I don't know the answer to your question, Barb, but I thought you might be interested in this article in today's Scranton Times:

Here is a link that might be useful: The Blues

I am self-insured. This year's BC/Personal Choice w/prescription coverage and co-payments is $888/month...just for 1 person - me.

You're paying much less than me.

We pay our own insurance (farming/ranching self employed).

We pay $5400/year for family coverage. No prescrition coverage. $2000/person deduct.

It is outrageous!

You might be able to find a better price by shopping around. Our insurance agent helped us. We did have BC/BS - but that was just too expensive. We now have Alliant health insurance.

We are very lucky, we have b/c b/s personal choice through my husbands work with hardly any co-pay and we only pay about $50.00 a month for it. It is a godsend. I also get reimbursed in my pay for not taking the insurance at my work. It has been wonderful with my injury right now.

I feel so blessed to have a wonderful teacher retirement system, which carries my health insurance. They pay a large percentage and rest is taken out of my monthly retirement check. No copay as well!

Barb, are you in the Geisinger area? Before I went on Medicare last April I had a Geisinger plan. I paid under $300 a month to insure myself. No prescription coverage, and it had a deductible of $1,000, I think. Co-pays of $20 for doctor visits.

Has anyone here heard of Cinergy Health Insurance? If so, is it good? I'm retired and looking. I have insurance thru the company I retired from and just for me it is 398.72.

I think I just had a heart attack! Holy moley your insurance rates are EXPENSIVE! I complained when we had to pay $88 a month for Alberta Health Care, which effective January 1, 2009 is now FINALLY free!

My DH is self employed and my employer does not offer health coverage. Last year we were paying more than $1100 a month for coverage for the two of us and of course there were co-pays. It was killing us! We researched other plans within the same provider and settled on one that had a $1500 deductible per year and included dental coverage as well. We did not meet the $1500 deductible (knock on wood, we are seldom ill), but even if we had, we would have saved a bit (not enough) over our other plan. We are now paying $742 a month for the two of us. But we still think long and hard about whether or not we "need" to go to the doctor. I think it's downright SINFUL that decent health care is so outrageously expensive!

Do some research and check out other plans within the same provider if you are happy with them. Factor in what you might expect to pay in co-pays, prescriptions, etc. to accurately figure what your cost might be.

DH is self-employed and we have to pay for our own insurance. We have B/S and we pay $305 a month total. BUT our deductible is $5000 per person and we have a $45 co-pay. We do have prescription coverage which is nice. Our main reason for having it is for major medical in case anything serious were to ever happen to either of us. We are both very healthy and luckily don't have to go the doctor very often.

When DH & I were self-employed we paid about $125/month for his coverage & about $200/month for mine. We were both with BCBS but it was cheaper to get separate policies. You will need to look around & compare policies.

I work in the HR dept. at my work. i have to deal with this every year, finding new plans and comparing prices. You need to do it before your anniversary date comes up. We always decide in December, because our anniversary date falls on January 1st. One thing to keep in mind is, the insurance companies always give you the rates for single person policy and family coverage, but be sure to ask them for the cost on a 2 person policy. They don't automatically quote you these rates but they do have them. Before I started working where I am they were paying family rates on some employees when they didn't need to, they only needed a 2 person plan.(husband and wife, woman and child, etc,etc) The cost does seem a bit high if it is for you and your husband only, with such a high deductible.
We have a 500.00 deductible, 20.00 copay, good 3 tier prescrition plan, for a 2 person policy, is costing about 965.00 per month.
I agree with everyone else. I think it is outrageous the costs of health care. You can't afford to have it and you can't afford not to have it.

You can get low cost self-paid health insurance if you are healthy. If you have any health problem, or a history of health problems....you take what you can get.

This is why people should have health insurance, even though they have no health problems. Waiting until you need it is a big mistake, because then it's virtually impossible to get it.

I'm with Debby...I am just floored by the rates you pay in the U.S. Our system has flaws, but I wouldn't trade it. I feel very lucky to have access to our health care system. I honestly don't know how you guys manage it.

A really good place to find information about health insurance/rates in your state, is your state insurance commission. They should be able to tell you what's available and who's charging the lowest rates. Since insurance varies from state to state, you really do need to get the information that will be accurate for where you are.

Good luck.

This thread is a real eye opener for me. I retired from the State of CA in 1999 and they pay my medical and dental for life. Now that I am on Medicare, they pay my Medicare premium plus my BC/BS secondary which includes prescription coverage.