Sell Your House... And Buy Health Insurance!

Recently I have had the unfortunate job of looking at Health Insurance plans for the company I work for.  We currently are covered by one of the big players, and they ticked off the owner of my company. So now I have had the pleasure once again to search for (and you really do have to search) Health Insurance.

I contacted the insurance companies directly as well as utilizing a broker who gets rates from most of the large companies.

The results are sickening to say the least.  (I have to be careful to not actually get sick, they may want to raise the prices higher.)

Our current insurance provider charges us around $925 per month including dental.  We only have two employees on the plan, one family ($700 per month) and one single ($225 per month).  The plan is a modest PPO that is a 50/50 share plan.  When we go to the doctor we pay 50% of the charges up to a max of $750 per person or $1,500 per family (which we have never met).  After the deductible is met the insurance covers 100% on any further charges (not including prescriptions of course).  Dental is also a 50/50 share plan, no braces, no checkups, etc.  I beileve we also have a max of $1000 per person per year on the dental plan.

When I asked for quotes I explained to the companies that I would like to find a policy that was similar to the plan we have now.  What I actually got was anything but similar.

We received quotes from the top four Health Insurance companies that serve my area.  The prices ranged from $1,065.00 per month for a PPO with a $5,000/$15,000 deductible (without dental)  to $3,823.00 per month for a PPO with no deductibles (also without dental).

So currently my company pays $925 X 12 = $11,100.00 per year for our Health Insurance.  The new plans without dental start at $12,780.00 per year and to to an astounding $45,876 per year.

A good rule of thumb when you are buy a house is to spend 25% of your income, now keep in mind that for most Americans this is the largest investment they will have.

According to the 2009 Census estimates  ( http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html ) the average household income is $52,029 for a family of 2.5.

This would mean that for a family plan the average American getting Health Insurance through their work would spend between $798.75 to $2,827.75 per month if they have to go COBRA (like I just found out I have to).  That would be between 18% and 65% of their yearly income for Health Insurance, that is outrageous!

I am not going to suggest answers to the problems with Health Insurance affordability that is what we pay the politicians for. I will encourage you though to take a look at a few of the links below, the statistics are interesting.

So, there you go sell your house and buy Health Insurance, pretty soon you may have to choose between one or the other.

http://www.healthinsurance.org/blog/2010/11/15/insurance-company-profits-up-41-percent/

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/HealthCare/health-insurers-post-record-profits/story?id=9818699

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/09/zirkelbach-profits/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr017.pdf