Ask HN: What did you do for health/dental insurance when just starting out? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What did you do for health/dental insurance when just starting out?

1 pointbunkat7 comments

Currently trying to navigate my way through getting health/dental insurance for my small two person start-up and I'm wondering how other people have done it. Anybody have any experience/tips/tricks for getting reasonable prices? Currently it looks like it is going to be close to $700 a month for a $2500 deductible, 20% co-pay and I'm not sure if that is what I should be expecting. Thanks!

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How old are you? If you are younger than 26 you can use your parents' health insurance, and if you are 26-27 you can get cobra coverage.

Otherwise, check out http://www.healthcare.gov/ or http://www.ehealthinsurance.com -- convenient search tools

FYI I asked a few weeks ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5244867 and

Re: dental insurance... if your employees have decent teeth, it maybe be worth it (and a lot cheaper) to work out a deal with a dentist and pay for their checkups. I know that getting a tooth cleaning in NYC is like $80 cash (and I don't have insurance). Same goes for a doctor.

It all depends on how the employees' (and you) feel about preventative care vs. catastrophic care.

I went with Humana and pay $180 a month for a $2500 deductible. One person, non-smoker, in good health, in my 30's, single. If you have a family to insure, good luck.

So my options are to try and get onto a small business plan with 2 employees (myself and my wife) or to just get an individual plan for myself that also covers her. I had been told getting into a group plan would be cheaper, but maybe I should look into just going down the individual route...

What state are you in?

Washington State

Lived in WA a long time, and I've found a Group Health plan for less than $100 a month (might have gone up in recent years). ehealthinsurance.com is a great research tool.

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