Today, I read an NPR article titled Employees Start To Feel The Squeeze Of High-Deductible Health Plans. It’s an important topic and I wanted to put some quick thoughts together on the subject. I call this “blogging in real-time” because I’m reacting directly to something I read today. It’s not a planned article and I wanted to share how we are handling healthcare deductibles with our insurance plan.
The summary of the story is that while everyone has been focused on Obamacare, people with work sponsored healthcare plans are seeing their premiums and deductibles increase. I concur with this statement because we’ve seen it in our work sponsored plan too. To quote the article:
“We’ve spent so much time fighting about Obamacare over the last 10 years and talking about the uninsured that I think we lost sight of this quiet revolution that’s happened with health coverage for the tens of millions of Americans who have coverage through an employer. These are the people who’ve seen deductibles rise astronomically — rising four times in the last dozen years from about $350 on average to $1,350 on average. “
The Issue
To quote the article:
One of the things that we found was that half of Americans who get job-based coverage say they or an immediate family member in the last year have put off going to the doctor, not filled the prescription or delayed some other kind of medical care because of concern about cost.
This is accurate, at least with our family, and it’s an issue nationally. We’ve always put off (unless it was an emergency) receiving known medical treatment until we’ve met our deductible.
Again, if it’s not an emergency it just makes sense to wait until the specific family member or the family deductible has been met. In fact, just this past week, I finally got into taking care of a non-emergency procedure because I finally met my deductible in early April.
With our work sponsored healthcare plan, we have a couple of deductible options.
- Pay higher monthly premium but have a lower deductible
- Pay lower monthly premium but have a higher deductible.
It’s a quandary that we all face when the annual sign-up comes in October or November.
The (Our) Solution
When our kids were little, we always chose the lower deductible plan because our kids were always in to see the doctor. But those deductibles and premiums started going up. So, I looked for another way to handle the rising expense.
Our 1st Change – About 10 years ago, we moved to the higher deductible plan. We wait until our deductible is met before we do any significant medical treatments. This gives us a lower monthly premium, which saved us several thousand of dollars during the year.
Our 2nd Change – We needed to increase the speed of getting our deductible met. I found a chiropractor that didn’t take any co-pay (normally $40-$50 per visit) but would charge our insurance the normal $110 adjustment fee. With a $1,000 deductible, I was able to meet that deductible after only 9 visits.
The chiropractor is willing to receive no money until his patients meet their deductible. This is the way the guy runs his business and it’s a win-win for the patient and him. He runs his business on volume, which is his choice. My plan allows 30 chiropractor visits each year so he knows he gets paid on 21 of those visits.
Conclusion
We usually meet our healthcare deductibles in March or April. We usually spend the rest of the year focused on our health related issues. This process has saved us thousands each year in both premiums and deductibles. We take those savings and make sure they find their way in our retirement accounts.
I highly recommend you find a medical practitioner that you visit regularly who will not charge you until you meet your deductible. They are out there but you have to find them … so start making some calls.
We pay our chiropractor nothing (zero, zip) and we save thousands.
Thanks for reading!
Mr. TLR