Healthcare

**frugalinohio** · 03-06-2008, 10:41 PM

I'm curious to know what choices there are for healthcare when a family is on a budget. My husband has healthcare through his job but..holy cow !

It's really expensive...

any ideas ?

Thanks

~ B

**M55FF** · 03-07-2008, 07:20 AM

if he is offered a healthcare plan through his job, it should be cheaper than a group plan without employer, not always but usually.
I had a job one time where the company offered a healthcare plan and it was sooooooooo expensive with high deductables I just refused it and the full time position they offered because the benefits package was so lame.
Now I am under my husbands healthcare through his employer and he has 4 people on it and pays about 20 a week for health, dental and vision ( 20 total)

thats more like it.

**PrairieRose** · 03-07-2008, 08:59 AM

I'd kill for $20/week for health, dental and vision....seriously. We pay about $700/mo. and that's after a lot of shopping around and a $5400 deductable. No joke. I don't know of any reasonable healthcare options for families on a budget. Take very good care of your health, teach yourself about natural and home remedies and take your vitamins. Those are the only options I know of. Sorry.

**PrairieRose** · 03-07-2008, 09:00 AM

Oh and we pay that for TWO healthy, normal weight, non smoking people b.t.w.. We're self employed and have private insurance....our only choice.

**M55FF** · 03-07-2008, 09:50 AM

we have bcbs and the deductables are high for tests, you are limited to doctors you can use and the ones I have been to on the plan seem to all work in those doc in the box clinics ( real bad doctors too)... so its not perfect.
I don't think any health plan is going to be great these days.
I dread socialized medicine because its already bad enough, can you imagine when they cut back even more and raise the deductables ?
it will be horrible.
People seem to think that having insurance means you get good care and good doctors, that is a myth.

**della92** · 03-07-2008, 10:17 AM

I have Anthem BCBS through my employer, no dental. I work for a small company, so the group rates are not that good. For myself, my husband and my daughter, I pay $78.00 per week, the company I work for pays the other half at $78.00 per week too.

The insurance itself it very good. I can go to their doctors, which is just about every doctor in our area and pay $25 per visit and pretty much 20% copayment for everything else, no deductibles, $3000 per person, or $6000 per family total out of pocket per year.

The premiums do increase about 10% each year.

I don't think that any health care is inexpensive, especially individual.

**quiltergirl2** · 03-07-2008, 10:21 AM

I remember $20 insurance premiums too. I had a policy that had a $20 deductible -- 20 years ago. The operative word here is had. I'm afraid that type of thing is long gone.

I know it is hard to pay those high premiums and still have huge out of pocket expenses. Especially for us where we prefer alternative practitioners who are not covered by insurance. So we end up paying most of our medical bills out of pocket.

But that said we do still have insurance. We learned that lesson the hard way. No matter how healthy you are you can still have medical emergenies -- even a car accident. We were faced with a medical emergency without insurance. We were treated badly at the hospital, my dh was discharged early because we had no insurance and he had been home one day when they the threatening phone calls about the bill began. We learned very quickly that the "just pay what you can, they can't get blood from a turnip" advice everyone gives is not true -- at least in our state. They can demand payment in full or unrealistically high payments and they do not have to accept less.

So, we gripe and grumble about the cost of insurance but we still pay it, because we know the extreme hardship that can come if you need medical care without insurance.

But the way -- someone mentioned being self employed. There are business and professional organizations for self-employed people that make it possible to get in on a group plan. Some are better than others. We had two different plans this way when we had our store. One was really good -- the other not so much.

**mombottoo** · 03-07-2008, 01:23 PM

I did a search a while back for affordable healthcare for myself because I lost my coverage after my husband qualified for Medicare. The cheapest I found with affordable deductible ($2500) & copays (80/20) would have cost me $258 per month.

Since I am relatively healthy I chose to put away $258 per month and I use that money to pay for my care and any deductibles we have from my hubby's Medicare plan.

If I end up with a major hospital bill for some reason, I will just make payment arrangements...

**CYork** · 03-07-2008, 10:00 PM

My spouse is self-employed so we purchase our own insurance policy. We now pay almost $1100 per month ($500 deductible, no dental) and it goes up about 10% per year. We receive 5% reduction in the premium through a professional trade group.

**Fotobug** · 03-10-2008, 05:46 PM

We are paying about $800/month for the 2 of us but it is "cadillac" coverage. We are both retired, but not up to Medicare age yet - we are lucky that we both could keep the coverage we had through our employers, but we have to "self-pay" now. I have a lot of pre-existing conditions - they are all controlled but I'm sure I would be turned down for individual insurance so I don't dare let it lapse. Otherwise I think I would change to a major medical policy with a fairly large deductible and do as Mombottoo suggests: invest the premium savings.

I have a friend in her 30's, family of 4, both self-employed, who did that - she set up an HSA through State Farm and says it works very well for her family.

But watch the limits and copays on those. I have another friend who is in a state insurance pool (she is self employed and has low income) and she is really stuck right now - she needs a $40K surgery and insurance only pays 60%. She has an $8500 cap but there is no way that she can come up with that out of pocket money! The hospital will let her make payments but the surgeon is demanding her 40% up front and she simply doesn't have it. In the meantime, she gets sicker.

After seeing her experience I am glad we've kept our coverage. It's a lot but I'd rather be frugal in other places and bite the health insurance bullet.

**M55FF** · 03-10-2008, 06:14 PM

I asked my husband and he pays 40 a week, not 20.

If it were just him it would be free ( to employee only)

so thats 160 a month.
We are both healthy and hardly go but his daughter goes if she gets a pimple or scratch ( sometimes weeekly)... she is going to be in for a shock in a few months when she turns 18 and is off my husbands insurance..,...and has to get her own.

**mombottoo** · 03-10-2008, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by M55FF

I asked my husband and he pays 40 a week, not 20.

If it were just him it would be free ( to employee only)

so thats 160 a month.
We are both healthy and hardly go but his daughter goes if she gets a pimple or scratch ( sometimes weeekly)... she is going to be in for a shock in a few months when she turns 18 and is off my husbands insurance..,...and has to get her own.

Is she planning on going to college? My husband's insurance through work covered our kids until they were 24 if they went to college at least 1/2 time...

**M55FF** · 03-10-2008, 06:41 PM

mom she says so but .... saying and doing are two different things and they are going to automatically drop her at 18 unless she can prove she is going and I think she has to go full time.
She doesn't have the disipline to go full time... too into boys.
My husband were talking about it and we were thinking they would just drop her at 18....
because I'm sure they dont care if she plans to go or is thinking about going...
they will need proof
and that is something she doesn't have ( she only has the words, no actions to back it up)... she did inform us she had enough credits to graduate 2 years ago but didn't want to.
She is a very difficult young person who is highly manipulative with a sense of entitlement that her mother has instilled in her ( she is my step daughter)
I have been wondering??? what
they do with kids who turn of legal age...
do they just refuse them at the doctors?
I should call and ask blue cross,
does anyone know?.........
my husband thinks they will drop her and thats ok.. her mother can pick her up on her works insurance after 18, so she will be covered if she goes to college.

**kmsinsa** · 03-10-2008, 06:50 PM

I have BCBS through the company I work for. The premium per month is $400, but it is the buy-up plan and it covers me and my daughter. Co-pays are only $10 and most everything else in network is covered 100%. My prescription insurance is now $35 each, but my seizure medication alone without insurance would cost $600+ a month.

**M55FF** · 03-10-2008, 07:41 PM

I called the blue corss and they said a child is covered until age 19 through my husbands employer, but his divorce says he only has to provide her with health insurance until she is 18...
its a bad situation in that she is high risk for pregnancy and STD's, also a seriopus car accident and the doctors can sue US for payment if she is unable to pay.. hence we take the liability for her to contuinue to carry her on the plan. Since she doesn't live with us, and lives like she's 30 ( comes and goes as she pleases, has her own car and boys sleep over, this is ok with her mother).. we have no control over the situation and hopefully she will get either her own insurance or go under her mothers health insurance at 18 ( a few months)
this is sad but we have to think about the legal consequences of carring her on the insurance since she does not have ability to pay in the event of a serious problem.
Her mother has insurance and hopefully will carry her if she can't get her own. I know that sounds bad but in divorce things get complicated...
and she has no solid plans to go to college, has not even applied anywhere yet and graduating high school in a few months.