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Moving to Mass and need health insurance
Hello ladies,
I am moving back to Mass and need to arrange for independent health insurance. I currently am under Blue Cross in Vermont but my company is not eligible for COBRA because we have fewer than 20 employees.
I am moving May 1 and will be just about done with my first trimester and can't be uninsured at all (obviously). Can anyone point me in the direction of a resource I can use to search for options? I am googling some choices but thought I would ask people who live there for their opinions and cut through some of the red tape online.
Once we have employer health insurance it will be fine but it might take a month or 2 to kick in.
TIA
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Re: Moving to Mass and need health insurance
As far as I understand from my own personal experience having to buy independent health insurance, you have to go through the Mass Health Connector (Commonwealth Choice, assuming you don't qualify for Commonwealth Care). While you can look at plans on the different companies' websites, you have to purchase it through the state. It's like if you were getting it through an employer. Otherwise the group price wouldn't apply.
I won't sugar coat it, they are a royal pain in the ass to deal with. But, you gotta do what you gotta do, and it sounds like it will only be for a couple months so that is good.
Go to the website the others posted and pick the one that seems best for you. I picked mine based on the fact that I was TTC and might get pregnant soon (and did). I went with a Fallon plan. Fallon themselves were awesome to deal with, but unfortunately you always have to deal with the middle man at Mass Health Connector.
I hope you have an easier experience with them than I had! I was so freakin happy when DH's new insurance finally kicked in. Please let me know if you have any other questions about it :-)
You actually don't have to buy it though the Mass Health Connector, but it generally is a great place to start because it has (or at least used to have) many of the common insurers there. I think, however, that because there is currently a dispute between the state and some of the insurers who have been trying to increase premiums on individuals/small business owners, the state removed some of these insurers from the website.
I got my insurance through a broker who helped me evaluate our different options. (We have Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA). You can always call the insurers directly yourself.
Weird, when I called the insurers directly they told me I had to go through the connector to get the group rate. Perhaps it has changed since last fall though.