Unhappy with Employer Options for Health Insurance? Start Looking for Private Insurance Now

Last year, we almost pulled the trigger on an individual health plan for our family because my wife's employer's options weren't great.  So we went on and priced out a plan on eHealthInsurance.com to see what was available to us on an individual basis.  To our surprise, there were some very competitive plans available, but we didn't start shopping early enough.

This weekend, we will begin our individual plan shopping prior to getting her open enrollment materials that will be coming in a couple of weeks.  Essentially, we want to have the plan picked out this weekend that we'll compare to the plans available through her employer.  What we are expecting are some insurance plans that will give us what we're looking for:

1. Lower monthly premiums - we're a generally healthy family of four with my wife and I in our 30s and our kids of 7 and 11 are also healthy.
2. Higher deductible - since we want lower premiums on a monthly basis, we are willing to have a higher deductible that could be as much as $5,000.  Because we are generally healthy, a couple of broken bones, some infections, etc. are about what we see on an annual basis.
3. Maximum out of pocket - this is the most important part of what we're looking for.  The maximum out of pocket expense is the most that we'll have to come up with in addition to our monthly premiums.
4. No coverage we don't need - since we're not planning to have any more children (this was fixed a couple of years back), we don't need coverage for pregnancy.  As a result, we can choose a plan that leaves this out and we'll in effect, be a lower risk for the insurer.

Beyond the basic costs, there are other considerations such as taxes and the like, but by shopping this weekend, we'll be better equipped to evaluate all of our alternatives.  When the employer programs come out later, we can enroll in the plan that best meets our needs.

I'll keep you updated on this in a post this weekend so you can see the gory details.  If you'd like to evaluate what's available through a private/individual plan, go to eHealthInsurance.com through the banner below.