Health Insurance for Self Employed

Anyone used NASE?

[tictoc]

It is that time of the year to find a good health insurance provider and I was contacted from a rep. at NASE - National Assoc of the Self Employed. NASE claims You have your choice of doctors and hospitals. No Traditional Network and You are in control of what is in your policy.

Has anyone used NASE for health insurance? If so, what plan is a good plan to use with them? Should I quit my blue cross/bs for this or is there an even better plan?

[RobinL]

I went through a broker which makes everything pretty easy from a paperwork perspective.

[adamxcl]

I had them for a couple years. Never actually used them over a deductible however. They had a good starting rate but raised it every 3-4 months and were much high when looking at adding my new wife. I wound up switching to a HSA account this year and got both of us covered for only $30 more than I paid for myself at NASE.

[attard]

When you're evalutating health insurance, you need to look at a lot of things. Be sure you find out not only which doctors you can use, but if coverage is limited to amounts in a schedule. If there is a schedule of fees, (in other words the maximum amount the insurance company will pay for procedures, doctor visits, etc.) compare those fees with the actual rates charged by the doctors and hospitals you'd use if needed. There can be a big difference.

Also be sure the deductible applies for the year, and not per illness. I don't know if any of the insurance companies still do this, but at least one of them used to have a deductible by illness. So, if you broke your arm today you'd pay a deductible and then if you had some other illness or accident during the year that wasn't associated with the broken arm, you'd need to meet a deductible again for the new accident or illness.

So, read the fine print before you sign anything - and also check to see if your local chamber of commerce or other regional business association offers any insurance program.

[raywood]

tictoc,
A few things I've learned.
Health insurance plans are usually better for large groups of people to help spread the risk.

Most of the plans offered are associated with some organization with lots of members. Hence, the National Association of the Self Employed, an organization claiming to advocate the interests of the self employed, but primarily interested in selling insurance and little else.

The organizations typically have officers and boards of directors. The officers and directors are given authority to select which insurance carrier will provide coverage to members.

The organization's officers and directors are often also officers and directors of an insurance carrier. Guess which company gets selected to provide coverage for members.

That's just the way it works. Not much we self employed can do about it. I bought the NASE plan for myself and my 5 employees for a couple of years. Their rep came to my office and put a very high pressure sales pitch on me. I am suspect of any outfit that uses such high presure tactics, but I was so tired of shopping for a plan that I took it just to be done with it. None of us needed anything major. I changed to another plan, and my wife needed 2 surgeries during the first 2 years. The plan paid about half of the expense.

If you have a Blue Cross/BS plan you should think very carefully before dropping it. In all of my time as both an employed member of a group plan, and as a self emplyed individual, I have never found anything for self employed people even closely approaching the benefits of BC/BS.

[skateboard]

If you live in New York, and work in tech, try "working today" it is a freelancers union.

I got burned by someone creating a group, selling policies and then stiffing the actual insurer while collecting premiums. It was a bit like the phone card scam that Pussy sells Furio over Indian food the night before Pussy is killed in the Sopranos. So beware.

The small groups are governed by the Department of Labor, pension and benefits sub-division. So you may want to call them before you settle on a group.

I dont know about NASE, my but my self employed insurance cost a FORTUNE.

Good luck.

[oiseau73]

Hi tictoc,

I have health insurance from NASE. It's not great, but then we don't have much of a choice.

It depends on the state you live in. Here in Maine, we are horribly limited on what insurance we can purchase. Both my husband and I are self employed and we were paying $12,000.00/year for an HMO. With NASE, we cut the premiums in half, but we each have a $5000.00 deductable per year.

The State of Maine has just started a new insurance plan called Dirigo for the residents of the state. We will have to check it out.

The state of affairs of health insurance is dreadful, I wish you the best of luck.