some info about Insurance for carvers

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.
I tryed to post this morning got logged in and then the forum went down, so here it is.
Well we all made it through the past year and if last year wasn’t that great for you maybe this year would be better. It sounds like the Guild is going to be doing there best to bring us all the best updates and info available. The Rendezvous is just a few weeks away. That means spring will be right around the corner, then off we all go again to create and publish our fine art.
I know that in the past there has been a lot of concern about us as chainsaw carvers getting medical insurance, so here’s some info for those of you that don’t have Insurance and are looking for some.
I have been looking for sometime now and finely found a policy that fit our needs. There are a lot out there, shop around. First find an independent insurance agency, see what they have to offer. We finely choose to go with Anthem Blue Cross/ Blue Shield. They have 3 plans to choose from and with in each plan there are several ways you can go. It is rather lengthy so I wont go through it all, just what we picked.
We went with Plan 1, it offered $ 500, $ 1000, $ 2500, & $ 5000 dollar deductibles, we settled for the $ 5000 dollar plan. You say why that one. Well if you’re not sick all the time and don’t run to the doctor for every little thing this is the best plan. Why pay the high premiums for the low deductibles when you don’t need them. For instance a $500 deduc plan would cost around $ 207.20 a month for Nancy, thats $2486.64 a year. The $5000. plan we got cost $95.91 a month that’s $1,150.92 a year or one 10 foot on-site. That’s $1,335.72 savings. That’s almost a 1/3 of a savings on our deduc of $5000. A year. It offers a $15. Co pay on Generic Drugs only and the rest of the benefits are paid up to 80%. Now there’s a lot more but I wont list them all, to many. Check out www.anthem.com At the end of this year my Insurance runs out, then I will be able to get under Nancy’s plan in the family area so I cant tell you yet what it would be for both of us. I can tell you if we would stay with the carrier we had it would cost us $740.00 a month for the both of us and that is ridicules. I hope this helps someone out.
There are also MSA, Medical Savings Accounts out there available to small business like yours and ours. This is what we would have taken if I didn’t have a good retirement set up already. It is chipper than the 2 Blues we choose and allows you to put money in a MSA to use tax deductible for any uncovered medical bills and if you don’t us the money in the account by the end of the year you can roll it into a IRA. Just think put the money in the account, take it out to buy your prescriptions, cough medicine, what ever as long as its for something medical, you use it tax free and with out penalty’s for early withdrawals. PLUS you have started your own retirement plan. There are a lot of these on the net. Heres one for you to look at.www.medicalsavings.com
The last bit of info I have to shire with you all is Business Liability Insurance. I finely found one we could afford. It comes from ACORD. It cost $973.53 a year. Covers us against a liability suite no mater where were set up carving. It covers our shop, or if a customer is walking all over our property looking at the carving, it covers us if were doing on-sites, festival etc. I believe that is a well spent $1000.00 bucks in order not to loose every thing we have worked for our whole lives and hope that you all can get it soon also. It would only take one incident to take all you have.
I know this was long, but it is info I think we can all use and maybe the Guilds from both coast can build from it or use it in their newsletters. Have a great year and hope to see most of you at the vous.
Doug Ricks