>>>Jay,
>>>Don't take this post the wrong way please. I'm just curious as to the circumstances of you not having health insurance. Is it because jobs in your field in your area are so scarce you have to settle for one? Quite frankly I take the hardline conservative stance that if a person doesn't have health insurance, it's their own problem. I'm looking for enlightenment as to why you don't have it because you seem like a smart responsible guy. Again, if I offended you with this question I apologize.
>>
>>I'll toss in my $.02 that after the bailout will be about $-500.00..
>>
>>I have kidney and neck problems. If I try to get anything other than a discount drug card w/o getting in a group policy, I'm looking at close to $1000/month for insurance for just me IF a company will let me have a policy. For a while, when nobody could tell just what was wrong with me, I could not get a policy from anyone.
>>
>>One of the reasons my wife and I formed our company was to be able to pick up group insurance. For whatever reason, even though we are as small a 'group' as you can get that will qualify for group insurance, that make it so insurance for both of us combined is about $650/month.
>>
>>Insurance is not a sure thing if you have existing conditions.
>>
>
>No, it sure isn't. They look for any reason to decline you. I am paying for insurance out of my own pocket for the girls and me, as a condition of the divorce, and to be honest, I had to lie a little ;-) What I wound up with is more affordable than you mention and it's decent insurance, not one of those marginal coverage things.

Our boys are on a seperate policy which is cheaper than what they would have cost us on the group policy. Of course, if either boy gets really sick their rates will skyrocket and we'll have to switch them into our group policy.

Our group policy is with Blue Cross, so aside from a high deductable the coverage is good (as insurance goes anyway).

The whole insurance business is a major screw - right up there with the oil prices. Insurance companies invest in the pharmaceutical industry and the hospitals. Their money just shuffles between the investments while more is soaked from the consumer.