I totally understand what you are talking about. My husband is self employed and I was working to keep our family covered with insurance, But it got to where my pay was only covering the insurance and day care for my kids.
My husband was doing some research and found a plan that was way cheaper and it would allow me to pull my kids out of day care and stay home and with gas prices that was a savings in its self.
If I understand it correctly, the plan is not insurance but every time we go to the doctors instead of paying the 25.00 co-pay we pay 45.00 so we get a discount from the doctors bill. The monthly rate is 60.00 for the whole family and that covers us for everything like doctors,dentist,glasses,prescription. We were paying 900.00 a month for insurance so we put that back into our budget. and because we put so much back into our budget paying an extra 15.00 to go to the doctors was no big deal to us.
My husband is very smart about things like this I believe he said the website link is www.ConsumerCareUSA.com
I hope this helps.
What's sad is the amount of tap-dancing people have to do in order to acquire or keep any semblance of decent health care in this country. That's what struck me about your post.
People keep shitty jobs so they don't lose their health care. Or maybe they'd love to be self-employed, but they know they can't afford the health care. In other words, the lack of health care inhibits many Amerikans from realizing their full potential in their careers, their creativity, and, ultimately, their happiness.
Single-payer would solve your problem, as well as myriad others. Just extend Medicare so everybody has it. It's not rocket science.
Best of luck with your situation. I feel for you. There is absolutely no reason why you should have to "think up" all of these permutations yourself or be put in a position of being denied coverage because of any health problems you have. What a travesty that is.
If the insurance comes through a job as a group plan you can't be denied coverage.