# Freelancers and independent contractors—where do you buy your health insurance? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 27, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freelancers-and-independent-contractors-where-do-you-buy-your-health-insurance/597777 "2011-09-27T17:37:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freelancers-and-independent-contractors-where-do-you-buy-your-health-insurance/597777/21 "2011-09-29T03:10:07Z")
> [@Trom](#): > > I recently switched to a HSA + high deductible plan through Humana. I used to have a plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. Despite me going to the doctor exactly one time in 5 years for a routine checkup, they raised my premiums ~120%. I could type a long post about my frustrations with BCBS as provider of individual health insurance, but that would just get me fired up before bed. It’s safe to say that BCBS is #1 on my shit list of companies I’ve dealt with (yes, even higher than cable, credit card, and TBTF banks). I have no complaints about Humana thus far. A few years ago I had a high deductible plan I never used and they raised the rates over 40% in one year. Not much you can do. Since pre-existing conditions aren’t covered and since insurance is tied to employment people can’t window shop to find a better deal by and large. They put themselves into a death spiral with their business model (raise rates so much that all the healthy people quit buying insurance, leaving only the sick, which leads to more rate hikes and mor healthy people leaving), only to be saved by the affordable care act requiring people to buy private insurance. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freelancers-and-independent-contractors-where-do-you-buy-your-health-insurance/597777/22 "2011-09-29T03:19:35Z")
> [@Trom](#): > > I recently switched to a HSA + high deductible plan through Humana. I used to have a plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. Despite me going to the doctor exactly one time in 5 years for a routine checkup, they raised my premiums ~120%. I could type a long post about my frustrations with BCBS as provider of individual health insurance, but that would just get me fired up before bed. It’s safe to say that BCBS is #1 on my shit list of companies I’ve dealt with (yes, even higher than cable, credit card, and TBTF banks). I have no complaints about Humana thus far. The same thing happened with me and United Healthcare. I started at around $100/month, I went as high as $220/month over 4 years, before switching to Blue Cross Blue Shield at $150 (which is now around $200/month). I assume the rate hikes were mostly due to growing older and moving into different risk groups, and not for using the insurance (which I only did a small handful of times, never even coming close to reaching my deductible.) ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freelancers-and-independent-contractors-where-do-you-buy-your-health-insurance/597777/23 "2011-09-29T11:09:40Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Shoot, just checked three chambers of commerce Web sites, and neither the two county (we’re on the line) or the state-wide organization offers insurance… I don’t recall if mine mentioned it on their website or not. Contact them and ask. I should add that they required a copy of a schedule C to prove that I actually did file as a business. They allowed anyone to join the chamber, but you had to have the proof to purchase insurance. I can’t say whether or not they all require it, but it seems like they would all want some kind of proof that you are some sort of business, even if just a sole proprietor, which was my case. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freelancers-and-independent-contractors-where-do-you-buy-your-health-insurance/597777/24 "2011-09-29T14:19:28Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > The same thing happened with me and United Healthcare. I started at around $100/month, I went as high as $220/month over 4 years, before switching to Blue Cross Blue Shield at $150 (which is now around $200/month). I assume the rate hikes were mostly due to growing older and moving into different risk groups, and not for using the insurance (which I only did a small handful of times, never even coming close to reaching my deductible.) The insurance companies I work with keep explaining that the rates are going up because their costs are going up. To some extent this is true as doctors order more tests to cover their asses and more health problems have been going from terminal to curable at a very high cost. To some extent this is bullshit as their costs to doctors is really, really minimal. Honestly your doctor will get pennies on the dollar from your insurance company (my favorite was my trip to the eye doctor that was billed at $150 and the doctor got $16 plus my copay so the insurance paid about 10% of the bill) and they spend a TON of money on swanky business dinners and parties and other unnecessary expenses. The “best” part of the year in my field is the last 6-8 weeks of the year because I get to visit a dozen or so 5 star restaurants on various insurance company tabs. It is nice to go somewhere and have unlimited food and drink at no cost as a business perk but at the same time it gives me a sinking feeling in my stomach to watch a company that just raised rates 30% have a bar tab for a single event that totals $50k. I get hit by the insurance increases every year too (in December my monthly insurance rate will officially be more than my rent) and I would much rather have cheaper insurance than free steak a few times a year. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freelancers-and-independent-contractors-where-do-you-buy-your-health-insurance/597777/25 "2011-09-29T15:18:28Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > Really you probably won’t notice a ton of difference unless you end up needing to see an out of network doctor. For lots of people they don’t care which doctors they see, but for many they may want to know that if they find out they have cancer they would be covered if they wanted to go to Johns Hopkins or Sloan Kettering even though they don’t participate in the network of BC/BS. If you tend to be pretty healthy and you don’t run into any major problems an HMO or EPO is an excellent way to keep your monthly cost a little lower. If you do run into problems on those plans you will almost certainly have a doctor available who can help you but they may not be the best in their field or the doctor you feel most comfortable with as a patient. Just remember to read the fine print on the policy. I used to have a private insurance policy that wasn’t really great but they actually had an exception to their out-of-network rules that was suprising, and that policy was that in case of a cancer diagnosis they would cover a the cost of getting a second opinion at any major cancer center (of course, I’m not sure what would happen if you decided to be treated there) and even more suprisingly they required a second opinion visit in case of a cancer diagnosis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freelancers-and-independent-contractors-where-do-you-buy-your-health-insurance/597777.md?page=1)