How to buy my own Health Insurance in Cleveland?

March 25, 2009 8:10 AM

I pay for my own health insurance in NYC (via Freelancer's Union) and am moving to Cleveland. Freelancer's Union has a deal in place where, if I remain a member, I can buy insurance through a company called Golden Rule, but there appear to be no advantages of going that route. So, anyone in Cleveland familiar with self-insurance options? Or a reputable broker?
posted by subpixel to Work & Money (4 answers total)

We have private insurance through Golden Rule and they're anything but ideal. Incredibly restrictive, don't pay anything unless you really hound them, and they're difficult to deal with. Of course, it was our only option due to several reasons I won't go into here. If you can swing something else, I'd steer you away from Golden Rule.
posted by cooker girl at 8:40 AM on March 25, 2009

Response by poster: For better or worse, I found some info upon further digging:

How to get affordable healthcare in Cleveland (pdf)

COSE

COSE Arts Network
posted by subpixel at 8:40 AM on March 25, 2009

ehealthinsurance.com
posted by GPF at 9:05 AM on March 25, 2009

Best answer: COSE is supposed to be so, so small business friendly but I have friends here who have found MUCH better rates with, say, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, so that's that.

Medical Mutual of Ohio is one of the bigger companies here, and Kaiser Permanente has HMO coverage if that's of interest. I currently am insured through my boyfriend's job but if I didn't have that, I would most likely take out a high deductible insurance policy for falling-in-front-of-a-bus-type-stuff and just pay out of pocket like I used to. Doctors here are quite good about giving discounts to freelancers/self-employed people if you pay out of pocket, I can give you recommendations if you're interested. Of course, that doesn't help if you have pricy prescriptions, etc, but if you're fairly healthy...
posted by bitter-girl.com at 10:22 AM on March 25, 2009