Small Business Health Insurance - any ideas from other biz people?

[XSmojo]

This is not a joke. You can check it out.

School bus drivers get insurance, and it's state insurance and pretty good. I'll bet over half, maybe 2/3d of the drivers are doing is strictly for the insurance. I know one guy who said he would drive for free for the insurance - with his kids and what he would have to pay on his own, free would be like a second income. The drivers I know like it because they can easily work a second job or run their own business between pickup and dropoffs.

Any support position in the schools is the same - office, cafeteria, environmental. That little old cafeteria lady isn't handing out pre-packaged government meals because she likes to see the smile on the little monster's faces.

Thing about school work is that the hours coincide with the kids, and it's only a 9 month job.

This is not a fit for us but I actually have a client that did this last year. Took early out and went to work at the school for the insurance.

 

[MegaFan]

Have been an engineering/training consultant since 1982 with a stay at home wife (Mom of 4), although my wife was/is a Registered Nurse. I always purchased catastrophic policies and expected to be out of pocket up to $10k a year, which was just a part of my business plan to keep health insurance plans/premiums reasonably priced.

Fast forward to today (since about the time of ObamaNoCare rolling out), and my wife is working as an RN in an orthopaedic clinic. Less money than a hospital but is only day shift, all weekends off, and lots of holidays/vacation/sick time. She probably averages six weeks off a year, plus the holidays. She isn't working for the money, and most of it is going into retirement. The big gain for her (in addition to matching 401k and yearly bonuses), is that "we" are fully insured, with a well funded HSA paid for by her employer. The cost to us is minimal (about $150 per month), which is the real reason she is working. If she wasn't an RN, she would have applied as a Teacher's aid or sought out an employer that offered the best health insurance and retirement plan.

So, my vote is for the breadwinner to do his/her thing to bring in the real money and let the spouse focus on the insurance side, with a good retirement plan as a bonus.

 

[jcountry]

its called the immigrant health plan. its the only option left...
go to the ER, get treated,skip out on your bill....thanks obama...

The only difference being that as a real US citizen, the hospital will get a judgement and take your assets.....

They never go after illegals-because “raaaaacist”

 

[XSmojo]

Yes, I just finished dealing with this for several months. The existing marketplace is total crap. Totally unusable for normal self-employed people. There’s only one, maybe two providers left and Georgia. And no doctors except the plans.

Having your wife get coverage through another job is great if she can.

Your next option is a corporate group plan. These corporateGroup plans still have good POS plans available. But they’re expensive, and they come with a catch. You can’t have a corporate plan only for yourself, or yourself and your wife. You have to have at least one other non-related person. If the company pays for your plan and has to pay for the other person as well. So it only works if you’re willing to pay for somebody else’s plan.

I included an employee as part of his raise for the next year.

You also can’t pick and choose one employee and not others.
We had to set up a new business structure, second entity, and ensuring that group of three people including myself and my family.

Different brokers specialize in these different avenues. I didn’t find one that could operate in all areas.

It’s expensive to set up your own corporate plan. At a minimum, you have to pay for at least 75 percent of the employees in the group/company, if you want to pay for yourself as well.

Let me know and I could send you a broker or two. But if you have a bunch of employees and you’re not willing to pay for all of them, it won’t work. Only if you’re willing to pay for everybody equally with at least 75 percent participation, unless they are in eligible, which would be VA benefits, etc.

It’s way too confusing, too expensive, and crappy benefits inless you go all out with the Corporate group plan. Thats what we got with our gov run healthcare.

This is a real option for us, jut not sure how much setup time it will take. PM me your broker(s) if you dont' mind, I will check into it.

 

[cooley2189]

I have a guy that does all of our health insurance. You have to pay him to be you broker and advisor, but he helps us a lot with the Obamacare regulations and what we can and can’t do. I’ll get his number when I get back to the office and send it to you via PM.

 

[XSmojo]

I have a guy that does all of our health insurance. You have to pay him to be you broker and advisor, but he helps us a lot with the Obamacare regulations and what we can and can’t do. I’ll get his number when I get back to the office and send it to you via PM.

Please do. I think any useful advisors are now a fee service, no longer paid by the carriers.

 

[poopdaddy]

this is an option, but you do need to be good people to join..
http://www.chministries.org/howitworks.aspx

 

[gh1950]

Have been an engineering/training consultant since 1982 with a stay at home wife (Mom of 4), although my wife was/is a Registered Nurse. I always purchased catastrophic policies and expected to be out of pocket up to $10k a year, which was just a part of my business plan to keep health insurance plans/premiums reasonably priced.

Fast forward to today (since about the time of ObamaNoCare rolling out), and my wife is working as an RN in an orthopaedic clinic. Less money than a hospital but is only day shift, all weekends off, and lots of holidays/vacation/sick time. She probably averages six weeks off a year, plus the holidays. She isn't working for the money, and most of it is going into retirement. The big gain for her (in addition to matching 401k and yearly bonuses), is that "we" are fully insured, with a well funded HSA paid for by her employer. The cost to us is minimal (about $150 per month), which is the real reason she is working. If she wasn't an RN, she would have applied as a Teacher's aid or sought out an employer that offered the best health insurance and retirement plan.

So, my vote is for the breadwinner to do his/her thing to bring in the real money and let the spouse focus on the insurance side, with a good retirement plan as a bonus.

Not suggesting at all that she change jobs, but most large school systems are struggling to hire school nurses. They can't hand out any drugs, other than ones already prescribed and furnished by the student, so as far as I can determine their biggest chore is handing out Kotex.

 

[The Old Jaybird]

Obamacare is working EXACTLY how the Dems wanted it to work. It was NEVER about healthcare, it was ALWAYS about power, having life/death power over the citizens. When Obamacare goes "tits up" in another couple years, then the Dems will trot out "single payer plans" which was the real goal all along.

Single Payer also means Single Denier....remember that, this is where the Death Panels really kick in. Stay healthy, keep working and paying taxes, and you are "useful" to the government. Get old and sick and need that pesky healthcare....well, not so much, welcome to the boneyard. Remember when you die, the government "wins" because they no longer have to pay you your SS retirement....this is the real "dark side" of Obamacare.

Bottom line....work for 40 years pay taxes, retire, get paid for 5 or 10 years, then crawl off and die, because you are now costing us money.

 

[Cohutta68]

This is a real option for us, jut not sure how much setup time it will take. PM me your broker(s) if you dont' mind, I will check into it.

I’ll send you two people we were working with. It’s a headache, and a little burdensom Can we set up reasonably quick. Not sure if you can still get a January 1 policy. But a new corporate group can set up anytime. Not only during the open enrollment periods.

The best brokers require a fee to work with you.