Markstone492

Wonder if anyone can help.

We are planning a move from the UK to Central or North-Eastern FL and i wondered what the approximate cost of our health insurance would be per month?

We are a family of 4, i'm 40, wife is 33, kids are 5 and 4 respectively. Wife and I are both in good health, non-smokers and non-drinkers.

I am starting a business with a US based colleague, so there is the potential for the business to pay something towards the cost in the future, but to start with i want to know the worst case scenario!

Anyway, any help / advice greatly appreciated. Also, any suggestions for good Health Insurance companies?

Many thanks, Mark

TimNiceBut

A lot of it depends on the coverage you want, if you're looking at a high deductible plan or a regular one etc etc.

For a regular plan with reasonable coverage, you're likely looking at four figures, how deep into four figures depends on your exact coverage, deductibles, insurance company and so on.

Pulaski

Yeah, there are so many variables it's hard to say, but for a family of four you'd be lucky to pay much less than $1k/ mth, and then depending on the terms of the policy and the medical services you use, you could easily be on tge hook for another $3k-$5k of medical expenses per year. The more you pay in insurance, the lower your out of pocket payments are likely to be. If you're healthy and have a contingency reserve, the overall lowest cost if you use few medical services in any one year is IME a "cheap" high deductible policy, where you run the risk of being $8k-$10k out of pocket before insurance kicks in.

penguinsix

This might be a good start:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Health_Insurance

Bob

Piece of string question. Private insurance also isn't worth the paper its written on.

Get a company plan... And skies the limit, either with up front costs, or costs down the line. With kids, you don't want to skimp either and regular health check ups, which they will need for school aren't cheap.

kodokan

This guy says he's paying $237 a month for a family of 3, with a very high deductible plan: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/...nsurance-plan/. He outlines his thought process and the research he did, so there might be some useful tips there for you.

sir_eccles

Hopefully by next year the differences will be negligible/less significant.

Interesting thing I learned recently about group plans. The rate is determined by the pool of employees in your group. That one guy who is always ill and on a dozen meds is going to be a problem. You can't do a group plan for a sole proprietor there must be at least one other employee. However, for very small group plans like this there is going to be a supplemental fee from the insurance company. Plus don't forget the company will have to subsidize each employee, so if you run the company you aren't going to save much.

Regarding kids and regular health check ups, most plans should cover 100% preventative care check ups otherwise you are wasting your time.

Pulaski

Sound advice, Mrs P and I reached the same conclusion about 4 years ago, and wish we had worked it out long before. Our employer subsidized insurance cost is about $160/mth (incl Little Miss P) with all our "out of pocket" healthcare expenses coming through our (tax deductible) Health Saving Account.

sir_eccles

I think some of his numbers are unrealistic. I'm not sure he allowed for inflation. Taking the cost of birth, in 2006 he says it cost $20,000 which quadrupled due to a surgical intervention. Sorry, but a regular no complication birth will average between $20-30,000 now.

It may work for him I don't know, maybe he has tens of thousands sitting in the bank.

robin1234

Jeez that Mr. Money Mustache is a very interesting blog! Thanks for the link! Hours of fascinating reading in there..

kodokan

Hee, I was just the same! A friend put me onto it some months back, and I devoured virtually all the articles over the next couple of weeks. It can be useful to scroll down and read the comments below too, to get a wide range of points of view and extra tips.

Michael

It may also be possible that the cost of private insurance will rise, become more difficult to obtain, and have more loopholes since most that don't have employee sponsored health insurance will have insurance through the health care exchanges leaving few people that need to acquire health insurance outside the exchanges.

It is still unclear if people on visas that start their own business will be eligible to use the health care exchanges. If they are eligible, it would be much easier to give an estimated cost by using the following calculator. Although the health care exchanges are primarily for USCs and LPRs, some visa types are eligible to use the exchanges.

http://www.coveredca.com/calculating_the_cost.html

Pulaski

That's really not necessary. If you SAVE $800/mth in premium costs, you can AFFORD $10k of deductibles just from the saved premiums. People get scared looking at deductibles and OOPs of that magnitude, but it's quite manageable for some/many if they take time to look at the numbers. We divert tax-deductible dollars into our health savings account and could afford maximum OOPs for two consecutive years with no financial pain. .... Given that we continue to fund the HSA, in practice it would be a lot longer.

kodokan

HSAs are brilliant. We put the max into ours, and it means our share of our son's ortho treatment, about $2.5, is coming out of pre-tax money. I buy contact lenses and glasses out of it, and the odd other dental out of pocket expense.

We're generally a healthy bunch, so our only actual medical expense for the last almost two years (since we arrived) has been for my daughter's ear infection. Check up, diagnosis and antibiotics was $113, paid for with pre-tax HSA money, of course, so only 2/3 of that in 'real' cash.

HSAs are like extra bonus retirement funds too - after 65, you can take the money out for anything you like, subject to paying the income tax (which hopefully will be in a much lower bracket by then, like with IRAs).

We had a similar high deductible insurance plan when we lived in Switzerland (ie, you largely pay for all your own day-to-day medical costs) but they don't do the taxfree HSA thing there, so I vastly prefer this system.

Giantaxe

The bolded parts are the key... great for younger/healthier people, not so great for older people who are likelier in poorer health.

It would be interesting to know the percentage of participants who have a significant amount in their HSAs at retirement. I suspect it's fleetingly small.