2018 Health Insurance Increases

[Irving]

Thank you

[opie011]

We have been using Medi-share for a couple years now. I'm not one to give advise on this subject as my better half does all that stuff!! From my experience we have encountered good things and not so good things. Recently we would have been better off doing self pay at our pediatricians office as that bill would have been $110 self pay vs. $171 through Medi-share. Also, I had an ER visit and I called to ask if the hospital was in network and what cost would be expected. They told me it was in network and I'd only have to pay my ER copay but that ended up being a $900 bill later. On the flip side of that, it went to my deductible. In the end we believe its much better than conventional insurance as it dropped my monthly premium from around $1300 a month($6000 deductible) to $700($2500 deductible) for my little family of three!

[Irving]

I think we're (3) paying around $700 a month already.

[iego]

Didn't you just pay $6,000 for three stiches?

I fail to see any benefit in paying for "insurance." It's extorsion, plain and simple.

-John

[Irving]

Yep. Feels great. We don't even have dental either and I've had over $1,000 in dental this year alone and that's just me, not including my kid's regular dental visits.

I'd say that if we were in a car accident or something, that's where the insurance comes into play, or some injury that would prevent me from working. I could probably manage $10,000, but anything over that and I'd be in real trouble. That's the thing with health insurance and why the concept of those catastrophic polices has grown in popularity. At this age, I would never go to the doctor unless I'm dying from sickness, broke something, or am bleeding. However, between big game hunting, working on roofs and in damaged structures, and just the amount of time I spend driving, my risk level climbs.

I actually cut myself almost as severely about a week after the stitches (still had them in) on my other hand, but I sure as heck wasn't going back in. I hadn't even gotten the bill yet but I knew I wouldn't make that mistake again.

[tmckay2]

Obviously there are a ton of scenarios for people such as self employed, employer only has one option, etc. But as someone in the healthcare field I will say that in MOST cases the best option, if available, is a high deductible HSA plan. Most employers pay around $1k into it each year some are way better than that even. Anything you pay in is basically tax deductible so if you are in a 20 percent or so tax bracket when you work it all out its almost like you are getting 20 percent into your hsa for free. It carries over, you never lose it. So if you are pretty healthy and things rarely come up you can easily get into the 10k range after two or three years with minimal cost. The premiums are usually fairly low. And just because it's high deductible doesnt mean things aren't still covered before the deductible. My 4 year old broke his arm and the urgent care in network visit was $950 for xrays, splint, etc but our bill was only $150. >it costs me 200 per month in premiums for 4 with a 4k deductible and 9k max out of pocket. Once you hit the 4k you pay 10 percent up to 9k. Obviously every employer is different but I had a lot of options and that was definitely the best.

[tmckay2]

All things considered I think some of ben Carson's meeical plan was a decent idea. Basically hsa at birth that Carrie's on forever and can be used to pay premiums. I would even be on board with small government help into the hsa because it would allow you to keep the costs down to tax payers. Give people tax breaks on them. It puts the money in their control so they can make decisions on what to use it on and what to bypass as opposed to things like Medicaid where people never see the costs so they use it on anything and everything they can.

[tmckay2]

I should mention the high deductible hsa plans are goo if you are overall pretty healthy. If you have a chronic condition or genetic disease or something you have to carefully weigh that because you may end up spending more in the long run.

[Jer]

Obviously there are a ton of scenarios for people such as self employed, employer only has one option, etc. But as someone in the healthcare field I will say that in MOST cases the best option, if available, is a high deductible HSA plan. Most employers pay around $1k into it each year some are way better than that even. Anything you pay in is basically tax deductible so if you are in a 20 percent or so tax bracket when you work it all out its almost like you are getting 20 percent into your hsa for free. It carries over, you never lose it. So if you are pretty healthy and things rarely come up you can easily get into the 10k range after two or three years with minimal cost. The premiums are usually fairly low. And just because it's high deductible doesnt mean things aren't still covered before the deductible. My 4 year old broke his arm and the urgent care in network visit was $950 for xrays, splint, etc but our bill was only $150. >it costs me 200 per month in premiums for 4 with a 4k deductible and 9k max out of pocket. Once you hit the 4k you pay 10 percent up to 9k. Obviously every employer is different but I had a lot of options and that was definitely the best.

I will add that if you go the HSA route and have it at a place that allows you can actually invest the funds. I'm not paid to plug them but I use Optum Banking for mine. You're allowed $3,450 (more if above 55 years old) per year HSA contributions from all sources. My work put about half of that in each year divided by each paycheck and I put the rest in out of my own pocket. You're also allowed to contribute it all at once in the calendar year so if you work with your employer right now to offer a high deductible insurance option before the end of the year and set up an HSA you can literally drop $3,450 in in a single paycheck if you can swing it at year's end to get it going. Get your balance up to twice whatever your deductible is ($3k in my case) and then anything above that goes into mutual funds. You now have a secondary retirement account if you're maxing out your 401k contributions. The best part is you can reimburse yourself for medical expenses whenever. If they're smaller you can pay out-of-pocket and let that money sit in your mutual fund generating interest. Two decades from now that $10 for a prescription will be worth $50 or more. Doesn't sound like much but extrapolate that over sever scripts, Dr visits, massages & other medical expenses. It adds up. Just know that, like with any investments, the potential to lose money also exists but if you believe that over time the stock market will be worth more than it is today it's a solid route to go IMO.

[Gman]

$50 for a prescription 20 years from now. That amuses me. I have prescriptions that are $400/month now.

...maybe in 20 years they'll be generics.