Cost of Private Health Insurance?

Updated on April 07, 2011
H.L. asks from Oradell, NJ
16 answers

I'm considering resigning my job which carries our health insurance. It's iffy if my husband will always be able to provide it through work. So I'm curious how much insurance for a family of 4 costs. I realize it gets complicated with deductibles etc but I'd be interested in a PPO versus HMO plan. I'm not as sensitive to how high the deductible is. I'd appreciate any reference points if people carry their own insurance. I don't even really have a ballpark. $400/month? $2000/month? Thanks

2 moms found this helpful

What can I do next?

  • Add yourAnswer own comment
  • Ask your own question Add Question
  • Join the Mamapedia community Mamapedia
  • as inappropriate
  • this with your friends

So What Happened?

Nicole - I'm very sorry for your situation but of course you did the right thing having the surgery. What galls me is seeing the bill our insurance company gets and then their "negotiated rate" which is always about 25% of the amount billed and knowing that uninsured people get hit with the full bill. I hope you can negotiate things too. But in general, $400 was way too low! We're not super young and my husband has had some issues which will be a factor. I learned in college though to never be without health insurance for even 1 day when I had a bad illness and saw all the paperwork covering our dining room table for my parents (insured luckily). So no worries that we'd ever let coverage of some sort lapse. But we have some financial flexibility so can consider private insurance - not sure we want to now though! Thanks for all the replies.

More Answers

J.G.

answers from St. Louis on

There are high deductible insurance which is neither a HMO or PPO. They carry deductibles around $6,000 for a family. The thing is they only cost around $350 a month for a family. What you do is fund the deductible using an HSA account. The balance in the HSA account can be carried over from year to year and is pretax.

Ah carp, you live in New Jersey. Triple the numbers.

Still if you are going to go it on your own the high deductible with HSA is the way to go.

2 moms found this helpful

T.F.

answers from Dallas on

We are a healthy family of 3. Our insurance is run through our own company.

The medical insurance which is mostly for instance of cancer, accident, etc runs a little over $500 a month. I pay OUT OF POCKET for everything, all Dr. visits, all Rx which go directly toward the deductible of 15,000.

We also have a supplemental policy that covers long term care, etc if something bad happens and that runs around $475 a month.

No PPO, HMO. No dental or vision. We pay cash price which is discounted for dental and vision.

It does get complicated. We have a great agent in our area who walked us through everything.

2 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

B.C.

answers from New York on

It's very expensive in NJ, more than just about every state. Our COBRA went up to $1800/month for a family of three. We then went to private (through a reputable insurance broker who also does our car and home insurance), which was just a little bit less. The cheapest way to go was to put my husband and son on one plan and me on a different one (I took a chance with me and got the bare bones, but my husband's health is a little iffier and I didn't want to take a chance with him or our child). Luckily we finally have insurance again through my job. There are extra-cheap (for NJ) policies but they cover pretty much nothing and have a very low cap (i.e. may pay for just $1000/day for a hospital stay, for example). Then if you are interested in prescription coverage, that is extra also. Good luck!

2 moms found this helpful

S.M.

answers from Kansas City on

It's between 450 and 950. Truly, it depends on so many factors from your health, the weights of the family, if anyone smokes and a big factor is if you want to have maternity covered or not.

2 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

B..

answers from Dallas on

For myself to get private insurance, it was going to cost us $500 a month with a VERY high deductible. Just for ME. You can go to the big providers websites and get quotes. Aetna, BlueCross, United Health Care...etc. I used to work in a field that dealt with insurance daily. You might avoid an HMO. SO many places don't accept those anymore. I know we didn't.

2 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

S.H.

answers from Phoenix on

All I have to say is be VERY cautious of pre-existing condition clause (which is not allowed for kids anymore thanks to Obama, but it is still OK for adlults). Pre-existing is not just what you have been diagnosed for....it is EVERYTHING you have been seen for in the last year. Your child had an ear infection, another one will not be covered for the next year. Individual insurance is expensive and they try to find every way not to pay (had BCBS). We just switched back to my husbands work one and am paying close to $800 for his insurance and for secondary insurance to cover what the first one doesn't. This is twice what we paid for premiums before....but at least we won't have most of the bills that insurance didn't pay along the way.

1 mom found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

M.F.

answers from Phoenix on

My healthy 33 year old husband and 2 year old daughter have a private PPO at around $330/month for them both. I can't remember exactly what the deductible is, but it's not high. I am a healthy 32 year old and pay $920/month for my private HMO, so I can have full prenatal and maternity coverage. I would just make sure your deductible isn't so high that you'll be in trouble if something like a hospitalization occurs. Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

M.B.

answers from New York on

Private health insurance is really tricky. There are far more things the insurer can do to refuse to cover you, although the new health care law closes some of those options, making it harder for the insurers to screw you.

About 3 years ago, a family of 3 that I knew had a bare-bones private health insurance and paid $1300 a month for it. Since then, our rates (group plan) have increased by over 30%, and I have heard most plans have had similar increases. I would imagine the cost of private plans would have gone up similarly. I would plan on something closer to $2000 and hope to get it for $1500.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

L.L.

answers from New York on

OMG, just read Nicole's response and am horrified! Yes, make sure you've got all your ducks in a row before resigning!

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

P.W.

answers from Lexington on

We had private health insurance for a while and for a family of 3 were paying about $700 a month for a PPO with a medium deductible (not the highest but definitely not the lowest).
As said before, DO NOT let your insurance lapse.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

J.B.

answers from Boston on

I pay $450 per month for my plan through work and that's 25% of the premium (my employer pays the rest), so the real cost for the plan is $1800 per month, which is for an EPO. An EPO is sort of like an HMO with no deductibles but our co-pays are high ($20 for PCP, $40 for everyone else). I know that a similar plan through our state's "health connector" (insurance exchange) would be $1200 - $1600 per month.

Check with an insurance agent in your state. You may be able to qualify as a member of a group (professional organization, alumni network, etc.) and get a lower rate. An agent will also know the updated laws on continuing coverage, pre-existing conditions, etc. A lot of those laws already existed in my state before the federal overhaul went through last year so I don't recall which protections/requirements are federal or state rules.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

N.B.

answers from New York on

We have a family of 5 and we have private insurance through United Healthcare and we pay 1100.00 a month. It is a PPO and we have a 20.00 co-pay for all visits. 50.00 co-pay for ER. It also includes our Rx rider. I was just able to switch it over to my small business so that was good to at least be able to claim it. Before it was cheaper to break up the family and have me and the kids (we need good coverage and Rx) and then my husband (knock on wood has had good health).
Good luck with everything! Sometimes state programs have good options too. We are in NY.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

J.B.

answers from New York on

My husband just got laid off and I am a SAHM. We are paying Cobra $1360 a month for a family of 4, all of our benefits stay the same - we have a PPO. Don't lapse with your insurance, it's too important. We are pulling $ out of our savings to pay for it, but one never knows our health from day to day.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

K.N.

answers from Boston on

Check carefully. Insurance prices vary widely. I believe, too, that they fluctuate based on the state in which you live (as well as the factors you'd expect, like health history, smoking/nonsmoking, etc).

I retired early in 2001; my husband retired the following year. Yeah. And then there's health insurance. For our healthy family (inc. 2 children at home) we finally had to scream "uncle" when the premiums for a really basic plan reached $1500 a month. My husband is now back at work!

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

N.M.

answers from Los Angeles on

I'm covered through the VA but my husband and two children are with Kaiser Permanente for a total of $678 and month. You can go to KaiserQuotes.com and play around to see what you would be interested in paying. Don't know what the cost of other insurance companies are... my husband wanted to keep Kaiser because he really like our childrens Pediatrician.

But forget going through a private company if you have a pre-existing condition. You will either be turned away or pay through the nose.

For Updates and Special Promotions
Follow Us

Related Questions