Do you have health insurance

My wife was talking to the parents of one of my son's classmates, and she mentioned they don't have health insurance.
She's a nurse and he's an optometrist (I think) and their oldest son has Aspergers.
I thought it was crazy. But ... The more I have been thinking about it, I'm not so sure.
They self-pay, which, the wife said is a looked down upon by doctors, dentists, etc, but it's also a lot cheaper than going the Insurance route.
And insurance is expensive. When you don't have a large pool to draw from, it is really expensive. We pay $18,000 a year for health insurance with a $1,000 deductible for medical and dental, and No vision coverage (3 of the five us wear glasses and/or contacts).

Probably won't, but considering the option of dropping coverage ...

My questions: How many sj.comers carry health insurance?

 

Ours comes from the workplace so it only costs us around $4,500 a year for a family of six. If we were paying the whole thing ourselves, I’d think about going out of pocket, but I’d always have catastrophic coverage.

 

Till three months ago, I worked in a company with 260,000 employees, so you'd think my insurance would be pretty good. But in order to keep down costs for the company, the CEO and the operating committee chose a health plan that put a lot of responsibility on the employee to be in good health and take wellness screenings, which is a great idea because it detected certain conditions early. And yet it also demanded that we shop around for the cheapest options. Maybe it's just because I wasn't acclimated to that -- a first world problem, for sure -- but it was a running thing where you'd hear horror stories of people who'd been put over a barrel with medical costs because they'd gone to an out-of-network provider or hadn't understood the intricacies of the plan. I have a full-time job. I shouldn't have to have another side gig figuring out my fucking health insurance. Not in this country, and not for a company with its HQ on Park Avenue.

Now I work for a municipality and I'm in a union. There were no options to explore. If you opt in to the health insurance, you get one plan that covers everything, including dental. I like it.

I got enough shit to worry about in my life, I shouldn't have to worry about medical insurance. I pay $42 every two weeks for myself. My daughter is covered by my ex, and I pay half of that, which is about $1200 a year, I believe. So I'm paying maybe $2K total a year? (Reminds me I have to check; a lot of cash just tied up in alimony, child payments, etc.)

The ex works for a university with a great medical school, so my daughter is able to go to those doctors, which is a nice comfort.

 

Good luck with that:

Who can buy a Catastrophic plan
Only the following people are eligible:

• People under 30
• People of any age with a hardship exemption or affordability exemption (based on Marketplace or job-based insurance being unaffordable)

If you’re eligible to buy a Catastrophic plan, you’ll see them displayed when you compare plans in the Marketplace.

 

Alrighty then. Guess I’ll always have insurance.

 

This is one of the worst things about Obamacare -- the catastrophic-only option is off the table for most people.

 

@CD Boogie

I am looking high and low for a government job with insurance. I can effectively take a $10,000 pay cut if we get good insurance coverage.

 

I pay about $9,000 a year for us (my wife and I) for godawful insurance. Deductible is $7,500. No vision or dental. I work a second full-time job through a temp service that largely goes to paying for that health insurance.

I thought that was bad until I was offered another newspaper job last year that paid about $5,000 more a year, but insurance there for the two of us would've run us about $14,000 a year.

 

You might be better off paying the tax penalty and paying as you go for health care.

 

I've thought about it, but we're doing IVF here soon and I'd be scared to death of something going wrong during the procedure and having to pay out of pocket for surgical complications (despite understanding how routine the procedure has become, anything with an anesthesiologist gives me pause) — or if it's successful complications during childbirth.

It's bad enough to be paying out of pocket for IVF and its insane costs, let along being on the hook if a surgery or childbirth takes a turn for the worst.

I'm hoping I get hired in full-time at my second job for one of the big automakers, which has a really solid insurance plan. I have my fingers crossed. Lots of baby boomers are retiring and opening up spots.

I never really thought about it before I got married. I just paid the $70 every other week and went about my business with sucky but relatively cheap coverage.

 

I have never been without health insurance since I started my career.
I think I transitioned from stringer to staff at 22 or 23, so that's 25-26 years.
I'm not in newspapers anymore for almost 10 years, but I've never been without health insurance.
I wouldn't go without it. The risk is too great.