Purchasing health insurance

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

Are there any local groups such as small business associations, etc, that pool together to purchase health insurance? mahealthconnector.org quoted me in the high 200s for a high deductible policy. That's acceptable to me (and doesn't seem as inordinately high as people talk about), especially since I never get sick and rarely go to the doctor, but I'd like to see if I can get either a smaller deductible or a lower premium or both. My alumni association doesn't do group health insurance in Mass.

What do people who run small businesses in Somerville do? (I'm not going to get married to save $100 :-) )

Comments

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

I believe the Scott Brown solution is "get sick and die."

[kpht.livejournal.com]

It's the American way. I'm planning on sewing up my own vagina after my next pregnancy. It builds character, strength, and endurance. If I had some kind of cheap health plan, well, I'd just be mollycoddled. Thanks, Scott Brown, for showing me the error of my ways.

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

Hey,

I'd just like to request that we keep this thread on the practical question asked and keep the political stuff out. There are other threads and forums for that.

Paul

this moderator agrees

[ron_newman]

We have plenty of other posts for grumbling about the election returns. Not here.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

you might get a better deal talking directly to the insurance company rather than thru the health connector web site.

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

Brickbottom Artists Association offers this through an insurance brokerage to folks who are BAA members. Info here: http://brickbottomartists.com/insurance (http://brickbottomartists.com/insurance)

[beatniktea.livejournal.com]

Have you heard of the Insurance Partnership? Depending on your income you might be eligible for a subsidy of premium assistance from the state of MA if you work for (or own and are working in) a qualifying small business with a qualifying health insurance policy.

http://www.insurancepartnership.org/index-html.asp

I work for MA Health Care Reform eligibility so I am directly aware of a lot of possibilities. Commonwealth Choice through the connector that you mentioned is also a safe bet. 1-877-623-6765 can put you in touch with a rep, though its very busy all the time lately it seems.

I think that having more information on what others are finding.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Would be very helpful, for comparisons, and also to know if there are some scam plans out there that we should avoid.

Re: I think that having more information on what others are finding.

[laryu.livejournal.com]

This is a very good point. The National Association of the Self-Employed (NASE), for example, sells group health insurance plans. But the plan provider (Mega Life) has a troubled history, at best (http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2009/09/01/mega_life_settles_for_record_17m/). So that's one I would make a point to avoid.

Larger point being I would shop for plans based on more than premium/deductibility alone, if at all possible. Who the provider is matters.

[xthlcm.livejournal.com]

When I was self-employed in Somerville (2002-2004) I had insurance through the Small Business Service Bureau (http://sbsb.com/). Their "marketplace" functions as a sort-of-OK group rate on several different plans. I had a BCBS PPO and it was OK.

SBSB is a bit shady (their name makes you think it's a government org when it's a for-profit company, and I get these weird political emails from them sometimes), but I was overall quite satisfied.

Not to ask you a private question...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

But did you actually use them for anything semiserious? I hope not, but I'm wondering if you actually had the chance to test them on anything more than minor (and see if they tried not to pay, basically).

Re: Not to ask you a private question...

[xthlcm.livejournal.com]

Well, the thing is, they don't provide insurance themselves. They just give you a group rate on a choice of health insurance companies, kind of like the state marketplace. They don't really have anything to do with the administration of the plan or the payment of benefits -- they just act as a broker.

That said, I did use my Blue Cross / Blue Shield insurance that I bought through them for a bad case of pneumonia with two ER visits. I had to haggle a bit with the BCBS admins because the ER screwed up their billing, but it was resolved after a few weeks of phone tag.

Re: Not to ask you a private question...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[eclectician.livejournal.com]

There's also NASRO - national association of socially responsible organizations. Don't have the url at hand, but you'll find them on google.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

We had quoted insurance rates using the Small Business Service Bureau however it ended up being cheaper for us to get our own plan.

[smammy]

I used NASRO for a couple years before Commonwealth Care got going. They have a group health plan with Neighborhood Health Plan and I never had a problem. The URL for their Massachusetts information is http://www.nasro-co-op.com/health/ma/index.shtml. They also say: "Call the Massachusetts Administrator Barbara Gibson Directly at 617-308-1525".