By Rieva Lesonsky
I recently blogged about health insurance here, so I was fascinated by this L.A. Times article. Author J. Duncan Moore Jr. writes about his decision to forego health insurance coverage and “self-insure”—in other words, to save the money he’d spend on insurance and use it to pay for his health care.
Moore is self-employed as a freelance writer (his last job, ironically, was writing about the health-care industry). He discusses at length how he made this decision: despite being over 50, he’s healthy and fit and believes he’s not at risk for any chronic or major health conditions.
He also explains how, when you don’t have insurance, doctors will often negotiate with you to charge you less than an insurance company would pay.
Moore’s move could work, but he notes one important fact: He’s got enough savings put aside that he could handle anything short of a $50,000-plus catastrophic condition on his own. How many startup entrepreneurs can say that?
On the other hand, Moore does have one thing in common with many startup entrepreneurs: He’s single and has no dependents (or at least, he doesn’t mention any family).
Would this strategy work for you? Or maybe you’re already using it? I don’t have the guts to do it—but I’m curious to know if others do.
