The New Health Insurance Solution: How to Get Cheaper, Better Coverage Without a Traditional Employer Plan

Paul Zane Pilzer has produced an excellent sequel to his book "The Wellness Revolution." In this new book, he outlines the details of how, e-x-a-c-t-l-y, we can piece together an insurance policy for ourselves, that gives us back control over our own healthcare and our own finances. He carefully describes how we can use the new Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and other insurance features to reduce our insurance costs dramatically (50% - 80% - more) and also feel more in control. His approach makes sense. I say this even as an author of a competitive book (Health Insurance Off the Grid) because I think our approaches are very compatible. Paul's book is much more comprehensive than mine, but my book is perhaps easier to follow in a simple step-by-step fashion. A large section at the end of his book gives the average rates for individual/family policies in every U.S. state. The amount of research he invested into this book is amazing. If you are self-employed, get this book immediately. Same for the owners of small businesses. And if you are an employee of a company that offers insurance but requires you to pay part of it, get this book! You can do much better by taking your insurance independently! It's absolutely true (but no one knows it).

This book was a terrific summary that will help individuals, families and businesses understand many new ways to control health insurance costs. It is NOT mainstream thinking within the insurance industry. Like bankers, insurance executives tend to be nervous about change, and it may be more difficult than Mr. Pilzer asserts to find knowledgable counselors for individuals or businesses who want to apply his suggestions. My experience with the book was very similar to that of the TPA (Third Party Administrator) in TN as I found myself flipping back to various pages to make sure I "got it". Many times I did this only to find a chart summarizing Pilzer's response to my question on the next page, so my advise is to read the book twice, the first time only for concepts. A California resident, I have checked a couple of plans for my family of three and am able to validate Pilzer's data personally. I was a Fortune 1000-employee for many years before becoming self-employed and I'm certain his assertion that individual plans are less expensive for healthy people is true, despite the conventional wisdom in the group-oriented insurance industry to the contrary. Too many employees covered under group insurance are unaware of how much they and their employer is actually spending on health care. Overall Pilzer does a very good job explaining critical health care issues. I woud have liked to see even more information on long term care and disability insurance. For me, the most relevant chapter was his acknowledgement that there are many wrong ways for employers to approach a transition away from group insurance. This book is a sound investment for anyone who pays or might pay any portion of their family's health insurance, or dare I say bureaucrats with a need of a dose of well-researched reality. It also has some excellent strategies for those approaching age 65 or seeking early retirement.

Clearly the person in the review below with the single star is either a group insurance agent or someone who works in a government office getting all their health care paid for by...who else....us (the taxpayers). Brokers are the guys who want you to buy only what they sell so they can get to their 1:00 pm tee time at the golf club. Government employees get to home at 5:01 pm every day. The reality of health insurance is very different. Give us all a break. What this person also did not tell you, which Prof. Pilzer does in this book, is that companies are already moving a ton of the costs of the GROUP health insurance to their employees already. I know my employer continues to shift the cost onto us and there is nothing we (or they) can do about it. Seriously, my "contribution" on my group plan for my husband and kids is now $310 a month! I went on a site called ehealth insurance and found cheaper plans for my family. Plans that, per a chapter in the book, can be held after I leave my company. The $20 I spent on this book at Borders was worth every cent. I suggest you check out this book also and read it yourself if you want to better undertand why you are paying more in the form of so-called "contributions". I for one wanted to control my monthly health care costs and did not want my employer deciding which pediatrician my kids can see. An individual plan allows me to do this. I also noted that my employer pays most of MY premium and very little of what it costs to cover my family. Prof. Pilzer explains this thoroughly. If you are on your spouses group plan and your monthly contributions go up every year, you owe it to yourself to read this book and learn what to do about it. The knucklehead reviewer below would have you beleive that costs are not skyrocketing on your group plan -- which is false. This book shows you how to take control of your family's health care plan and make decisions on your own. I wish each of you the best in protecting your family's health. Peace. Terry

Hooray! Finally someone has provided a succinct and insightful overview of how the complex individual health insurance market operates. Professor Pilzer does a great job of offering intuitive, real life examples of how an individual or small business (or a business of any size for that matter) can obtain quality, permanent health coverage and save money!! As a small business owner that has been consistently hit with double digit rate increases we have been confronted a serious predicament - we've run out of ways to band-aide our group benefits situation. Like most small businesses over the past few years we had already increased our deductible and co-pays and passed a greater portion of the group plan premium increase onto our employees. We quickly learned this is only a temporary fix until the following years rate increase appeared and recently it has forced us to consider forfeiting offering our employees benefits altogether. However, it became increasingly clear to me as I read Mr. Pilzer's book that there ARE affordable alternatives to sacrificing quality coverage or abandoning loyal employees. A must read!

I am a V.P. at a large Tennessee-based third party administrator and typically work with sizable employers (over 250 employees). My interest was in gathering more information about the individual plan market and how it works. As the title suggests, the book is loaded with surprising information about the individual plan market. First, I have to admit that I knew very little about individual plans (other than what is available at numerous Internet quoting sites) and was shocked to see how inexpensive individual plans are in many very large states. For instance, the average price of an individual plan in California is less than $200 per month (individual plans are on a monthly contract, not annual like group). If you live in California, this is a book you should pick up to learn more about individual plan rates there. Plans here in Tennesse are a little more expensive and the author did a good job of explaining why plans cost less across numerous states. If you are in New Jersey or New York or Massachussetts, it is clear that you are screwed when it comes to trying to find affordable insurance for you and your family. That is because the carriers are not allowed to underwrite you and therefore have to take the crack users with the marothoners and triathletes -- great thinking, NY and NJ! The result? Carriers price individual plans to the moon. Second, the HSA is an excellent tax savings vehicle as it is one of the few government approved accounts you can put your money in tax free, use it tax free (for medical expenses) and take it out tax free. We administrate HSAs for many groups here in Tennessee and in North Carolina -- so that was no surprise. What was surprising was the availability of individual HSAs and how inexpensive they are -- again, depending on where you live. If you are self-employed, you owe it to yourself to look at an individual HSA just given how cheap the rates are. I suggest you read this book cover-to-cover and then go shop around online for plans to get the best deal. Third, the author highlights the plight of small businesses in America and suggests that small business owners get out of the group business and move to a reimbursement model for employees to get their own health plans. I was not aware that most US bankruptcies are caused by medical bills and not credit cards. Even more of a shocker, the majority (forget the percentage quoted) were actually on a group plan when they got sick and started encountering major medical bills. So much for the protections afforded by getting insurance from your employer via a group plan. Most of our clients are self-insured -- which means they pay for substantial amount of their health care costs themselves. They use us to manage their claims. In Professor Pilzer's world, small companies would not need group insurance and would just give employees allowance to go buy what they want. An interesting idea that a small business owner may want to consider (after getting their 3rd major r