digitalBush

Photo courtesy of kreg.steppe

I'm hearing more and more cries of people who claim that they cannot afford healthcare coverage.  In fact, two recent ones were by acquaintances who I truly believe CAN afford healthcare.  Just because your employer doesn't offer coverage doesn't mean that you can't have it.  In fact, if you have a cell phone, you can mostly cover the cost of a single member of your family for that price.  I know most of you will be tempted to click away, remove me from your feed reader, and never return, but just hear me out on this one.

All of this revolves around a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) coupled with a Health Savings Account (HSA).  I encourage you to read about these further, but the idea is this:  You sign up for a HDHP with a large deductible.  You will pay out of pocket (HSA) up to the deductible, and after that your insurance company will pick up 100%.  Consider this catastrophic coverage.  Now, when you go to the doctor, you are responsible for paying the bill, but you will receive in-network discounts for going to providers who are contracted with the network of your insurance carrier. 

Alongside this HDHP, you will want to set up a HSA account. HSA is a tax-benefited bank account for storing funds to be allocated to healthcare expenses.  You can put money into the HSA tax-free and can use that money to pay for healthcare expenses tax-free.  If you use the money in it for non-healthcare expenses, you will be taxed on that money and will be subject to a 10% penalty unless you are 65 or older.  If you are 65 or older, then you will only be responsible for the taxes.  Aside from the tax benefits, you will now have more control over your health care needs.  You won't have to seek approval from your primary-care doctor in order to see a specialist.

In case you are wondering how much it will cost you, here's an example HDHP from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee.  If you look at their premiums tables, a 25-29 yr old non-smoking male (like myself) can get a $2,850 deductible plan for $87.10 a month.  My cable+Internet bill could cover that easy, or my wife's cell phone bill would almost cover that.  It's also important to note that BCBST offers an even cheaper basic coverage that's not HSA eligible, but would only set me back $58.69 with a $3,500 deductible.  I'm using BCBST as an example insurance because that is who I currently have through my employer.  I'm sure there are similar offerings from other companies.

Obviously, there are those who still can't afford what I'm showing above, but I have a feeling a lot of people can.  Let's stop trying to use health insurance for our day to day aches and pains and use it for what it should be: help when the unthinkable happens.  I currently have an HDHP+HSA for my wife and I and it has been working out great.  We've managed to set aside a nice bit into our HSA to cover our deductible for several years should something tragic happen.  We get the same service we always got with traditional health insurance.  Also, I'm sure we're paying less than we were paying with traditional insurance with the super high premiums plus co-pays.  I'll try to drum up another post later with a comparison of the two.

All of this is just establishing your priorities.  Would you rather have a cell phone or health care coverage?  No one is going to take care of you, you are going to have to do that yourself.  If that means sacrificing a few luxuries, then you just have to do it.  I'm sure this will become a hotter topic as the elections draw closer.