As for creating an association that can get members health care insurance cheaper than other health care insurance providers, I just don’t see how. What special advantage would InterNACHI have that would allow InterNACHI to procure a product and administer it for less cost that other groups that specialize in doing just that? In other words, where would the cost savings come from? Isn’t health care insurance pretty much a commodity?
New rules just went into effect, they will take time to be effective. Kinda surprised you are not on the forefront of this as this would completely bury any other association you so frequently bash here, the concept is there… let’s put it into practice.
This is getting ponderous…
That’s just it. Self-employed home inspectors are not “a group”. We have to buy individually through the exchanges, even if we use a consultant. Many of the exchanges have very few options in terms of carriers and plans. With few options, premiums have skyrocketed. Pre-Obamacare, I paid about $7,000/year in HC insurance premium. This year it’s $17,000 and there’s really only one viable carrier. Next year it will probably be $20K+. Some states have gone up even more. Even if we use a Healthcare Consultant, we still only have the same small set of Obamacare compliant options available to us. Last year I got kicked off my Obamacare plan in May. My bank had issued a replacement credit card and I missed transferring that payee to the new card. When the premium became overdue, they dropped us the first chance they had and would not let us reinstate. Rather than live without coverage, we purchased “temporary” coverage for the remainder of the year. That is what they called the non-Obamacare compliant plans. It was immensely cheaper than the Obamacare compliant plans and it was actually better coverage for non-catastrophic claims. The problem is, that because it was not a compliant plan, we are forced to pay the tax penalty to the IRS, which more than negates the savings. Healthcare insurance without all of the Obamacare crap loaded onto it is much less expensive.
As an association, we would represent a large group, not unlike an employer group. Our group could possibly represent upwards of 20,000 members. With the recent executive order, we as a group can purchase group healthcare, we can custom tailor plan options and can negotiate a single carrier that can cross state lines (we cannot do any of that as individuals).
What makes it cheaper: Group underwriting, Free market competition across carriers, The ability to use a single carrier across all states, The ability to have custom tailored plans
Give your healthcare person a call and ask her about options now available to healthcare associations that are not available to us individually through the exchanges.
From an InterNACHI perspective, it is a benefit which could save individual inspectors thousands of dollars in healthcare premiums each year. Think about how that could attract and bind inspectors to the association.
The other issue is that you can not create an association for the purpose of providing healthcare insurance, Trust me if I could I would happily write the health insurance for all of NACHI inspectors. with that said, the policy would have to reside in CO where NACHI headquarters are and be administrated by Nick, he would have to hire a lot of people to handle the admin along with paying the monthly bill. So how is Nick going to collect your money to pay the premiums??? all of you would have to find a payroll company that drew out your premium and forwarded it to Nick Monthly/Bi weekly to insure that he gets paid to pay the bill. I think he would not want that responsibility. Also, from a company that does health insurance of businesses from 5-500 individuals the price is the price it doesn’t change because you have more people, the insurance carriers have no reason do provide a company with 500+ employees any better rates because claims are the same and doctors bills are the same for all of us. With different health care exchanges you actually may be paying less for better coverage as well as it is based on your income. If you are a lower income person for your household you could pay less…
Since there is already an association, the first point is not applicable. Yes, there is an administration cost, but much of that could be outsourced and would be paid by the participating members. Still, it would be a burden to InterNACHI. The real issue would be whether Nick had the appetite to undertake it. It’s understandable that he doesn’t. Groups always benefit from group underwriting or there would be no point in having group insurance. I would wager that there is a far greater percentage of home inspectors who are paying for the healthcare subsidies for others than are recipients of health care subsidies through the Obamacare exchanges. Lack of options and lack of competition never results in lower cost to the consumer.
It’s clear that Nick has no interest in pursuing this so it’s a dead issue. I knew it was a long shot but thought it would be worth floating the concept anyway.
Wait until we all get to see what next year’s premiums and choices are going to hold in store for us. Good thing my house will be paid off in the next year because my monthly Obamacare premium is about to get bigger than my mortgage payments.
- Do InterNACHI employees have health insurance?
- If so, I wonder if they could benifit by being part of a larger group?
And 7 years later… BUMP!
BUMP…Status update please!
Super interested in this.
I know the thread is 7+ years open, but perhaps the landscape has changed enough that this is worth a new look. Especially considering the news stories as of late…
-Nathan