School’s keeping me pretty busy, but Open Enrollment ends October 31st, so I need to get going if I’m going to look for alternative health insurance. I’m no expert, but I’m learning – a big website on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) is HSAInsider.com, and the best rate quote comparison site seemed to be eHealthInsurance.
Going on eHealthInsurance, I typed in my info (male, 27, non-smoker, full-time college student) and actually found a lot of good big-name options. For some reason I thought I’d only find smaller companies. Both Kaiser Permanente and Blue Cross/Blue Shield came with an HSA compatible option for just under $100/month.
Kaiser’s option has a $2,600 annual deductible, 20% co-insurance, $5,000 annual out-of-pocket maximum, and $2 million lifetime maximum benefit.
BCBS’s option has $3,500 annual deductible, 20% co-insurance (in-network), $5,000 annual out-of-pocket maximum, and $2 million lifetime maximum benefit.
Confused by all the terminology? I also found this really helpful Flash presention about How Health Insurance Works. It cleared some things up for me, about the difference between co-pays, deductibles, and co-insurance.
Both of these quotes are half the $200/month I am paying right now for health insurance through my wife’s job, so I am definitely going to look more into it. I’ve heard both good and bad things about Kaiser, and I’m actually on BCBS right now. They both stated that HSA provider options include Wells Fargo and other companies I’ve never heard of. They all seem to have a lot of fees, but from what I’ve read that is par for the field right now.
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You might also want to take a look at State Farm’s offerings. They actually work with Fortis Insurance under the hood, but State Farm Bank will provide the HSA bank account as well without much fuss.
I don’t recall the exact benefits, though they look fairly similar to yours, but I know it does have a $6million lifetime. I think the ticket on mine comes in around $80, and my wife’s around $70. I only mention them, as I doubt they participate in the online search tools, as they’re very agent-centric.
There’s something really important to remember if you plan on going on an individual health plan instead of a group plan. If you stay on a group plan without ever having a break of more than 63 days, basically no pre-existing condition can be applied to you for new coverage. However, as soon as you have a break of more than 63 days or are an individual plan (where HIPAA doesn’t apply), if you develop something, you will have that with you as a pre-existing condition (for up to a year by law under a group plan, since individual plans aren’t regulated by HIPAA, they can keep it as a preexisting condition longer). It’s a nasty thing to potentially get caught in, and I nag my husband constantly to keep his membership to IEEE (a trade organization for electrical engineers) current in case we ever need insurance and are not employed, we are eligible for group coverage through them. Here’s a few sites that offer some more information:
AARP Site
Insurance facts about HIPAA from the Illinois government
A real-life example from Ivillage