What price range would I be looking at? I’ve heard that the cost to a company of employing a person ranges from 20-40% over whatever salary they receive. That’s the cost of all benefits, including non-itemized Social Security, and insurance. So, what if I lose my job, and my COBRA runs out, and I just want to buy a policy (assuming no pre-existing conditions and nor out-of-range health numbers). What kind of range would I be looking at?
And, no, I’m not in this situation currently. I heard someone giving a speech recently, and he mentioned that some acquaintances of his had sold a business that they had, making a rather tidy in the deal to retire on–but were about 10 years short of Medicare, and they ended up getting part-time jobs so that they would have some health insurance. That story may or may not be true, but that’s what got me curious about “what if?”
You question can’t be answered without knowing you age, smoking status and geographic location. Even then the numbers you get will be as useless as e-healthinsurance quotes. What do you want from your policy? HMO, PPO, indemnity plan? One of the new HSAs? Do you want more coverage for big things, or just your standard crappy BCBS 80/20 plan? There are a dozen other variables as well. It’s not as simple as just asking “what will it cost?”.
I’m sure Weirddave will be along shortly to answer this question, but the answer is, “it depends”.
A policy with a higher deductible will cost you less per month than one with a lower deductible. Likewise, a policy with higher out-of-pocket costs will cost less per month than one with a lower out-of-pocket. More coverage (like a prescription plan) costs more.
When I priced health insurance last year for a project, I found policies ranging from around a hundred bucks a month for a high-deductible, high out-of-pocket policy to over $500 per month for an Aetna HMO with no deductible and very low out-of-pocket costs.
If you narrow down what you want, insurance is a lot easier to price.
In addition to what Weirddave said, you might not even qualify for one (medically). Companies are cherry-picking more and more and based on height/weight tables, your occupation, medical/legal history, etc so that they will flat out refuse to insure you if you look even moderately risky. Sucks.