I'm self employed and have been for 10 years. When we first bought our health insurance we paid about $200 a month with a $1500 deductible. Not too bad and it saves us from the poor house if something catastrophic happens. Last week we got another rate hike. We now pay almost $500 a month with a $5000 deductible. That will be just under $6000 in premiums this year. $6000 is ALOT of money to me.
I can't help but wonder when I will say "uncle" and just give it up. We are seriously considering ditching it now and saving the money. In a another 4-5 years I can see it being my house payment. I will NOT pay that much for health insurance that I don't even use. I feel like I will just be pissing away the $$ for the next few years anyhow. Last year my wife had some problems and we ran up $5200 in medical bills. So we spent $10,000 and the insurance kicked in $200. Damn, they saved our ass there, huh? With Bush talking about eliminating the deduction for employees benefits to pay for more tax cuts maybe I would be better off. Maybe this crisis is about to hit the tipping point.
Any advice?