It's a rainy, gloomy day in upstate New York and I have come down with a cold! I hate to get sick on vacation. My younger sister will admonish me for not remembering to take Airborne. In spite of the lawsuit, she is a firm believer and administers it religiously to herself and her children before every trip. Had I remembered, I would have taken it myself. Feeling sick led me to thinking about health insurance.
Where to find health insurance can be a big issue when you are self-employed. When I made the transition to working completely freelance I stuck with COBRA for over a year because I just didn’t want to deal with it. The premiums kept going up until I was forced to act. At the time, eHealthInsurance.com was running a series of television ads aimed towards self-employed people so I decided to check them out. Their setup is actually pretty good. You fill out a little form with some basic information about yourself and they bring up a couple of dozen policies that they feel will be the best fit. You then have to sort through them. They make it fairly easy to compare different aspects of different policies. There are various places you can click to receive ever more detailed information. When you find the one you like, you can apply for it right on their site. I found an Aetna plan that worked pretty well for my needs and was about $150 a month cheaper than my COBRA plan.
After applying for the Aetna plan, I waited. They warn you not to cancel your current health insurance until this process is complete. Thanks, I think, to my past cancer issues, it took quite a while. I think I may have paid two COBRA premiums while I waited. Aetna got my medical records from my doctor and I received several phone calls from nurse practitioners asking various clarifying questions. Finally, they accepted me. I’ve had the Aetna plan for about three years now with various rate hikes happening along the way.
eHealthInsurance positions themselves as being on your side and say they will act as a go-between with you and your insurance company. I haven’t actually tried this feature. I’ve only had to call once and I just called Aetna directly. Evidently you can call eHealthInsurance and they’ll call your insurance carrier for you. I recently got an e-mail from them telling me that Aetna was about to raise my rates and it might be a good idea for me to start shopping for another plan. That was interesting as I have not received notice of any rate change. I’m going to wait until I hear from Aetna before I do anything about that. When my son graduates from college, hopefully in May, he’ll drop off my plan. I may wait until then before I do any more insurance shopping.
I found eHealthInsurance to be fairly easy to navigate. They seem to have a wide range of insurance companies and policies from which to choose. If you are shopping for health insurance, you might want to try them. They offer a fairly painless way to shop for health insurance and, no, I am not getting paid for this post!
After applying for the Aetna plan, I waited. They warn you not to cancel your current health insurance until this process is complete. Thanks, I think, to my past cancer issues, it took quite a while. I think I may have paid two COBRA premiums while I waited. Aetna got my medical records from my doctor and I received several phone calls from nurse practitioners asking various clarifying questions. Finally, they accepted me. I’ve had the Aetna plan for about three years now with various rate hikes happening along the way.
eHealthInsurance positions themselves as being on your side and say they will act as a go-between with you and your insurance company. I haven’t actually tried this feature. I’ve only had to call once and I just called Aetna directly. Evidently you can call eHealthInsurance and they’ll call your insurance carrier for you. I recently got an e-mail from them telling me that Aetna was about to raise my rates and it might be a good idea for me to start shopping for another plan. That was interesting as I have not received notice of any rate change. I’m going to wait until I hear from Aetna before I do anything about that. When my son graduates from college, hopefully in May, he’ll drop off my plan. I may wait until then before I do any more insurance shopping.
I found eHealthInsurance to be fairly easy to navigate. They seem to have a wide range of insurance companies and policies from which to choose. If you are shopping for health insurance, you might want to try them. They offer a fairly painless way to shop for health insurance and, no, I am not getting paid for this post!
If you are self-employed what did you do about health insurance?
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2 comments:
it's kind of funny (in a sad sort of way!) that now i am unemployed (or wait, going into freelance mode!), i recalled that you had written this article a few months back.
did your plan cover vision and/or dental? if not, what did you do about those areas?
what is the current state of your insurance with aetna (or other) ?
i will look into the ehealthinsurance resource, since my current health insurance with my ex-employer will run out in a matter of weeks.
Going into freelance mode - that's the spirit!!
I'm still with Aetna and they've not yet notified me of another rate hike so I guess I'll hang in with them for now.
My policy does not cover dental or vision. As I recall I could have opted for dental and chose not to. I don't remember vision being offered. I had both of those with my "real" job and do miss them from time to time! Right now I just pay as I go and hope no emergency arises.
I'm pulling for you & I know things are going to work out.
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