So, my girlfriend owns a small hair salon as her business and is self employed.

I get health insurance through my job, but to add her on is pretty expensive.

Looking for ideas to get quotes for her to buy her own insurance that arent insane.

The broker she went through in the past isn't cutting it anymore, as on paper it shows extremely modest income and she doesn't make enough to qualify for some of the plans.

Any ideas or advice?

Most insurance companies require you to be married to add on to health plans. If you can add your GF to your plan I would go with that. Individual health plans are NEVER as good as employee group health. They are either insanely expensive or do not cover anything. They also have high deductibles.

I have been self employed for over forty years and am well acquainted with the problem.

I second that advice.
If I could find someone who could get me on their group plan, I would jump at it.

My individual plan is expensive and the deductible is over 6k.

Try some of the faith based plans... liberty or medishare

Liberty Health Share is the one I have.... I fired Blue Cross and etc.. when they decided to go from $750 a month to $1,300.. just for me. Turned 60

Liberty Health Share had the nerve to red flag me and charge an extra $90 a month because I'm 10lbs over weight and confessed to smoking a cigar or two once a month.. I still stayed .... total monthly charge,,, $274

Now we'll see if they cover their part of the 100 grand hospital bill I ran up over 5 days in April.. So far they have paid part of all the other medical bills.

She should check out NSBA.biz and NFIB.com.
She might be able to get a decent plan

Does she have any employees? That's the key to getting a group plan.

She might investigate what is offered through professional organizations like the National Beauty Association or National Cosmetology Association etc etc.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
Does she have any employees? That's the key to getting a group plan.

It is a booth rental salon where the other stylists technically rent space and pay rent, and I suppose are considered independent businesswomen with their work.

Is she set up as an S Corp or LLC to have the business pay for her insurance with pre tax dollars?

I was self employed for 15 years and had to provide coverage for my family of three. Our best option was to purchase catastrophic coverage, and pay for anything else out of pocket. We chose this option to keep cost down and because we are a healthy family. It was expensive, and even though we never approached the $3500 individual/$7000 family threshold necessary for it to kick in, it was necessary. In our case, it provided peace of mind and significant savings because we are healthy. Funny thing is, it's not that much different from group plans offered by employers these days, unless you are fortunate enough to have one of those gold plated Cadillac plans with tiny deductibles that cover almost everything.

Shoot me an email. I am a local St. Louis independent insurance broker who specializes in health insurance.

quote:

ur best option was to purchase catastrophic coverage, and pay for anything else out of pocket. We chose this option to keep cost down and because we are a healthy family. It was expensive, and even though we never approached the $3500 individual/$7000 family threshold necessary for it to kick in,

Man! Your catastrophic policy was better than a lot of regular policies offered today.

quote:

Shoot me an email. I am a local St. Louis independent insurance broker who specializes in health insurance.

^^^ This is the guy I use.

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
Shoot me an email. I am a local St. Louis independent insurance broker who specializes in health insurance.

Perfect!

I'll shoot you an email shortly, thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
Shoot me an email. I am a local St. Louis independent insurance broker who specializes in health insurance.

Question about Health Insurance Brokers, what is the advantage to using one and opposed as going straight to the Provider ?

I'll be leaving my job at the end of the year and relocating to southern Utah and will be needing to buy my own health insurance.

Thanks.

quote:

Question about Health Insurance Brokers, what is the advantage to using one and opposed as going straight to the Provider ?

They know the market and can suggest something that might fit your needs. It is considerably more complicated than you can imagine. An attorney friend of mine said Insurance Companies give you stuff in the Big Print and take it away in the small print.

quote:

Originally posted by TomV:

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
Shoot me an email. I am a local St. Louis independent insurance broker who specializes in health insurance.

Question about Health Insurance Brokers, what is the advantage to using one and opposed as going straight to the Provider ?

I'll be leaving my job at the end of the year and relocating to southern Utah and will be needing to buy my own health insurance.

Thanks.

For group medical insurance the cost to the client is the same whether you use a broker or buy directly from the insurance carrier. So would you rather deal separately with each carrier, or, use a broker who can provide you with the positives & negatives of each carrier? Not to mention the brokers advice is "free" since the cost is the same.

For individual medical the cost to you may vary depending upon the State within which you reside. For example here in MO, there are only 2 individual medical carriers who operate in the St. Louis area. Neither carrier pays a broker a commission. Hence most brokers don't sell individual medical unless they charge their client a separate fee.

Back to group, I had a prospective client with ~1800 employees who thought they were large enough to just deal directly with the insurance carriers. When they finally gave me a chance, not only did I save them $500,000 over what they were paying, I was able to consolidate all their plants under the same exact plan and provide a richer benefit than what they had negotiated on their own. They were SHOCKED and I had a new client. Unfortunately they were since pulled under their parent company and then that parent was sold so I lost them