I was talking with my mom today about the financial aid for my upcoming year in college, and one of the reasons she claimed that she couldn't afford any parent loans was because she has been paying nearly $30,000 a year (almost 2500 a month) on our health insurance.

Apparently we are covered by Assurant health and having been paying well over $20,000 a year for our health insurance for over a decade.

My family had no real chronic diseases, and my father recently died of alcohol abuse but I do not think it had any influence on the cost of our insurance (he only started receiving care in the past 2.5 years).

So I'm baffled as to why a family of 3, my mom, myself (college student), and my 3-years younger brother would ever need to spend $30,000 a year on health insurance. I keep suggesting that we change, but my mom says that she is afraid that she will be given a physical and they will find something wrong with her and our insurance costs will skyrocket.

Like I said, my brother and I are as fit as can be, no tobacco use in the family, and while my mom has been avoiding doctors, she seems to be in good health (56 years old) but keeps worrying that any physical that would discover a condition like high blood pressure would cost her too much. So she won't even consider switching plans.


I recently went to the eHealthinsurance.com page and got quotes for our family, and none of them even came close to the $2500 monthly marks, even Assurant Health had a $350 monthly quote with a plan that seemed quite similar to our current one.

So I'm just wondering, are we paying a ludicrous amount of money for our health insurance? Should we be switcing? And are my mother's fear of doctors and physicals warranted?