Health Insurance

You might only pay $500ish a year in medical, so $500/mo sounds ridiculous, but that's all supposing you'll remain healthy each year.
It's all a gamble.

A few years ago, I went in for simple gall bladder removal, but things went sideways.
They nicked my bile duct, infection set in, I spent WEEKS in a trauma center, and 5mo out of work followed by an additional 2mo later to repair the huge abdominal surgical hernia I was gifted with as a result.

Total cost before insurance.
Almost $500,000
My total cost.
$3,500

Had I not had insurance, because I've ALWAYS been healthy and never need service other than a stitch or two, I'd have been completely wrecked.

I buy all insurance as a preventative.
I figure that the $ I'm paying may be WASTED if I don't use it, but I'm buying health.

Same way with life insurance.
I'm betting I'll die.
They're betting that I won't

I hope they win.

Don't be stingy with your health.
You'll think $500 is a bargain when a $200k bill shows up.

 

Hmmmm, first post is spam. Mods?

 

You know, I didn’t have house fire ever in my life. Why should I carry Home owner’s insurance?

I’ve never hit anyone in my truck, why should I carry liability insurance?

health insurance is exorbitantly expensive because health care is exorbitantly expensive. I’ve got about $75K into my eyes, and a little blood clot incident ended up costing about as much as a house. Health insurance isn’t about paying for the doc-in-a-box when you got the sniffles, it’s for keeping your life from being ruined when you get thrown a curve ball.

 

Insurance I pay for. (A policy similar to original medicare but with it's own completely seperate situation and plans)

I have not had time to examine this months papers from them but we are running a little over 140,000 paid in the last 16 months and another 14000 to go. Hospital informed me that the Harding Group (A very powerfully rich and generous organization who has helped many of us in the past years) has brought my outstanding balances to zero. So that is a few thousand gone that I can apply elsewhere. So it's a fight.

The most fearsome problem in Medical isnurance is three things.

First is Deductable. If you have a cheap bronze policy that assigns the first 10,000 in billing to you to PAY in cash and in full before the insruance pays anything above that.

Second is out of network providers within the hospital. The lab, assistant, doctor, nurse etc ALL bill you. We call those surprise billing.

Third. Patient balance billing. You have powerful insurance. However they have not paid ALL of the billing presented to them so there is a box on your reminder bill that you owe... 3000 dollars if your insurance refuses it for example.

Finally but not last. IF you have had a major incident involving a ER or Trauma or surgery etc, go to the Hospital's Records Office. Present several forms of ID and ask for all records assocated to you for the dates involved. (All records for the dates involved) and after a time you will be presented with everything in their computers printed out for your reading education.

You may be able to uncover useful information in which you can present to your insurer or otherwise show the situation as it actually happened there.

 

You DO have volcano insurance, I hope,,,

 

Healthcare.gov

 

Call a local insurance broker who can shop it around for you with various companies. Dealing with the .gov website or customer service reps is a PITA. You won't pay more going through a broker, and you'll see "everything" out there that's available for you.

If you're eligible for subsidies on the Obamacare plans (ACA), that will more than likely be the best rate you can get. If for tax purposes you keep your personal income low and have your tax returns to prove it, you can get a good rate with a major health carrier. My wife and I are paying $450 a month for a platinum plan through Blue Shield of California. You can pay a lot less if you go with an HMO like Kaiser, but I hate Kaiser so I stick with traditional PPO type plans.

 

There are some cheap plans on healthcare.gov—but the moment you decide to not get health insurance for one year, the plan prices will skyrocket if you try to return.

 

The company you’re leased on may have some good connections.

 

Lol, yeah, well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I'm invincible by now...

Just thought of my life insurance! I haven't died yet, so I should probably just cancel that, too!

Man, this is starting to look GOOD!