I'm currently living off my savings.<p>What are my options as far as getting a high value healthcare plan?<p>To be clear I have no income as of now, not sure how that affects government subsidies.
Have you checked <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" rel="nofollow">https://www.healthcare.gov/</a> (or <a href="http://www.coveredca.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.coveredca.com/</a> if you're in CA)? If you're living off your savings and have little or no income, your monthly premium should be heavily subsidized.
I would love to see some kind of streamlined startup system. You apply, pay a nominal fee, if accepted--you're then set up with a corporation, standard offering documents, digital captable, vested founders agreements. The government offers HC for companies with less than $1.5m funding and lifts all of the legal overhead associated with employment/compliance issues--at least for a short period of time. Starting a startup is hard, you give up a lot of your life, opportunity cost, take on a lot of risk, mess with your health, and then you have to deal with all of the legal and admin costs--it's a tax on innovation.
Just buy health care. Since you have no income you qualify for subsidies under ACA/Obamacare (but even without those subsidies the plans available are much better than the ones before the law passed).<p>The ACA is one of the most entrepreneur-friendly laws passed in my lifetime. Big businesses don't like it because health care is one way to retain employees, and so the lobbyists screwed it up a bit for medium businesses. But while starting, it's a lifeline.<p>COBRA from your previous employer is probably more expensive.
It sounds like it's not viable at this moment, but later down the line you could use a PEO (professional employment organization) for your startup. This would give you health insurance in addition to a bunch of other benefits and services.<p>Professional organizations (like IEEE) offer insurance plans. Another possibility are shopping clubs like Costco. I haven't used either, but include them as possibilities in case you weren't aware.
I had a health insurance expert tell me with a straight face that she recommends getting a part time job at Starbucks to her clients. Apparently they give great health benefits to part time employees.
You may want to consider a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), which generally offer lower monthly premiums for a higher deductible. This reduces your monthly cost but should something happen, would require more paid out of pocket before insurance contributes. The main benefit is a safety net in case something serious happens.<p>Additionally, with an HDHP you may be eligible for a Health Savings Account (HSA), which are tax advantaged savings for medical coverage, reducing your cost of care.<p>If you're interested in HSA's I have blogged on their benefits[1] and wrote a web app to track your HSA spending[2].<p>[1] <a href="http://www.hsaedge.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hsaedge.com/</a>
[2] <a href="http://www.trackhsa.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.trackhsa.com</a>
Go without? What's the worst that can happen? You go bankrupt? Surely you've accepted that possibility already, if you're living on savings, and knowing that most startups fail.