The other day Dave and I found out that our health coverage is going to go up by $88.00 a month starting the 1st of the year. We already pay a fortune and Dave's company has not picked up any increases the last few years because it has gone up so much. One of the most frustrating things about this is that any time we need something, ie: glasses for Michael, they don't want to cover any of it. I pay $20.00 for every allergy injection, while our insurance pitches in $1.00. We are seriously considering dropping it and putting our money into an account, and letting it just build by adding to it every month as if we are paying health coverage. I know this is possibly risky, and we will thoroughly check it out first. About a year or so ago a guy from Aflack came in and talked to us at work about buying supplemental insurance from them because in case of long term illness, we could lose our life savings due to our insurance not covering it. Well then what are we paying for? I don't feel like we receive that much of a benefit from our insurance. Thoughts?.....
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Health Coverage
The other day Dave and I found out that our health coverage is going to go up by $88.00 a month starting the 1st of the year. We already pay a fortune and Dave's company has not picked up any increases the last few years because it has gone up so much. One of the most frustrating things about this is that any time we need something, ie: glasses for Michael, they don't want to cover any of it. I pay $20.00 for every allergy injection, while our insurance pitches in $1.00. We are seriously considering dropping it and putting our money into an account, and letting it just build by adding to it every month as if we are paying health coverage. I know this is possibly risky, and we will thoroughly check it out first. About a year or so ago a guy from Aflack came in and talked to us at work about buying supplemental insurance from them because in case of long term illness, we could lose our life savings due to our insurance not covering it. Well then what are we paying for? I don't feel like we receive that much of a benefit from our insurance. Thoughts?.....
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13 comments:
I guess we're stuck paying for the insurance. Dave talked to someone today whose sister had cancer. Her insurance picked up 80% of the cost of her treatment, but she still had to pay $400,000 and ended up going bankrupt.
I would keep it, but I would work hard at trying to get his job to look into other options. How does everyoen else at his job feel about it?
Christine- Unfortunately there are no other options. I can't really say I blame his employer for not covering all the increases anymore, it just keeps going up so much. I feel more frustrated with the insurance companies than anything because I don't see much of a return on anything. We haven't talked to other employees.
How does someone come up with $400,000?
We struggled with the same decision, open coverage time for us and we have looked at other options for health insurance. We have decided to stay with our HMO as it covers our meds, tests, xrays, cat scans etc. If we went with BCBS we would have a 5000.00 deductable, and then 80/20 split. With Carl having medicare coverage what they don't pick up our HMO does. Older is good sometimes, Not often but sometimes.
We didn't have insurance for about 4 years and we were okay, but it is risky. We got insurance for our boys through the state during that time. I am only concerned about the big things. Like if someone had to be hospitalized in ICU for only a couple of days, it would cost so much money. I do feel your frustration. It really stinks when you see no return on your money you are spending.
I think if I get cancer I will just have to fight it off myself or die and get it over with. :) Our kids have the state program which covers everything, including dental care, until they are 19. I will need to look into options for Nathan soon as he will need continual care for his colitis.
Insurance is such a frustrating thing. We buy our own as neither of us is covered through work. We have a deductible so we don't have co-pays. Craig did a ton of paperwork to try and get us all on one plan but they keep rejecting me for preexisting conditions (I'm currently on a state plan). A co-worker of mine just lost her husband. He was in the hospital for a month and they didn't have insurance. Now people are organizing benefits for her and her daughter. I hope they don't loose their house.
I just found out about HSA's (Health Savings Accounts) which might be an alternative for some of your expenses. You put away some money income tax-free for known medical needs, like glasses, allergy shots, immunizations etc. You just have to use it all before year's end or you lose it.
Jim- That sounds like a flex account. The only thing about that is, if one of us had to have treatment for cancer or something we'd be doomed because we wouldn't have the amount of money needed in a flex account. A flex account would be great for my allergy shots though.
Does your work offer an option for a high deductible type insurance? That is where the deductible is so high that you are basically paying for your own care unless you have something catastrophic. It can be a good "in-between" type of thing. With our employer anyway, if you choose the high deductible option, you are allowed to have a health savings account. It has a much higher limit for what you can deposit in it and the money does roll over from year to year (the flex account does not). You use pre-tax dollars for your health care savings, lower your monthly insurance payment, but still have insurance for something catastrophic. Denis and I don't use that option, but it sounds like it might be what you are looking for.
The "benefits" from any kind of insurance come when there is a loss. So... it's something that you can't do without, and yet you don't really want there to be a bad enough loss (serious injury or illness) so that the coverage kicks in enough to be worthwhile.
We have to buy our own health insurance, and since B. has had some health issues, we're stuck with the company we have, since none of the others will cover him now. Try to be sure you're with a good company before you have any problems, but I sure would not suggest dropping it.
I've been meaning to check into the Health Savings Accounts that Tracy talked about to help pay for our coverage.
Tracy- I've never heard of anything like that here.
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