Yea - The certificate of coverage and paperwork for our new health insurance policy arrived in the mail today! Having it in my hands is reassuring!
DH is self-employed so we have to purchase our own health insurance. The company we were insured with in Washington does not offer coverage in Texas, so we had to find a new company.
As a non-native English speaker, issues like choosing health insurance are things DH is more than happy to leave to me. (Heck, "Insurancese" is hard enough to figure out for those of us who speak English as a first language, right?)
Since this was my responsibility, and since I believe adequate insurance coverage is an essential part of our financial plan, it was a relief to open the envelope and find the certificate.
A newspaper article I clipped awhile back offered some very good advice on finding an individual policy. I ended up using www.ehealthinsurance.com to get quotes. I had wanted to go with Blue Cross / Blue Shield since they were rated A+ by AM Best, but they had some odd requirements that seemed to be saying "non-U.S. citizens need not apply," so I decided to go with United Healthcare which has an A rating. After some mind-numbing reading about coverage under different policies, I made my choice.
I decided to go with a high-deductible, HSA-eligible plan. [This is the first time we have had that type of plan.] Our premiums are a whopping $321 per month less that what they used to be. We will be funding our HSA up to the maximum amount allowed, so that is where the money we save on the premiums will be going.
Now I just need to choose where to set up our HSA (Health Savings Account). I am leaning towards HSA Bank because it's recommended by Kiplinger's. If anyone has had an HSA and can make recommendations, please chime in.
Anyway ... I know this is a very boring entry, but gosh, don't you all feel good when you get those really important financial tasks completed??? I sure do.
New Health Insurance Policy
November 3rd, 2007 at 01:03 am
November 3rd, 2007 at 05:53 am 1194069180
November 3rd, 2007 at 01:47 pm 1194097676
November 3rd, 2007 at 06:44 pm 1194115469
www.nahu.org/consumer/healthcare [National Association of Health Underwriters, includes state-by-state info for different situations such as yours]
www.healthinsuranceinfo.net
November 7th, 2007 at 07:10 pm 1194462653
I have High Deductible Insurance thru my company. It is also with United Health Care. Our HSA's are set up with Exante Bank. It's an online bank and may be affiliated with UHC.