Is your health insurance worth it?
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"And I won't even go into the morality of choosing to rely on bankruptcy as a health insurance plan in order to download your risk to the remainder of the paying public without having contributed anything to the kitty."
This exactly. I was thrown for a loop that the "back up" plan is "meh, I'll just put the cost off on everyone else.".3 -
Yes, my health insurance is great. Worth the investment if needed!My husband is an active, healthy, middle-aged adult male with no known medical issues, until all of a sudden at 52 years old, with no kind of warning, he loses consciousness while driving and crashes his truck into a tree. Thankfully neither he nor anybody else was injured. Many doctor's visits, tests, and an emergency pacemaker surgery later, it's discovered that he has a previously unknown heart defect that caused his heart to 'pause' and caused him to lose consciousness. This was something we never in a hundred years could have seen coming, and thankfully our insurance paid most of the $80,000+ in medical bills. We were on the hook for our $8,000 out of pocket max.
I'm not going to get into how I feel about the US healthcare/health insurance system as a whole.... but anyways, to answer the question, our health insurance has paid for itself. We have a high-deductible plan with an HSA. I see it as another part of our retirement planning.3 -
The healthcare system in the US is horrible, but it would be pretty irresponsible of me to not have insurance given that I have a family to look after which includes two boys who play sports and just in general play pretty rough. I also have a couple of health conditions which require me to see a Dr. a couple of times annually. I also see a therapist on a weekly basis and my insurance actually covers that.
As insurance goes, mine is pretty good and I am fortunate that my employer pays 2/3 of the cost. It's a "Cadillac Plan" so it covers a lot of things other insurance doesn't and I also don't need any referrals to see a specialist.1 -
My dog's insurance started "free" for the first six months (or is it year) because she came from doggie jail. It then was something minimal like $35 or something per month. 7 years later it is $350 per month. For the 8th insured year it will be $500 per month if I continue. To insure no more than $20,000 in pay outs. Not counting deductible or co-pay.
Why you ask? Because of market forces and risk. Because an old dog is more likely to require a payout that a young dog in terms of coverage for disease and even more likely to "draw" the basic death benefits these insurance policies pay out.
Instead of doing doggie insurance, I set up a 2nd account through my bank. I have $50 a month or $25 a paycheck automatically put into that account. It provides $600 a year for 'Oh No' Dog insurance. Shop around for shots. If you don't use that money, then it grows. It is my dog emergency fund. For the dog, where costs are lower than a human, it's enough.
I suppose you could do the same for a person. Once you hit a certain amount saved, you could put it in an interest-bearing account...as long as their is no penalty to withdraw. For a person, you'd want to save more and try to put it in a non-penalty CD or money market so it could earn interest while it grew. The minimum is usually $1500 to do the CD. Some banks $2500. It'd take some time to reach that amount. But if you don't use the fund, you can then grow the health fund more quickly. A non-penalty CD/MM allows you to pull it out if you break a leg or get COVID-19. But to be honest, you will probably not be able to save enough to cover something major. It would mostly likely just cover gaps in insurance.
Just a thought.
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My dog's insurance started "free" for the first six months (or is it year) because she came from doggie jail. It then was something minimal like $35 or something per month. 7 years later it is $350 per month. For the 8th insured year it will be $500 per month if I continue. To insure no more than $20,000 in pay outs. Not counting deductible or co-pay.
Why you ask? Because of market forces and risk. Because an old dog is more likely to require a payout that a young dog in terms of coverage for disease and even more likely to "draw" the basic death benefits these insurance policies pay out.Instead of doing doggie insurance, I set up a 2nd account through my bank. I have $50 a month or $25 a paycheck automatically put into that account. It provides $600 a year for 'Oh No' Dog insurance. Shop around for shots. If you don't use that money, then it grows. It is my dog emergency fund. For the dog, where costs are lower than a human, it's enough.
I suppose you could do the same for a person. Once you hit a certain amount saved, you could put it in an interest-bearing account...as long as their is no penalty to withdraw. For a person, you'd want to save more and try to put it in a non-penalty CD or money market so it could earn interest while it grew. The minimum is usually $1500 to do the CD. Some banks $2500. It'd take some time to reach that amount. But if you don't use the fund, you can then grow the health fund more quickly. A non-penalty CD/MM allows you to pull it out if you break a leg or get COVID-19. But to be honest, you will probably not be able to save enough to cover something major. It would mostly likely just cover gaps in insurance.
Just a thought.
When my husky was being treated for lymphoma, I saved a lot of money on his meds by shopping around. The vet had the worst prices. I bought antibiotics from Walmart. Sometimes I got cancer meds from an independent pharmacy attached to a hospital, and sometimes I got them from Canada. Thanks Canada!
We did need a prescription, which the vet provided.
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Yup... "faxing" of prescriptions is a paid vet service
(you will probably still come ahead) 1 -
What health insurance?Thank god for the NHS2
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chchrishail5369 wrote: »Thank god for the NHS
Not a fan of the NHS to be honest. It was totally run to the ground a few years ago already. I mean, after repeated pain I was sent to hospital for further checks. Which weren't done and told I just have women's pains (direct quote). Yeah, some come a year later, moved to another country, got a scan and it was my gallbladder. Surgery in 3 weeks. I looked back. In my old trust the waiting time back then, before Covid was 18 months for gallbladder removal. And everyone I know has these problems. Comtinental Europe generally handles it much better, waiting times are shorter for everything. Yeah, health contributions are higher in many countries (not in all) compared to your contributions via national insurance, but if I get sick I'm helped immediately, heal quicker, can work earlier again (and have full sick pay for 6 weeks, and 70% thereafter, thus the risk of losing it all is a lot smaller)2 -
Health insurance wasn't really worth it to us until it was. In his early '40s, my husband suddenly developed recurring kidney infections and stones, and had seven or eight hospital stays, multiple procedures, and it would have cost us more than half a million dollars to pay for them ourselves.
That being said, when I needed physical therapy, after months of physical therapy the insurance community declined payment. Ultimately after many phone calls they did pay for all the appointments, but sometimes with insurance you need to spend a lot of time on the phone and sending documents.
My daughter is currently in the hospital with RSV, and she's been there for over a week. She has had intensive and extensive care, so many treats, and without insurance she would soon be homeless and utterly broke, because as good as her job is, it's not good enough to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars.2
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