I, like many other people in the US, got a new insurance card on January 1st. Back in the November/December time frame I had to choose a new health plan as my company continues to tweak their offerings to try to hold costs down. I moved to the plan that didn’t require any monthly payments and from what I could see seemed to be the lesser of evils in the plan offerings.
Well, now I know how it’s going to impact me. I received my first health care “explanation of benefits” and was surprised to see that I’m on the hook for the first $600 of health care expenses this year. Ugh. (I guess I forgot about this fact from December) So the same shots I got in December (allergy shots) now cost me $24.00. Luckily I’m on the 1 shot per month, but it’s still going to make me whine each time the bill comes. I’m also expecting to start receiving bills from my daughter’s and wife’s doctors.
I know I still have it pretty good compared to many other people but I guess it’s always hard to accept the fact that I lost a portion of my benefits now that I’m on the new health care plan. I’ll definitely need to start budgeting the added $600 in costs to our budget. I’m also going to look in to a health savings account so that I can use pretax dollars to cover these things. In the past, I never really needed to worry about it. I know national health care isn’t the fix all, but there has to be a way for every citizen to have health care and not go broke. To be clear, we are far from being broke from a $600 annual increase but I’m mostly thinking of all the horror stories I’ve read about where people are losing their homes due to massive medical bills.
So, that’s my whine for the day. Relatively speaking, I guess it looks pretty pathetic for me to be upset about a small increase in costs. I should probably just be grateful that we have insurance to begin with.
I go through this every year. I have 4 options varying from a $150 deductible to $5650. I choose the last one since you can then put the premium you save in an HSA. In order to maximize retirement savings, I max out the HSA but then pay my bills out of pocket. Its tought on the wallet now, but I have over $10k built up in the account over the last 25 months. If I’m ever out of work or have some huge expense, I’m coverred.
You won’t be AS covered as you might think…if you take the money out of your HSA for any reason other than qualified medical expenses..you have to pay taxes AND a 10% penalty unless you are over 65 years old..
Medical costs are never cheap, ok, wait I am wrong. I have cheap medical, but I am denied at most doctors, can’t see a dentist.
One thing I know I don’t have to worry about is the rising cost of gas and car care. I went to save-at-the-pumps.com now I can afford to pay for the doctors I couldn’t see before
After $3,000 in medical expenses in just January alone, after insurance paid their part, I feel your pain. The whole system is a rip off. Sorry to hear about it!