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Health Insurance New York Self Employed

Posted in Uncategorized | August 27th, 2011

I pay more than $10,000 per year for Health Insurance, does that sound reasonable?

I’m self employed and gross about $105,000 / year.
Have wife and 3 small children. (wife stays home)
Premium for family is $857.41 / month and increases about 11% per year.
M.D. visits have $20 co-pay.
Policy through Excellus BC/BS.
We live upstate New York and have no health problems.

That sounds pretty good. I am self-employed, married, with three kids. I was paying $950 a month, and it was raised to $1150 a month. I live in California.

You might want to look into a Health Savings Account (HSA) and a “qualified” High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). Because the deductibles are high, the monthly premiums are low. Under federal law, the minimum deductible in a HDHP plan is $1,100 for an individual and $2,200 for a family. The maximum deductibles are $5,500 for an individual and $11,000 a family. If you don’t go to the doctor very much, you wouldn’t pay too much of a deductible. Anything you do pay comes out of your HSA account, which is funded with tax-free dollars. In your tax bracket, you might well gain 50% in buying power, since your HSA dollars are not subject to state and federal income tax or self-employment tax.

Best of all, if the money in an HSA account is yours to keep. It rolls over from year to year. If some or all of it is unspent by the time you retire, you can withdraw it tax-free. So instead of paying a health insurance company, you are paying yourself. And the HSA money can be invested to earn even more, and the earnings are tax-free, as with an IRA account.

To find a broker in your area, log on to a website like http://www.healthinsurancewiz.com and fill out a form requesting a quote. Your information will be sent to a broker in your area who will contact you.