Require health insurance assistance

[mikalina]

All good responses. I guess I am the only one who likes to find loopholes.

Another suggestion (especially if you are a poker player earning a high taxable income) is to look into (here come 2 different names for the same thing) a high deductible health plan or a consumer directed/driven health plan.

Downside: high deductible (~1200/year for individual coverage)

Upside: all preventive care visits are covered for free (checkups, lab work, etc), you have access to an HSA

HSA is a Health Savings Account... think 401(k) but you are allowed to make withdrawals without penalty for health-related purchases (anything down to Advil qualifies). This is just a really slick tax shelter with a $2,900 annual max for tax-free contributions.

And the plan should generally be one of the cheapest available.

Edit to add: deductible is not ~1200, its >=1200... the higher you go the cheaper it gets. Sorry for the confusion.

[z28dreams]

Mika's right - I'm in the process of changing jobs, and just applied for an HSA account w/ catastrophic coverage.

I'm 27, and it cost around $40 a month with a $5000 deductible. That's $480 a year... where are you guys seeing > $1000 a year ?!?!

HSA's are a GREAT idea if you are young and normally healthy. Even if you have a regular 9-5 job, you still still look into these and see if your boss will let you use it as an option. Think of it as being able to keep your premium at the end of the year if you don't actually use it.

Someone told me to use the Golden Rule plan, but I ended up going with Humana because for $10 less a month, it also allowed $300 of annual checkups and had a higher lifetime maximum.

For OP though, the preexisting condition will probably trump all other decisions - so check into your state laws.