DH has his own business so we pay for health insurance out of pocket with a private company. In the past we had to watch the cost, but we have decided that whatever cost, good coverage is too important to deny so we are on the prowl for better coverage at reasonable rates.

Does anyone have info where I can do some research on reputable companies or any suggestions for us. We have Liberty National now, basically bare minimum coverage with a high deductible. We would like something that includes some dental too.

Thanks for any help or thoughts

We are self employed also and use Blue Cross. I have not researched because we have a relative that is an agent.
HTH

my mom used Blue Cross in the past as well

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We used Golden Rule for a while, it's a high deductible plan and you open the health savings account to go with it.... the deductible was like $5450/year and that's how much we put into the account plus the insurance premium, which I think ended up being $200 or so per month. You pay for 100% of your medical expenses until you reach your deductible, and our plan was the slightly more expensive plan that would pay 100% after that. Didn't have maternity coverage or some other stuff like that but it didn't matter at the time (glad my husband got a different job and "real" affordable insurance around the time I got pregnant lol) but we were able to keep our HSA and use it for out of pocket expenses we had on our new insurance. Anyway, it was cheaper than the insurance he had with his employer at the time, and we didn't have to pay for anything out of our paycheck anymore since that's what the HSA was for. Wish I'd done it a year earlier. Golden Rule is a United Healthcare company, and we switched to it FROM United Healthcare - small employer and our insurance has always been outrageous with them, I think we were paying $700-800/mo for family coverage, and something like $636/mo with Golden Rule. When we changed insurance they were talking about switching to a high deductible HSA plan and it was going to cost about the same we were already paying and they were going to put HALF of the HSA money in the account... leaving us to cover the other half and that enormous premium.

A few years ago I was in the same boat; I did a lot of research and found that Blue Cross Blue Shield (or Anthem, same thing) seemed to have the best deal. I had BCBS for several years without a problem, they were great.

Checking out Blue Cross, thanks!

I am bumping this in hopes of more info. I checked out BCBS and they wont cover maternity until you've paid in for 12 months. Good grief this is exhausting trying to find some better coverage that doesnt cost thousands!

My biological clock is ticking and I don't want to wait a year! Thanks for any thoughts on a good company with maternity coverage.

The cheapest good private coverage I could find was through Independent Health.

I pay $630 a month for SINGLE coverage

Hi, we also are self employed & just recently changed from BCBS to Aetna. We went through a Metlife rep. The great thing was that we had WAY better coverage & also got dental included that covers your annual exam/cleanings/fillings. It was cheaper than BCBS oh yea, it also covers RX too! Something that was always expensive out of pocket! HTH let me know if you need more information I'd be glad to help you out.

Check out ehealthinsurance.com They let you compare 100's of different plans and you can even call someone to speak with about what would work best for you. They do not work on commission, so they will not push one plan vs. another on you. good luck. WE use bcbs.

http://www.humana-one.com has reasonable rates

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