ll have to factor in another ten or twenty thousand a year to cover health care, which pushes the dream that much further away.

  • Jennifer Mattern

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts all.

    As for the national healthcare issues, it’s nice to see the self-employed talking about it. In most discussions I’ve seen and heard, people in our shoes seem to be an afterthought.

    While I wouldn’t call universal healthcare “evil” by any stretch, I’m actually not a big supporter of it (but that came after extensive research years ago before becoming the current national hot button issue — the research and numbers actually turned me away from it when I used to support the idea). That said, if the government wants to force people to buy health insurance coverage, then I do want a government option made available. I can’t bring myself to support being forced to do business with limited private companies (like with auto insurance — don’t get me started on that). What I’d really like to see happen is for health insurance to be made more affordable in general, and frankly a bit more honest. I’ve had friends my age who needed major surgeries or had serious diseases, and it’s amazing what you think you’re covered for and what you’re really not. Being forced to buy from these kinds of companies who constantly prove their interest isn’t your health is something I can’t be okay with.

  • Jessica

    My husband and I have been self-insured since 2004 as he owns his own company. Because we are usually healthy, we have a high deductible plan with a Health Savings Account. It’s basically for emergencies or large hospital bills. We pay out of pocket directly for dental and chiropractic. Everything else we run through our insurance so it counts toward our $6,000 deductible. Once we hit that deductible, our insurance covers 90%. I’ve been pleased with our insurance because even though we haven’t hit our deductible, they negotiate prices down for us. The insurance does have maternity as an add-on but honestly the coverage for that is so expensive. When we decided to have our second son, we actually paid out of pocket because we determined it would be cheaper than paying the monthly insurance premium while we waited to get pregnant and were pregnant. It was a risk and thankfully it paid off for us. We found our insurance through ehealth.com where we could look at different options. I grew up in a family that owned their own business and paid out of pocket for a lot of medical items and eventually had a high deductible plan. It’s not for everyone because there is a bit of risk but if you are healthy, I recommend looking into it. We actually use HealthAmerica for our coverage.

  • Jodi Kaplan

    Depending on which state you’re in (and your business) you may be able to join the Freelancers Union (http://www.freelancersunion.org). They offer several health insurance plans (as well as dental – I think the dental plans are discount plans, rather than coverage). Free to join, plus you also get other discounts on office supplies, car rentals, etc.

  • Jennifer Mattern

    Thanks for the info Jodi. (And sorry for the delay in approving your comment — for some reason it was flagged as spam, as have some other legitimate comments lately — Akismet’s acting wonky.)

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