Close to reaching your Health Insurance Deductible? Spend MORE soon!

If you or your family have had one or more health expenses this year, such as surgeries, hospitalizations, pregnancy, or anything that causes you to start paying towards your health insurance deductible, NOW may be the time to spend MORE, not less. While this sounds counter intuitive, spending MORE on needed health issues at the end of the year may actually save you money.

Most health insurance plans operate on a calendar year, from January 1st to December 31st. Your yearly deductible is usually also based on this time-frame. So, let’s say you have a $1,000 deductible plan with, 20/80 Coinsurance (This means after reaching your deductible you pay the remaining 20% and the insurance pays 80% of all bills until you reach a certain maximum, at which point you get covered at 100%.). Now assume that you have spent $800 of your deductible though October, and the doctor says you will need more medical treatment in the near future. In this case, if you wait to get your expected medical treatment until after January 1st, you may start paying towards your entire $1000 deductible again! However, if you complete the needed work or procedures BEFORE December 31st, you may only pay another $200 towards your deductible, and then just 20% of the remaining charges! You’ll “save” $800 of your own money from having to be used towards you deductible again.

Think of a deductible as “use it or lose it”. Once you start getting close to using your entire deductible for the year you might as well get as much other medical work done as you can, as it will cost you only incrementally more! People who get really burned by paying two deductibles in a close time period are those women who go into labor on December 31st, and end up having their baby on January 1! Having a baby is expensive and a pretty sure way to reach well beyond the yearly deductible. Thus, having the expensive childbirth cost split over two “years” requires one to potentially spend the entire deducible TWICE!

Now, it isn’t being advocated to have unnecessary medical procedures done just because you “can”, but if you know you must have more medical procedures done in the near future, getting as much done in one year as possible is a sure way to save money. Most though not all plans operate this way, so be sure to ask your broker if this situation applies to you.

My Health Insurance of Washington specializes in helping individuals, families, the self-employed, and small business find quality health insurance plans to meet their financial needs. Based in Washington State, their sole focus in on Washington State Health Insurance plans.

Fire! Aim! Ready!..........Here comes Obama's Plan!

It looks as if our House of Representatives is doing exactly the opposite of what I discussed in my last Blog. That is, they are marching full steam ahead to tackle Health Care Reform, without first defining what problem they are trying to solve.

It appears it's not IF we are going to have a Government Run Health Insurance Option, but WHAT that option will be. Said Nancy Pelosi , Speaker of the House on July 13th:

"We are in the process of bringing our health care proposal to the floor, It will happen."
"It will have, coming out of the House, a public option," "The only debate on that is what it will be called -- a patient option, a public option, write in your suggestions."

This is just plain frightening. We ALREADY have Government Run Health Insurance, called Medicare. Medicare not only requires you to spend money for it its premiums, but also supplement that coverage (because it's so bad!) with purchased plans (to cover the gaps in its coverage) from private insurance companies!

Hey Nancy, would you fix the broken system we already have before throwing a $ Trillion $ or more at a brand new "Solution"!!?