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Comment by Dove | Hacker News Reader

It's not health insurance, but for day to day health care, anyone in Seattle paying their own way should consider http://www.qliance.com . Together with a (very) high deductible plan, I was able to get insurance and primary care for myself at around $100/mo.

The main selling point is the excellent access to care, though. When your time is money, you don't want to be bouncing around between three doctors for a month to treat an allergy that prevents you from sleeping. When I was on Awesome Traditional Insurance when I worked at BigCo, it sometimes took over a week to diagnose and treat a simple problem that was preventing me from working. With Qliance, I've gone from call-with-problem to prescription-and-plan-in-hand in under 3 hours. That's a big deal for a freelancer.

I understand there are other organizations around the country functioning on a similar model. You can google Direct Primary Care to find them.

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What happens if you get really sick (cancer, etc.) or hit by a bus?

For a young person, improbable illness is probably best handled by bankruptcy.

This must be the American way of thinking. Doesn't sound like a good plan to me.

This isn't "the American way of thinking," it is a response to the state of the American system. Although casual, yours is a rather bigoted statement.

It's not bigoted, just wrong. Requires a familiarity with US law to know why it's wrong, though. There are some ideas and beliefs that are more common in the US than in other places, just as there are particular ideas and beliefs everywhere that are more common there than other places. Don't lower the bar on bigotry.

I disagree--a bankruptcy should be avoided at all costs as it will leave you in a financial world-of-hurt for a long time. The sad thing is, given the state of health insurance in the US, bankruptcy is on the table and that just sucks.

But I'd rather pay high premiums than risk a bankruptcy.

That works after a car wreck, but if they get cancer they're going to die. A hospital is only required to get them stable enough to discharge, not treat long-term conditions without any prospect of payment.

That's what the high deductible plan is for. You pay your (in my case, $11k) deductible, and everything else is covered. Set your deductible according to what you have in the bank and what you're comfortable losing.

Of course, if that happens, your startup is probably going to be on hold, too. And that will be the least of your worries. ;)

My point in advocating Qliance is that it makes the sort of care you'll probably actually need -- you know, annual physicals, broken toes, vaccinations, "help, doc, I can't sleep" -- really cheap compared to trying to get that stuff done on a traditional plan.

Your other options are (A) get a comprehensive insurance plan, which in my case would be $300/mo instead of $50, (B) pay for primary care visits yourself, at over $100 for a week's wait and a 15-minute visit that ends in a referral, or (C) ignore health problems.

Those are all really expensive. I'm saying if you're paying for your own health care, you should do the efficient thing. Having a primary care physician on retainer for $60/mo is fantastic for your health and peace of mind, and pays for itself the first time you use it, in time saved alone.

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