Health Insurance Copay Question

[dennis in se pa]

Being self employed I pay directly out of my pocket close to $9k for health insurance. It is a $1500 deductible per person, and then a 20% copay up to $6K per person. Better coverage would cost me close to $15K per year. Business is slow now and a recent $3500 copay for a 2 day hospital stay (yes, it is ridiculous) is going to be a problem. Do I really have to pay it? Is it not really to make up for all those who pay nothing? Anyone with input, your suggestions are welcome.

[Neilk]

You can always negotiate with the hospital.

Tell them you can't afford the copay right now, ask to be put on a payment plan or tell them you can make a one time payment of $1,500 if they will write off the rest. Good luck.

[stomachmonkey]

Do what Neil says.

You don't say how many people are covered but it sounds like you need to look at different break points going forward.

The 20% copay in addition to the deductible is a killer. If you do the quick math assuming 2 people are covered you hit $15k in total deductible alone. Great plan for the insurance co.

What line of work? There are group plans out there for people in specific fields.

Check out http://www.freelancersunion.org/health-insurance-a/

[Tobra]

What the monkey man said, you can do a lot better as a group, power in numbers. Trying to buy an individual policy is crazy expensive.

The hospital will probably do a deal with you, but keep in mind, the co-pay stuff pays a lot of the fee to doctors and other providers, as the third party payors put more and more onto the covered individuals. They are glad to close an account for a discount rather than send it to a collection agency, because the collection agent will take his cut on anything he gets back.

[Tobra]

They sell the debt to a collection agency most of the time, or give it to them for a percentage of dough recovered more accurately. I suppose they do things differently in different places.