The Best Way Forward for People who need Health Insurance for Individuals
If you happen to be happily self-employed, say, as a successful freelance musician or writer, it can fill you with pity, looking at the rest of humanity getting up and rushing off to work at eight in the morning in pressed suits when it's raining and snowing at the same time. And fill you with gratitude for what you have, as you look down at your bare feet and shorts, and the warmth of how your creativity keeps you productive in your own home. But there is one area at least where those poor drones have it better than you - finding good affordable health insurance. They get health insurance with their employers; you have to go down the treacherous waters of health insurance for individuals. If you live at a place where Blue Shield Blue Cross operates as a major player, you could be in for a pretty nasty time getting any coverage at all. In New York, health insurance can cost the highest in the whole country, and has seen prices climb about 10% every year
If you check for the rates they have on policies in health insurance for individuals though, you'd be shocked; they'll easily raise those prices 30% to 50% this year. And what is worse, lots of private clinics are so sick of dealing with the insurance companies, they just flat out refuse insurance anymore. You are a successful musician or writer, and you wish to go out there and find group insurance for your family in Florida; over there, a family of four could possibly be four groups, the way their definitions work. It's just that when you happen to be self-employed, you're not quite sure which category your placed in - the individual one, or the group one, or which works out better for you. Health insurance for individuals will usually require screening for health issues, and if you have no problems, they will give you an excellent rate. If you want to apply as part of a group, you don't have to take the risk of getting the screening, and having your rates bumped up. But you do miss out on the discount for good health.
So what is the best way to go about finding the best health insurance for individuals? The suggestion that is about to follow may not sound that great to you, but if you happen to have a certain amount of free time, getting a part-time job might be just the thing for you. Even working part-time at Starbucks, or at major bookstores like Barnes & Noble, perhaps five hours a day, will give you great all-covered healthcare. And no one is going to screen you before they offer you coverage. But if you do have enough money to afford a proper health plan of your own, try signing up to a professional organization. If you are a writer for example, you could sign up to the freelancers' union; if you are an actor, the actors' guild would help too. If yours is a genuine professional organization, you'll probably get nearly free health insurance just by working a certain amount at your profession each year.
Health insurance for individuals is such a poorly thought-out system in this country, no one would have any part of it if they could possibly help it. The trick to getting personal insurance then is avoiding getting it as far as possible.