Alternatives to outrageous Obamacare priced health insurance?

[John Horner]

Hey all, I quit my W2 6 months ago with solid reserve set aside and a proven business model.  My business is going well and my wife was being offered insurance as a part time RN, but as of December 31st they are rescinding the insurance she was being offered.

After researching the "Affordable" Care Act insurance plans, I realized they are insanely higher then anything I would get from an employer.  Since we won't get assistance based on income, the cheapest plan being offered is $625/month and a $12k deductible.  Any plans with a more reasonable deductible are up near $1000/month premium.

Does anyone have more affordable alternatives for family insurance?

[Linda Weygant]

I would just point out that, while the amount YOU paid for your insurance coverage while you were a W-2 employee was lower, the overall cost likely was not as many employers pay a significant portion of an employee's health coverage.  YMMV, but this is generally true.

Also, as J Scott mentioned, buying insurance outside of an employer has always been very expensive.

I can give you a real scenario.  Back in the early 2000s when I was self employed, health care coverage for my son and I was $725 per month to start and went up every year so that after I had been in business for 5 years, my health insurance premiums were over $1000 per month.  After I developed a seizure disorder, my carrier dropped me.  Later, I worked a W-2 job for many years between then and now, but I recently became self employed again and went to go get insurance.  We're both 15 years older now, but my bill for both of us is $425.  Much more than the $250 I was paying through my employer, but less than the combination of what both my employer and I were paying together and a helluva lot less than what I was paying as a self employed person 15 years ago.

While your $625 figure seems high, you are not comparing apples to apples at all.

"Obamacare" gets a bad rap.  It's even occasionally deserved.  But a scenario like this requires more information and more analysis before you can point to the smoking gun of the ACA.

I also get a giggle out of people who say "my policy isn't Obamacare".  Guys, it's all Obamacare now.  Obamacare isn't an insurance policy.  The ACA is a set of laws that say that employers over a certain size must offer coverage, that people cannot be turned down due to pre-existing conditions, that parents can keep their children on their own policies up to age 26, that ALL health care policies must have a certain minimum coverage in certain areas (that's what makes ALL insurance Obamacare now), that Medicare will cover those who qualify and that people should have a centralized place to shop for insurance policies.  That's it.

I remember a radio bit several years ago where the reporter asked people at random what they would think of a law that had all those six provisions in it and there was resounding support for it.  And then when the reporter said "and what do you think of Obamacare?", the hate and vitriol that poured out of some people's mouths was horrifying.  Clearly, to this day, there is still a lot of education that needs to be done for some folks.

And folks who want a "basic" plan that just covers a couple of doctor visits a year...  That's awesome if that's all you need right now.  But enter a cancer diagnosis or a major accident and when you're in bankruptcy court, I'm guessing you'll be singing a different tune.

That said, health care coops are becoming more popular for people who fall outside of employer coverage and you might see if your local chamber of commerce or small business owners group has a coop so that you can get group rates.