This topic contains 8 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by 
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If we were hit with a medical emergency, our insurance deductible alone would take a good part of our savings.
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I’m not at all surprised to hear this. I just paid out of pocket for some outpatient surgery – almost $10,000. Insurance is nearly 2K a month so I have just been putting money back and hoping nobody has a stroke or something.
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Right???
Then we have people who tell us, “Well, just go with a lower deduction . . . ”
Yeah, how about and then higher premiums?
It is no wonder most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
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That’s because everyone has metrics. Landlords have metrics on how much we can bear for housing costs for each income level. Insurance companies know how much the market can bear for their piece. Supermarkets, utilities, gas stations, cellular companies, broadband companies, they all are constantly testing different price ranges to see where the edges are to their particular piece of the pie. Go too far and substitution / demand destruction happens. Constantly monitor everyone’s pie and make sure your slice never shrinks.
And most all of us don’t maintain a slice for savings by simulating a lower standard of living.
Predators and prey. Ain’t life grand?
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I pay more for health insurance than housing. And I doubt many people have an emergency fund large enough to cover the expense of a serious illness or injury. No amount of frugality will result in a spare $50,000, $250,000, or 1 million for health care. An Urgent Care visit can cost a month’s wages and an ER visit can cost a year’s wages. I am not in the least surprise that most bankruptcies are medical bankruptcies. A person with health insurance can still go bankrupt paying the premiums, the deductible, the co-payments, the “exceeds reasonable and customary” and the “not covered.” Health insurance is a racket.
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Agreed!!!
OldMtWoman
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Indeed MollyMalone
There are companies that will negotiate medical bills and get the amount down. I guess They figure that some money is better than no money, and it may be cheaper than hiring a collections agency to obtain the money
These are a few which I just searched. I dont know how good any of them are.
http://www.medicalcostadvocate.com/default.aspx?group=hcbluebook
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There are medical bill sharing plans that are not health insurance, cost far less, but are limited, like Liberty Health Share. They are not for everyone, but are worth looking at. You still need a savings plan for the deductible, but ours is only $500 per incident, which can be mostly done away with if you can negotiate at least a 40 percent discount with the provider (an incentive providedpby our plan, not hard if you’re classified as self pay, which you are with these plans). There are all sorts of these plans out there. They don’t pay drug costs usually, so you have to save for that, too. That would be a deal breaker for some.
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There’s a lot of truth in that. I am a chapter 7 bankruptcy preparer. All but ONE of my bankruptcies are due to medical debts. We actually just did the same thing. We were 294 THOUSAND dollars in debt. And that was with THREE different health care coverages. We had our primary, the VA and the supplemental through the college.
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