Should You Buy Your Own Private Health Insurance Plan?
Many people these days are deciding to opt out of their employer’s health insurance plan in order to find more affordable options. The Holland family from Cincinnati, Ohio decided it was time to make a change from paying $860 per month for their employer sponsored plan through the husband’s workplace. They started out their search by logging onto www.InsuranceChaser.com, an Internet-based health insurance broker, and found comprehensive medical insurance for the wife and two girls for just $142 a month. The husband, meanwhile, decided to stay on his firm’s plan, since he has a preexisting condition, and since he pays just $210 a month. In total, the family now saves nearly $500 a month on health insurance premiums.
Did the Holland family endure a lot of hassle to make this happen? Not at all, they said. By buying a plan with the same insurer her husband’s employer uses, she didn’t even have to switch doctors. “It was easy and our coverage is actually better that it was before,” she says.
Until recently, no one with access to group health insurance would have dreamed of opting out and buying coverage on the individual market. Prices were simply too high. Yet as health-care expenses soar and companies shift an increasing percentage of those costs onto their workers, individual coverage is quickly becoming not only a viable alternative but usually the most affordable. If you do decide to forego your employer’s plan, make sure to secure an individual policy first. The last thing you want to do is opt out of a group plan and then find you can’t get comprehensive coverage on your own.
According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation report, employer-sponsored health-care costs rose 7.7% in 2006. This follows a 9.3% hike in 2005, and a 11.2% jump in 2004. Today, employers pay, on average, $3,615 a year for single-person coverage and $8,508 for family coverage. They pass 16% of that premium, on average, to individual employees, and 27% of it to families. Smaller employers often charge their employees significantly more, in some rare cases as much as 100%. And the situation is expected to continue. Some 40% of large employers say they are “very likely” to increase employee contributions next year, according to the Kaiser report.
Based on this information it seems apparent that private / individual health insurance plans are becoming a more affordable option for many people. The Holland family has found that using individual insurance alongside the employer sponsored plan is by far their best option not only financially, but in relation to the coverage it gives their family.
Lastly, when the Holland family was asked what is the one word of advise you would give to a family struggling with the cost of health insurance; she stated, “make sure you at least check into individual health insurance options. I did not even think about alternative solutions like just moving the kids and I onto a seperate health insurance plan and keeping my husband on his plan. Andrew Friesner, my broker at InsuranceChaser.com, presented me with this idea after we spoke and reveiwed the quotes he had prepared”.
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