Health Insurance Plans:

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

For it to be affordable you'll have the deductible which means everything that is covered in the policy you'll have to pay for up to certain amount before they actually start paying for it. Everything. Now they may have some wellness clauses that will cover a wellness exam short of the deductible but maybe not.

Yeah this is about right.

When you're employed and are covered through your employer, to get really good coverage with low deductibles/copays, the employer ends up spending like $7000 a year on you, with you kicking in something like $2000 in payroll deductions, combining for a cost of $9000 (rough numbers). And the only reason it's not more than that is because your employer would have negotiated lower rates, promising to bring lots of employees into the plan.

For an individual buying insurance like you're doing, you lose that negotiating power and would have to pay even more for that same great coverage, it would end up being much more than $9000.

Since hardly anybody can afford to pay $9000 for health insurance all by themselves, you have to look at high deductible plans like you're doing. The goal of these plans is just to avoid the potential financial disaster:

- You get in a car accident and need multiple orthopedic surgeries and countless hours of rehab.

- You come down with diabetes which eventually leads to kidney failure, resulting in countless hours of dialysis and ultimately a kidney transplant procedure.

- You get hit with cancer and have to pay out the nose for very expensive chemo treatments.

All you're doing is paying for the peace of mind to know that your financial life won't be ruined if something like this happens. The plan won't cost too much, but you'll have to front the cost of routine out-of-pocket care like physician office visits, medicines, psychiatric/psychological therapy, etcetera. It's not designed as something to take away the need for you to pay for routine care, it's just a safety net for the most dreaded of circumstances.

You'll want that. If you did get hit by a bus, the last thing you want to worry about is how you're going to pay off the debt from the hospital bills. Better to focus on healing and walking again.