This may be a dumb question.
How do people handle budgeting for medical deductibles, when it's not always clear how much you'll be spending in a given year on doctor visits, medications, procedures, ER visits, etc.?
We have had weird unexpected expenses over the last several years: 2 unexpected surgeries in two different years, random urgent care visits, DH had an injury that required steroid injections (big copay), and last year we had to get bloodwork done for our son that cost $800 (!!!).
Based on the above, I've kind of assumed I should budget the max deductible every year no matter what (i.e. for us, $4000 divided by 12) but is this necessary? At what point do you treat unexpected medical expenses as something that should come out of emergency funds? If it matters we have a high deductible plan with $50 office visit copays.