
Ask HN: Good Health Insurance in California? - simonebrunozzi
Long story short, I&#x27;ve done COBRA for a few months, but now I&#x27;d need to switch to a long-term health insurance. I own a consultancy company and I plan to use it to &quot;hire&quot; me and provide me with health insurance.<p>Is there any good insurance that you recommend? I searched online for a while, contacted a few, and all I could find was scammy ones.<p>Thanks in advance for any help!
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johnwheeler
I had blueshield ca for a while as self-employee, but I wouldn’t call it
“good”. It certainly was expensive. Family of 5, 20% copay, $5000 deductible
for over $1000 a month. That was two years ago. It’s probably worse now.

To be frank, I don’t think such a thing as good “health insurance for the self
employed” exists in CA.

Aside from the scammy ones you mention, you can get with one of the big guys
and pay an arm and a leg, or roll the dice with one of these startups with new
business models you see popping up.

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marrone12
If you are healthy, Kaiser is a good choice. Since they are an HMO they are
able to give you a low premium with a low deductible. Service can be spotty,
but if you don't need a bunch of care it can be a good deall.

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dv_dt
Anecdotally, many people I know in Northern California dislike Kaiser, and
many in Southern California love it - but it's been years since I've really
polled my acquaintances on it.

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codegeek
Do you have any other employees in your consultancy company other than
yourself and your spouse ? If yes, only then you can get "Group" Insurance
i.e. through the company. Otherwise, you will have to buy insurance personally
through the obamacare exchange etc.

If yes, then find an insurance broker who can help you with a Group insurance.
One such online broker is ehealthinsurance [0] but it is better to find a
local broker whom you can talk to in person. To find those, you have to go to
healthcare.gov [1] and click on local help. You can then get a list of brokers
in your area.

Overall, this is a very exhausting process especially as a small business
because most insurance companies are not interested in group insurance unless
you have at least 3 or more employees (in my experience). Not worth their time
otherwise. And your spouse doesn't count as an employee when it comes to
health insurance even if they are employed by the busines

[0] [https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/small-business-health-
insur...](https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/small-business-health-insurance)

[1] [https://localhelp.healthcare.gov/](https://localhelp.healthcare.gov/)

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simonebrunozzi
Thanks a lot! Unfortunately I'm the only one, I tried signing up with
Justworks but encountered the problem you mentioned.

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bwb
I recommend sticking with COBRA if it makes sense, I was in a similar
situation and did COBRA for 18 months and it was about 20% less with 25% more
coverage than what my family and I are on now. After that we did a blue cross
blue shield and it is like all of them, a giant pile of suck with high
deductable.

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simonebrunozzi
Thanks. I honestly wanted to get a cheaper insurance. COBRA is incredibly
expensive.

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billconan
how much is it?

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simonebrunozzi
~$1,300 a month for a married couple. Mafia and cartel can't even begin to
describe the situation here.

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redis_mlc
You need to insurance hustle ...

Your wife needs to get a job with family benefits for you.

Or you need to enroll in a class somewhere with benefits.

Or you just need to stay real healthy and not have kids.

And welcome to the USA!

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nugget
Do you have a primary care doctor you like? Not all doctors accept all
insurance plans, so sometimes it’s helpful to work backwards from that. You
can call their office and ask for a list of accepted plans.

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simonebrunozzi
No, I don't have a primary care doctor.

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NetBeck
[https://www.coveredca.com/](https://www.coveredca.com/)

You might qualify for Special Enrollment due to a life event.

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arikr
I spent a while looking at reviews some time ago. Kaiser consistently has the
best reviews in California.

