Health care plans?

August 15, 2006 3:55 PM

Please help a small business owner find an insurance plan that covers maternity and isn't 700 a month. What have you used?

In AZ, if it helps.

posted by BrodieShadeTree to health & fitness (9 comments total)

Have you called the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce to see if they offer insurance for small business owners in the city?
posted by SeizeTheDay at 4:01 PM on August 15, 2006

Yes, basically they offer the same hmo's as we find at the broker.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 4:13 PM on August 15, 2006

I worked for a small business (3 employees) in AZ about 2 years ago and we had the same problem finding an insurance plan. We ended up going with Humana and, while I can't remember the exact cost, I know it was less than $700 (I'm thinking it was more around $300). We went through an agent at Stuckey Insurance.
posted by curie at 4:26 PM on August 15, 2006

Ok, you mentioned having an insurance broker. And that's good. But the broker who specializes in property/casualty or directors malpractice might not know more about health insurance than "Blue Cross is good."

I had this situation. I solved it by calling the nice Allstate guy who takes care of my homeowners and automobile insurance. I explained my situation with the business and he gave me the number of "a friend of mine who does that kind of thing." In short, two bits of advice: troll around for a second broker; sites like ehealthinsurance.com (which amounts to a cyberspace insurance broker).
posted by ilsa at 8:31 AM on August 16, 2006

Do you really need maternity covered on your insurance? If it's something you know you'll need (i.e. you're planning on it), then it's not really an unexpected expense and something you need to pay insurance for. Rather, it's something you should be putting money towards now.
posted by Imperfect at 9:19 AM on August 16, 2006

imperfect. I totally agree on this point, HOWEVER, it is a known need to be c-section. As such an outlay of 17k is expected, hence, insurance.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 11:06 AM on August 16, 2006

/me takes a moment to send happy thoughts and wishes of wellness to BrodieShadeTree's entire office.
posted by ilsa at 11:32 AM on August 16, 2006

Koff, ouch. 17k? So glad to be a Canuck just now.

Still, you want to double-check and make sure that any insurance you do go with doesn't have a clause that will disqualify you for registering with known upcoming claims. Some get testy about that.

(For instance, I know that most credit card insurances won't cover you for "impending unemployment".)
posted by Imperfect at 1:06 PM on August 18, 2006

$700/month for a family plan isn't that expensive these days.
posted by MarkAnd at 6:47 PM on August 20, 2006