Ask HN: Best Health Insurance option for founders before you get funding

7 points·vjanma··5 comments

Hello, I live in the Bay area and was wondering about what health insurance options are available for entrepreneurs. Any suggestions / pointers would be greatly appreciated.

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This depends a lot on whether or not you have pre-existing conditions. If you have none and are young (I assume you are), then you can shop individual plans from the major providers and should be able to get one at a reasonable cost. If you have any conditions, these could either price you out or make you completely uninsurable, in which case you must wait until January when individual plans will become available to everyone at reasonable prices regardless of pre-existing conditions.

When my co-founder and I were the only full-time folks at our startup, we subscribed to individual insurance plans with Blue Shield of California. We had some high deductible plans so we were covered in case of a major accident but had to pay our own way for everything else. I think it costed about $100 per person per month, which seemed like a steal. Fortunately, we did not end up incurring any major medical expenses while on that plan.

Yeah, that $100/month rate for healthy young males is going bye-bye. I'd guess equivalent coverage would be $250+ once Obamacare kicks in.

Move to a country that provides it.

I'm not speaking completely in jest.

www.zenefits.com is the easiest way to get set up with insurance here. They're free and will recommend the best few options based on your setup.

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