Individual Insurance Plans

[UKcats06]

So since DH is in training now, we have no health insurance. I am looking for a job, but I would really like to get some coverage now, not when I finally get a job. Not to mention I have more options as jobs go if I don't need insurance from the employer. I have been looking at some individual plans at Blue Cross, and they look pretty good. I guess the fact that we are young and don't smoke helps a lot. The cheapest full coverage plan is around $150 with $2500 deductible. They also have another plan that covers only surgical and hospital stays. It is also substantially cheaper, $45 with $250 deductible. This is only going to be temporary until he finishes training and such, if all goes as planned, for about 7 months. The hospital coverage covers things like stitches and that type of thing, and emergency visits if they require a hospital stay or surgery.

So what would you do? I think we will be ok with the cheap plan, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. I think it will be good temporary coverage, just for major expenses. I figure if we get just sick we can always go to urgent care, and I can't imagine that will be more than $600, which is the 6 month difference in the plans. And we shouldnt get sick more than a few times, if at all. (neither of us has been sick for over a year, knock on wood) So am I being crazy and risky, or would you do it too?

As a side note, we are trying to spend as little as possible since I have limited income with my stupid career choice , and he isn't making anything for the next 3 months, and then after that very little instructing.

[TheWife]

I think that sounds like a good plan, you don't have kids right? W/O kids I'd say that your chances of needing more than your $45 plan are pretty small, and if it happens, it happens. Is there a chance you could get pregnant during that time frame? You might want to make sure that doesn't happen if that's the plan you go with, I doubt it has any maternity coverage on it, and if you are already pregnant when you try to get a better plan later on, you may be denied. I hope that doesn't sound nosey, it's just the main down side that I see. I have no idea what your plans are in that dept so I don't know if that is something for you to think about or not.

[Imachickadee75]

I was going to say the same thing as the Wife. I ran into this last fall and it was a MESS. When I had my miscarriage, they wouldn't cover me and we were just over the limit for Medicaid. SO FRUSTRATING!

But, the short term plan gave us peace of mind and cost a lot less than what we had been paying with DH's old job. We used the BC/BS plan and felt pretty good about it.

Jackie

[UKcats06]

I think we are going to get the hospital plan. It really is for just peace of mind. And we definitly don't plan on having babies for at least 2-3 years, maybe even longer. I wouldn't want to do this for long term, but its for less than a year so I think we will be ok. I still have to talk to dh about it, but once I do I'm sure he will agree with me. I'm still waiting on info for COBRA, but from what I have heard its pretty expensive.

[TheWife]

My mom had COBRA for a while and it was over $700 a month for just her. She's older of course, but still. INSANE.

[UKcats06]

Originally Posted by TheWife

My mom had COBRA for a while and it was over $700 a month for just her. She's older of course, but still. INSANE.

I heard it was about $350/person. That is waaaay too much. Especially since we will barely use it. I don't think we have used our health insurance for over a year, and we just used our dental, so we wont need that for 6 months anyway. If we were older or sicker or had kids we may need full coverage insurance, but I doubt we would use it at all.