>Because of the way co-pays and deductibles work, you have to be in the top 10% or maybe 15% of health care spenders before you even break even with what you've paid in on a Bronze plan (by far the most popular self-purchased plan).
The nature of catastrophic events are that they are rare... and catastrophic. If buying insurance protects me from an event that would have otherwise pushed me into bankruptcy 10 or 15% of the time, that sounds like a pretty okay deal, I mean, depending on how much that insurance costs. But if an event that could bankrupt me did have something like a 1 in 10 chance of happening, and I could insure against it? Yeah, I think I'd look into that.
(Add to this the perception that you get different treatment when you show up to the hospital without insurance.)
Now, I don't know that's how the numbers work out... it sounds like you pulled 10-15% out of total healthcare costs, and I didn't see any reference for that number. just saying, the point of catastrophic injury insurance isn't to 'break even' - the point of that insurance is to not be bankrupt when that catastrophic event happens.
Further, we're talking about entrepreneurs here; a special case of folks who often don't have insurance even when they have income that would normally come with insurance, so the fact that most people are going to go for the super high deductible plan isn't all that relevant to the discussion. My understanding is that the affordable care act would enable me to purchase a full freight health plan, assuming I could pay, without worrying about pre-existing conditions (which have prevented me from doing that in the past.)
I mean, I think contractors, really, more than Entreprenuers are the big winners here. At this point, I've got employees and a group plan, so I'm in okay shape. But, this would have saved me from spending as much time in W2 jobs as I did when I was contracting; Generally, I'd go a year or two as a contractor, then spend a year or so as a W2 to top up my cobra.
The nature of catastrophic events are that they are rare... and catastrophic. If buying insurance protects me from an event that would have otherwise pushed me into bankruptcy 10 or 15% of the time, that sounds like a pretty okay deal, I mean, depending on how much that insurance costs. But if an event that could bankrupt me did have something like a 1 in 10 chance of happening, and I could insure against it? Yeah, I think I'd look into that.
(Add to this the perception that you get different treatment when you show up to the hospital without insurance.)
Now, I don't know that's how the numbers work out... it sounds like you pulled 10-15% out of total healthcare costs, and I didn't see any reference for that number. just saying, the point of catastrophic injury insurance isn't to 'break even' - the point of that insurance is to not be bankrupt when that catastrophic event happens.
Further, we're talking about entrepreneurs here; a special case of folks who often don't have insurance even when they have income that would normally come with insurance, so the fact that most people are going to go for the super high deductible plan isn't all that relevant to the discussion. My understanding is that the affordable care act would enable me to purchase a full freight health plan, assuming I could pay, without worrying about pre-existing conditions (which have prevented me from doing that in the past.)
I mean, I think contractors, really, more than Entreprenuers are the big winners here. At this point, I've got employees and a group plan, so I'm in okay shape. But, this would have saved me from spending as much time in W2 jobs as I did when I was contracting; Generally, I'd go a year or two as a contractor, then spend a year or so as a W2 to top up my cobra.