Health insurance

mudhound wrote:

WTP-GC wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
We have not been able to find anything better than what you are getting quoted. One possibility would be to manage your income so you do qualify for subsidies. It sounds kind of like cheating, but the government set up the system and if you use all the tools available you might be able to use the system to your advantage.
Things like contributing the max to all the potential retirement accounts to lower your taxable income. If self employed, stack your expenses so you have a low income year and get substantial subsidies one year to offset the unsubsidized income the following year.
If you are retired, invest in instruments that do not generate dividend or interest income and sell a combination of winners and losers to obtain a taxable gain income that qualifies for subsidies.
I don't like medishare for two reasons. First, it is not insurance, it is a cost sharing program. To me, that is one step short of a Ponzi scheme. I won't take chances with the potential of having catastrophic health expenses and being out in the cold if they run out of other peoples money.
Second, they have a bunch of gotchas in the fine print. Things like you must practice good Christian Behavior. I won't take a chance that somewhere there is a photo lurking of me drinking a beer at a football game that will disqualify me for coverage of a heart transplant.

As a business owner, we use a highly renowned CPA that advises us regarding taxes, retirement planning, etc. According to them, the tactic of income adjustment in order to change how you qualify for certain benefits and tax brackets is very useful for the ultra-wealthy and potentially momentarily useful for the poor. At the end of the day, most people find themselves going through hoops to move money around and play games merely to save a few bucks or nothing at all. In this case, unfortunately the lack of a competitive insurance market and age will play against the OP's favor.

Regarding Medishare, my family has participatd in a similar health cost sharing CO-Op for nearly 10 years. We pay cash at the doctor (ends up being just a few dollars more than the average Joe's co-pay) and our out-of-pocket cost for any medical event over $750 has been fully reimbursed. Spend a few hours in the ER and you'll be guaranteed to incur more cost than $750. The program we participate in is basically the same as Medishare, just has a different name. And while I can't speak for them, our co-op is nowhere close to a Ponzi scheme. Take for example a recent procedure we had to have. The cost for the procedure was over $10,000. This is what the medical provider was prepared to bill the insurance company. We paid around 80% less up front at the time of the procedure. We will be fully reimbursed for this. If the OP had the similar procedure and it was billed to insurance, this would have led to them hitting their deductible. The insurance company would have then negotiated the cost down to a point where their cost would be virtually nothing.

And you don't run out of other people's money. That's not how it works. The company will become rapidly insolvent long before that happens. Even these programs have be insured and re-insured.

In short, health sharing co-ops can be a smart move. There are a lot of them out there, so I'll stop short of saying that they're all good companies.

I too went away from normal health insurance. LOL! I happen to be an insurance agent!
I went to Christian Healthcare Ministries out of OH. I love being able to pick and choose where and when i go to the dr or hosp

That's the group we selected as well. We've been completely happy with it and recommend it frequently. The more we talk about it, the more we're surprised to learn that so many people also choose CHM or similar groups. I've never met anyone who switched back.

FWIW, as an employer, I provide actual health insurance to my employees through United Healthcare. In our market (FL), they were the most affordable and seem to offer pretty decent coverage. As for myself, I do not participate in the group plan that we offer LOL.