Our approach to health insurance.
My wife and I are both self-employed, so we pay the entire amount of our health insurance, no matter what. I feel like we made some good decisions in choosing our approach, so maybe sharing them here will help someone else.
First, we got a family health insurance plan with a monster deductibles - $2500 per person. If we get some massive health problem (car accident, cut off a finger, etc.) we will need that kind of catastrophic coverage. The cost of our coverage is about $150 per month for the two of us, pretty cheap. We used Medical Mutual of Ohio for this insurance.
We had the choice whether to include some riders to add prescription drug coverage and regular doctor visits, but we knew we'd never use them. We are both mostly into herbal remedies and use holistic practitioners much more than regular allopaths.
Then we added a "health discount program" to the picture. This is a card that you carry around that gives you fairly decent discounts on dental, vision, holistic medicine, vitamins/herbs and other stuff. The discounts range from 15% to 50%. The dental discounts for regular cleanings, etc. are particularly good. We used the Healthy Advantage discount program for this. They charge us $120 per year, which we've already almost recovered just from a few dentist and chiropractor trips. Yes, the practitioners must be "in network" but the network is huge. Plus, I think the practitioners must go through some qualification process. We've had good luck so far.
So now I feel like we have a health program that fits our needs. Discounts on massage, reiki, herbs, all the stuff we use regularly. Plus, coverage in case we develop any big problems that allopaths can help us with. And we're not paying for drugs and MD visits, which we don't do much of anyway.
With employers changing their health insurance benefits to shift the burden onto the employees, I wonder if more people will opt for this type of combination. To me, the old system (comprehensive health insurance, MDs, drugs/surgery) is creaking along, ready to fall into oblivion any minute. But it has been hard to see what will replace it. Maybe our ideas are a start towards this.
I'm sure other people have been experimenting similarly, especially dual self-employed families.
10:35:48 AM 
|
