Health Insurance for travelers

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Specializes in ICU.

I'm looking to get individual health insurance. My agency right now is Aya and I was going to get it through them but it will be $500/mo for just myself. I go to the doctor once a year and get one medication filled from time to time, so $500/mo seems excessive. Does anyone here get insured elsewhere? If so how did you go about that? 

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If you are convinced that you will never suffer from a serious ailment, you don't need insurance at all. Insurance is a way of averaging costs in a large group, so that those who are in your same apparent situation can get literally millions of dollars (think liver transplant) of benefits should lightning strike. Yes, the young and healthy gripe at the apparent unfairness, particularly if they get hit with something serious while uninsured. Obviously, the best would be to have government healthcare insurance for all. Then many issues go away, stress about health insurance, and stress about changing jobs.

Your question seems to be primarily philosophical, but to address the practical question, $500 is super cheap insurance. It is the lowest price for decent insurance (and very few agencies offer good health insurance). Ever hear of ObamaCare? The healthcare state health insurance exchanges (or federal if your state doesn't participate) are the best place to get insurance with minimum universal standards and pricing. Not sure what premiums are unsubsidized (nurses make too much money to be eligible for a subsidy), but probably $700 - $800 a month for a high deductible plan. 

You can also COBRA your existing staff healthcare plan when you leave employment for 18 months giving you a bridge that may cover your entire travel career. Staff plans are generally not high deductible, so you will get a serious sticker price shock when you ask your benefits person for the monthly COBRA premium. Likely to be over $1,000 a month! That is the benefit you were receiving as a staff nurse (less any copays deducted from your check). COBRA guarantees your premium is the actual underlying cost to your employer (plus a 2% administration fee).

While we are in a pandemic compensation is distorted. But historically the reason for travelers apparent high compensation traditionally is that you got paid more in lieu of benefits. Very similar if you switch from staff to in house per diem, you will get a higher hourly, but no benefits.

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.

I actually saved over 50% with my healthcare costs. Here's the link to the website if you are still interested. https://rohanl.acnibo.com/us-en/home-services/health-sharing

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Your link has nothing to do with healthcare costs. But there is no legitimate way to save over 50% of healthcare costs. Part of Obamacare limits insurance company profits to 10% of premium costs. Dropping below 10% of underlying insurance costs can only mean reduction of benefits. Of course there is wasted money in the current system but major cuts can only come from a restructure of the entire industry, something like nationalization of healthcare insurance AKA single payer or Medicare for all.

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.

It's not health insurance, it is health SHARING. The concept has actually been around for years. You can call them if you need more info on it. It has myself and my family immensely though. 

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Health care sharing ministries (HCSM) go back over 100 years actually. However unregulated sharing, usually religious community based, has huge problems. Completely up to them generally to decide from event to event if they will cover and how much. The recent bankruptcy of Sharity after years of collecting monthly "sharing" and paying 16% of what they collected in benefits leaving thousands of members in the lurch. Another recent case involving Aliera Healthcare, Inc., and Trinity Healthshares, Inc involved outright fraud, with founder Timothy Moses alleged to pocket personally 84% of payments received (what is it about 16% anyway?).

Not being subject to regulation means you can be excluded for prior health conditions, and your premiums are also not regulated the way regular health insurance premiums are. Not sure the benefits of paying less are worth it without religious conviction that some medical practices should not be covered.

So thanks, but big no for me. For others, you still haven't identified "them" yet for others to see if it is right for them.

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.

The one that we're on is not religious based.. Good for you if it isn't for you. Just throwing other options for those who would be interested. Enjoy your day though 

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2 hours ago, RatedR22 said:

The one that we're on is not religious based.. Good for you if it isn't for you. Just throwing other options for those who would be interested. Enjoy your day though 

Your link doesn't work and saying we can call "them" without a name, number, or link is also not achieving your goal of throwing out options.

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OK, fixed your link. As low as $65 a month! Not even the cost of one physician visit.

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