How much do you pay for health insurance?
Don't have health insurance. When I realized the premiums were higher than my house payment and i was recieving very little for my payment, I was going through my bills trying to reduce things that seemed too much to afford. Health insurance didn't seem like it was doing me much good for the cost. Hopefully I don't have any real problems soon. Jack I'd really be interested in finding health insurance that cheap, that pays anything whatsoever. Sure you don't just have dental insurance? Charles C you don't seem to know what the issue was in the health care debate.
How much do you pay for health insurance per month?
HMO is $300 a month for medical, dental and vision coverage, $25 copay for an office visit, and a $300 deductible for inpatient care. You can expect to pay $100 per month per person for full major medical coverage. I agree with you that $170 a month for just you is unreasonable. Cal a local BCBS agent and get a quote, if you are healthy and have no major health concerns, take no prescriptions, etc. you can do better with a private policy, but you should compare carefully, a cheaper policy could mean a larger deductible. Look at the deductibles and coinsurance on the group plan. If you are not healthy or have some major health concerns, you need to take the coverage on your job.
Should I just save the money instead of paying health insurance each month?
I do this!I don't have health insurance at all!But...I have my "own insurance".What is this?I calculated what is the worst case scenario in term of financial stress done by a disease. And I have this money in the bank in very safe bonds.Respiratory Failure: probably the most expensive diseaseSo, if I have a very bad disease I can pay the cost of the treatment in cash. (besides that I have another risky investments like stocks/REITs that I can use if I have another disease).I do regular check ups and have a healthy life style.Why do I do this?I don't trust the insurance business. And I am not talking about frauds and financial risk that insurance companies sometimes are involved.I am talking about the point of view of the consumer. It is not a good deal to buy an insurance.Insurance companies have to pay taxes, marketing expenses, administrative expenses, other expenses and have profits. Who pay for this? THE CONSUMER.AIG sponsoring Manchester United, months before getting broke.So, when you pay 200 bucks for an insurance company, only a tiny part of this $200 goes for your health. At least 70% of this money goes to other people. Not you. Even Cristiano Ronaldo takes his share. And even when you need to use your insurance the process to get the insurance company to pay for the costs is so bureaucratic that you might get a brain tumor in the process.A brain tumor is not in my bucket list. So I won't give a single penny to insurance companies.
Health Insurance make sense to you?
I suspect the problem is your part-time status. The company is probably paying a portion of the full-time employees premium as part of the employee benefits. A part-time employee is not entitled to the same benefit, so the employer is not paying any of your premium. The insurance company probably is charging the same premium for each employee.
If you can't afford health insurance for your family and the government says you make too much...?
You are in the grey zone. So am I. You make too much to qualify for any public assistance but not really enough to live the way people assume Americans are supposed to live. It's awful because when people hear that you don't have "X" they just assume that you aren't trying hard enough. Try every possible assistance source you can find for your area and check over the published qualification guidelines carefully. At $48K, I doubt you'll find anything that you qualify for, but it never hurts to double check. After that, shop around on-line for private insurance. You might be able to find very basic coverage for a price you can afford, maybe just for physicals and prescriptions. If that fails, speak with your doctors. Most doctors really do want to be sure that their patients are cared for and might be wiling to give you a discounted office visit rate. A lot of doctors also have drug samples that they can give you if you need a prescription. The ultimate solution, short of more income, would be to find a job that offers better medical benefits.