On 11 Aug 2004 07:48:04 -0700, jim rozen
wrote:

In article , Gary Coffman says...

At some point it becomes attractive to self insure. Ie, just
pay the friggin bill yerself. I've calculated that even with
the two or three events that have happended in our family
in the past few years, we still would be ahead if we had done
this. Obviously YMMV.

That's fine, unless you have a catastrophic event. Then the
bills will dwarf what you're able to pay. What I've advocated
is that people only buy catastrophic coverage. That's relatively
cheap. Pay the ordinary nickel and dime medical costs out of
your pocket, but have that backstop for the really expensive
catastrophic event that may or may not come along.

In this case, "nickel and dime" catagory means, less than
a thousand dollars or so. Maybe less then five thousand.
Thing is, I don't think my employer offers a policy like that,
that only kicks in if the bill goes over several thousand.
Its a gread idea though.

Jim

I provide my employees health insurance. I pay the first thousand,
they pay the next two thousand and then insurance kicks in. That first
thousand encourages annual physicals and immunizations. Still, it
costs $450 a head.