We actually went to a good old-fashioned business insurance agent. We got a reference from someone who was happy with theirs.
Me and my founder have a Blue Cross HSA plan that costs around $150-$200 per month for a single employee. It's $200 if you want the HSA-minimum $1500 per year deductible. After the deductible is met, PPO network expenses are entirely paid by the plan, and before they're met you get PPO discounts. I recommend it.
We have the advantage of being in California, an extremely favorable environment for small businesses (2-50 employees) to get group health plans in. Couple things worth pointing out about our situation:
- It's an honest-to-goodness group plan, not an individual plan. Individuals have health coverage at the pleasure of the insurer. Those lovely stories about insurers (like Blue Cross) cancelling policies retroactively happen to people with individual plans.
- In California, insurers can't refuse to insure a small business based on employees' health or medical history. Do you know how difficult it can be to get individual insurance with less-than-average health, much less an actual medical condition? Basically, forget it. Small businesses in CA have no such problem. Even though we're healthy, it lets us actually rely on our health insurance.
- Also in California, insurers are limited to charging no more than 10 percent more than an index of what they charge large businesses, based on the employees' health. It's a great deal for small businesses. And again, it makes things very predictable even in a worst-case scenario.
- As a C corporation, we can deduct the premiums we pay as expenses. Some, especially S corps and LLCs, may not be able to -- in any case, consult your tax advisor.
- We can hire someone tomorrow and offer a health plan that we don't have to be ashamed of, and it's flexible. If we need to share costs, we can pay only half or most of it and deduct the rest. If we can afford to offer a premium health plan, we simply pay the premiums and fund their HSA every month.
Once it's time to leave, I'll probably get catastrophic coverage in case I get hit by a bus or end up with cancer, and pay for routine expenses out of pocket. Healthy people in their 20s really don't have many medical expenses - I think the last time I went to the doctor was a year and a half ago, and it cost about $150 (through a COBRA mixup, my coverage didn't start until the month after I needed it, but they refunded my check for the month I wasn't covered and I ended up saving like $200 by not being covered). If there are serious problems, that's what the catastrophic insurance is for.
It is? I am in Germany and I was actually wondering if it would be possible to get insurance from a foreign insurance company. The "public health insurance" is REALLY expensive for me (500/month), but I don't see a way out.
If you live in one of the qualifying states (CA is included), http://www.tonikhealth.com has fairly reasonable quotes for "catastrophic" insurance -- $77/mo for their base plan.
I was going to do Tonik ended up being advised by a professional not to. The important thing with all these cheap plans (I have one now around a $100/month) is to make sure they don't just cover generic. If you get really sick and need special drugs--which don't have generics--you're out of luck.
If you live in CA, I'd recommend talking to someone at allhealthplans.com. It's free (the insurer pays them), and they have great information about all the competing companies--no bs, excellent help. I've sent lots of people their way.
