Health Insurance

mappers · Nov 10, 2010

I've had HSA before and it is designed for people without a lot of HC expenses. When I went on it, my insurance company provided information on their website that should me what my expenses where the previous year, including premium and presciptions. It also showed me the "real" cost, what I would have paid without the PPO I had been on.

I then looked at how much I would have paid for the premium of the HSA. It was much less expensive for me to use the HSA. At the time, we had maybe three doctor's visits and one or two presciptions for antibiotics (family of four, with two kids past the well-baby & ear infection stage). My HSA covered the expenses I had and I saved a lot of money on premium.

You truly have to look at your lifestyle and your health. There might be a gap between the HSA and the deductible, but that would only be reached if you had an ER visit or had to go to the hospital or had a major test. Look at how much that gap is and is that something you could afford to pay. For example, is it $2000? That seems like a lot of money, but for some people, that's a new living room suit. It could be paid off pretty quickly.

Your company is pushing it because it is the least expensive for them. Health Insurance is the one of the highest employee-related expenses a company has.

mappers · Nov 10, 2010

You guys keep using HSA like it's an insurance. It isn't. It's a Savings Account that employers may contribute to and it rolls over every year. It is often connected to a high deductible plan, but that plan is really seperate. Employers bundle them together in their plan design frequently, but they are two seperate things.

With an HSA you really are paying for what you use. You and/or your employeer put money into the account and you use it to pay your medical expenses. You do pay "full price" for your expenses in that you aren't just paying a co-pay, but you often still get the negotiated PPO rate from the insurance company, not the true full price charged by the HC provider.

Someone said something about having to pay a lot of money out of your check into the account. Lets say you have a choice between paying $100 a month into the account or toward insurance. If your healthcare expenses are generally very low, you get to roll over that $1200 you pay into the account, so next year, you end up with $2400 in the account. The following year, you have $3600, etc. Eventually, when you sprain your ankle, you'll have a nice bundle in your account to cover the high deductible for that ER visit. (This is above and beyond what your employer may put into the account. If they are putting $1200 in, then you are hitting that deductible amount in half the time.)

If you pay $100 a month for insurance and you don't go to the doctor that year, that $1200 you paid that year is gone. And if you have a $1000 deductible for an ER visit, guess what, you're paying $1000 for that sprained ankle AND you've paid at least $1200 a year for the insurance up until you've needed it.

If you have chronic health problems or take regular RXs, or if you're planning on getting pregnant, etc, this plan may not work for you. But many young and healthy people are "over-insured". This is a way for you to truly insure yourself for what you think your expenses will be.

coolpeach · Nov 10, 2010

I guess I like the PPO because I have kiddos. We have a 1000 deductible, but only $500 per person. So if only one person needs their tonsils out then I only have to pay $500 before the insurance pays 80%. In addition, automatically I only pay $30 for the dr, $40 for the specialist and their is no deductible that starts right away. My Dr's office had has an x-ray machine, lab, etc. So if we need lab work, a chest xray, or some minor stitches they can do it right in the office, and it still only cost me the office copay $30. All preventives are fee. I do pay more in premiums, but its only about $30 more a paycheck for the peace of mind of knowing everyone is covered. My son had some digestive issues this year and needed to see a specialist, get an upper and lower GI, some X-rays etc. The rest of us just had a normal year. I hardly went to the Dr (maybe twice other than preventative, and the other two boys a few times for minor stuff. We racked up around $20,000 in medical costs, and we paid less than $2000. The real savings came from the Dr's office doing all that stuff in office. Often the bill will be $400 for blood work, x-rays etc, and my portion is $30

TDCHIM · Nov 11, 2010

I guess I like the PPO because I have kiddos. We have a 1000 deductible, but only $500 per person. So if only one person needs their tonsils out then I only have to pay $500 before the insurance pays 80%. In addition, automatically I only pay $30 for the dr, $40 for the specialist and their is no deductible that starts right away. My Dr's office had has an x-ray machine, lab, etc. So if we need lab work, a chest xray, or some minor stitches they can do it right in the office, and it still only cost me the office copay $30. All preventives are fee. I do pay more in premiums, but its only about $30 more a paycheck for the peace of mind of knowing everyone is covered. My son had some digestive issues this year and needed to see a specialist, get an upper and lower GI, some X-rays etc. The rest of us just had a normal year. I hardly went to the Dr (maybe twice other than preventative, and the other two boys a few times for minor stuff. We racked up around $20,000 in medical costs, and we paid less than $2000. The real savings came from the Dr's office doing all that stuff in office. Often the bill will be $400 for blood work, x-rays etc, and my portion is $30

Wow, seriously? Can I be on your plan???