Analyzing Our Health Insurance Situation
I changed jobs a few months ago, which started me searching for new health insurance options. My new employer’s plan wasn’t very good, so I headed over to eHealthInsurance.com to search for the best deal. I found a pretty good deal on a low-premium, high deductible plan that is HSA compatible for only $180/month. My employer agreed to contribute $150/month instead of paying the premium for the insurance they offered, so I end up paying only $30/month.
This HSA-compatible plan has a $30 copay for preventative maintenance appointments. I will have to pay 100% for any normal medical bills or prescriptions up to my deductible of $3400/year. For some reason they call it a $1700 deductible, but on a family plan, they don’t start covering anything until you reach the family limit anyway. After I reach my deductible, I pay 20% of the medical bills up to my out-of-pocket maximum of $8k/year.
Prior to this insurance plan, I was paying over $350/month for health insurance premiums (my employer was also contributing over $350/month) to a ‘regular’ health plan. That means last year, we paid over $4200 for medical insurance. Since we don’t go to the doctor very often, this seemed like a pretty big rip-off to me. The majority of our medical expenses are for the kid’s yearly check-ups and vaccinations, so the HSA compatible plan should work out to be a pretty good deal for us. This year I’ll pay a total of about $360 on premiums, and I’m estimating less than $1000 in medical bills (except of-course if we have some emergency). That should result in a sizable savings. Plus, (if I understand the tax advantages correctly) expenses out of our Health Savings Account will directly reduce our Adjusted Gross Income.
My plan is to contribute about $200/month into a Health Savings Account. That should more than cover our medical expenses, and continue growing each year. Another nice thing about the HSA as I understand it, is that it can be used to pay for things that health insurance wouldn’t typically cover. I’m hoping that within a few years, that we’d have enough there to pay for vision correction surgery for myself.
I still need to investigate some low-cost dental coverage options. I’ve seen some ‘discount plans’, but the general feeling I get is that most dentists don’t accept these. Does anybody have any recommendations for affordable dental coverage?
