Check out January's small business average findings from Discover -
It's kind of scary to realize that such a huge percentage of small business owners are NOT covered for healthcare.

Are you covered? If so, what kind of plan did you sign up for and how did the cost of doing so factor into your own rates?

• 39 percent of small business owners said that the cost of health care has a major impact on their ability to grow, while seven out of 10 said that obtaining affordable health insurance for themselves and their employees was very difficult (51 percent) or somewhat difficult (18 percent).
• 25 percent of small business owners said they are currently uninsured, up from18 percent who said the same last year.
• Among those small business owners who do have healthcare coverage, 27 percent are insured by another family member’s plan, while 35 percent have purchased coverage separately.

Source link.

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I have insurance through my 9-5. Not sure I can AFFORD insurance on my own, even through the business! I guess we'll be finding out...

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Health insurance is one of those hairy monsters that I generally pretend really isn't hiding in the closet. I plunged into self employment and gave up my comfy coverage at work. I've previously experienced the hardship of paying for medical bills without insurance, and it's truly a drag .... Seems there's no real answer to this. Thanks be, I'm a basically healthy person so it's not an issue I confront daily or anything ... but ol' Murphey's Law suggests I'm likely to get caught unawares. It's my plan to soon be making plenty of money, way more than enough to afford health insurance and health spas as well!

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

I've actually been giving a lot of thought to this lately, especially since my husband and I are both students and business owners.

I really hope the next prez can reform our healthcare system here in the US. It's virtually impossible to afford health care for my entire family, even when both of the family businesses are running full-swing.

I wish I had an answer for you, but for now, the government has to help us!

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Brianna Young, VA and Graphic Artist
www.virtualsolutionsadmin.com
"It's not the piano that makes beautiful music. It's the person sitting AT the piano!"

Eeek! The dreaded healthcare issue! We are covered by my hubby's employer, but his plan is terrible. We pay over $500 per month and that does not include deductibles, co-insurance and other out-of-pocket expenses they make you pay for. The worst part is it pay up to 80% so you are stuck paying A LOT! Our accountant said we would be better off on a self-pay plan. The nice thing is that seeing as we had to pay a gazillion dollars of out-of-pocket expenses this year (my daughter suffered a major medical illness last year), we were able to claim a lot of those expenses on our taxes.

I agree with you Brianna, I hope that our healthcare is one of the top things to tackle with the new administration.

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Doreen R. Patrick, MVA, ACS, CIVA
www.virtualbusinesspartners.net

I have been researching health insurance for a few months now, I still have insurance through my old employer but it will be running out soon. I am currently paying $300/mo for it, plus I have a $500 deductible and 80/20 coverage after that. The $300/mo is their group rate, to get insurance on my own it would cost even more.

A good plan to check into is the Health Savings Account. It runs a lot cheaper than regular individual coverage and it is 100% tax deductible. Another option, that I will more than likely be going with is "Major Medical", which is a fraction of the cost. Basically you pay for routine doctor visits yourself, but you are covered if you go to the hospital or emergency room. Personally for me being single with no kids, for the $300/mo I have been spending I could have paid for my doctor visits plus some, so I think major medical is the way to go, it will run me about $50/mo and I'm covered in an emergency which is all I really need right now.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

When I left the States I had coverage through my University but that expired and I hardly needed it in India where a $1000 brain scan costs $150 cash at the best hospital BUT, when we got back to the States we weren't fast enough signing up. Now we're pregnant and of course no one will touch us.
I'm not as panicked about the pregnancy, we're doing a home birth which is notoriously less expensive than a hospital but STILL.

One of my clients uses and recommended that we look into Freelancers Union Insurance, she says it's affordable and decent - she has two teenage girls and lives in NYC where everything is twice as expensive so it must be worth looking into.

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Insured under my husband's plan.

Though it gets me to wondering with all the VAs out there, you would think we might be able to start a collaborative to get real insurance and an affordable price.

Tess, WTG on the home birth, I'm so excited and jealous! Have a kiddie pool ready.

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Lisa George
Remote Admin Services
Web:http://remoteadminservices.com
Blog:http://remoteadminservices.wordpress.com

Lisa, that's an interesting idea - and a very good one at that - about collaborative insurance. I'd love to do the research into setting something like that up here for VA members but wouldn't even know where to begin or if such a thing is possible...

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I think it's possible. If freelancers have group insurance, surely options should be available to us. But you are right, not sure where to begin, though it never hurts to brainstorm.

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Lisa George
Remote Admin Services
Web:http://remoteadminservices.com
Blog:http://remoteadminservices.wordpress.com