Thankyou to all of those that answered my query about average cost of Insurance. I was only a little appalled gobsmacked as i frequent forums like this so had an idea it wasn't cheap.
I was fucking appalled more surprised by the level of the deductibles to be honest. Given that many non mustachians don't seem to have two pennies to rub together how do they pay these? CC, finance? If you don't pay do you get chased by the healthcare provider or your insurance company?
As someone who is Early retired due to a life changing medical condition i can only thank my lucky stars that i wasn't in the US, as i guess i'd still be early retired but possibly homeless and living on fresh air.
(oh and just triple shocked by the medicine prices!! I'm guessing these aren't covered by insurance unless you have the absolute gold plated insurance policy? What happens if you can't pay them. I'm on a ton of medication, i'm guessing i'd be dead?)
Well, if you're truly poor and couldn't afford medical insurance coverage, depending on which state you lived in, you may have qualified for very reduced cost or free health coverage via Medicaid, but state vary wildly. In Minnesota, where I live, which is known for being somewhat more progressive than other states, there was an option for something called MinnesotaCare if you were denied coverage or asked to pay a higher premium due to a pre-existing condition. I will admit that I was on this coverage for a couple years because I was denied private insurance. I had quit a full-time job in another state and moved back home to Minnesota, where I got two part-time jobs with no benefits. I applied for health insurance and was denied because
I have allergies and was treated for acne as a teenager. Literally, those were my pre-existing conditions. So after my denial, in the mail a couple days letter, I was offered MinnesotaCare. It was reasonably priced, and run by one of the big name insurance companies in the state (Medica). I was on it for many years until I got a full-time job.
As for medical bills, it's complicated. It's my understanding that they can't charge interest on this debt, but if you were uninsured, one trip to the ER would be pretty financially catastrophic, hence the number of bankruptcies due to medical bills. My deductible being $2,750 for a year isn't too bad, actually--I could have gone with a lower deductible, but had to pay more for my monthly premium. You weigh the options when enrollment comes. I have a spreadsheet where I compare the overall costs, adding up the premium and the deductible and seeing if I feel comfortable being on the hook for that much (or making sure I will have enough saved in case I land in the ER). For DH, with his medication being $3,500/month, he will reach his deductible in less than a month, and then the rest will be covered. This is one reason we are on separate plans, because he will easily reach a lower deductible, whereas I have few health issues and almost never reach my deductible, so it saves us money to be on separate plans.
Also, one thing that hasn't been mentioned is that there are two kinds of plans: High Deductible Health Plans (or HDHPs) and co-pay plans (I forget the official name of these plans). My parents' coverage was a co-pay plan, where every time you visited a doctor or filled a prescription, you just paid a reasonable amount--say $20 or $30. But I'm on a HDHP, so I would pay the full cost of the doctor visit (getting a bill in the mail a couple weeks after the visit) for the full cost--let's say $150. The co-pay plans tend to be a lot more expensive, for good reason. But a HDHP has advantages, too, the main one being that if you have one, you can contribute pre-tax money to a Health Savings Account (or HSA). I do this via my employer, as does my DH, and we contribute the maximum amount we can--$3,350 per person. And then I have the option of investing this money, so it can grow. We have a nice little cushion in our HSAs that will cover our deductibles--it's like an emergency fund specifically for medical stuff (and it can be used on other costs, but then taxes must be paid on it). The other advantage of HDHP is that you don't pay as much for coverage you won't use--so I could have opted for a much higher deductible, like $6,500, and paid even less per month, but I elected the $2,750 deductible because it was closest to the deductible my employer offered.
Okay, this is long. :)
