Being an independent contractor, I am responsible for my own health insurance as well as the rest of my family. The process of choosing health insurance and an overall healthcare “strategy” for your family can be overwhelming. At least it was for me. I have been round and round in this process and looking into it for years. I have learned a few things that I wanted to share with you because it can even be a little scary.
First a little about my situation: my son and I both are treated for several conditions that require maintenance medications. None are too serious and are managed well with medication. I have a few issues that require me to get once a year follow-ups that also require a diagnostic test each time. We really aren’t at the doctor for being sick or injured that much, but we do go a couple of times a year.
Our health insurance was more than our mortgage each month. This is absurd. I believe that this is for a couple of reasons that we can address another time. For now, just know I was paying more for just healthcare premiums that I was to live in my home. That didn’t include deductibles, medications, co-pays for doctor visits, etc. That was just for premiums.
When Obamacare came along I was hopeful. I really was. I live in Kentucky, one of only a handful of states that had a relatively easy time opening the state’s healthcare exchange. The plans on the exchange were cheaper. They weren’t necessarily better as far as deductibles and co-pays or coverage, but the premiums were cheaper. A few times I came close to jumping off the cliff and purchasing a new policy, but I was afraid. What if this whole concept of Obamacare goes belly up? What if hardly any doctors take this policy? We have several doctors whom we love. I can’t imagine seeing anyone else. We have known some of them for almost 15 to 20 years and they know us. They know our family. And they also didn’t take any of the plans offered on the exchange. I felt stuck.
My point in telling you about the specifics is that the problem was a real one for my family. It was stressful and it was expensive. And we HAD to have it. I know my situation is one of millions. You may not share the exact same circumstances, but you understand the stress it can cause and how difficult it can be to deal with.
A friend of mine told me about new insurance that she got and how happy she was with it. She actually had quite a bit of helpful information for me that would dramatically help my healthcare debacle. I called the company she had used and talked to an actual human being. This was key for me. Looking online can only help so much. Talking with someone who wanted to know what our situation was like and wanted to see if he could improve it was crucial. We wanted a PPO (Preferred Provider Organization). What that means is usually you have more flexibility with your plan. You have more choices as far as doctors to use. That was important to us.
The guy that I spoke with also wanted a list of all of our medications to see how expensive those would be each month, depending on our plan. This was awesome. Since we are on a lot of medications each month, it was very comforting to know these things. He put me on hold and came back a few minutes later. He told me that one of my more expensive medications had a coupon online I could use each month and Bayer, the manufacturer of my one medication had a program I applied to and could receive my medication for free. Woohoo!
The plan that I qualified for was sort of their Cadillac of insurance policies. It had a ZERO deductible, my other medications were covered, it was a PPO, and the doctors that were most important to me took the insurance (the other ones might, but there were a few that were most important). I wasn’t eligible for any other plan at the time because this was January. Open enrollment wasn’t until November. At that time, I could look around and possibly get a plan that was a little cheaper per month but would have a deductible and not have as good of coverage as the plan I ultimately ended up going with.
So, yes, I ended up going with the people I had called and were so helpful to my situation. Not only did it come with everything I already mentioned above, but it also came with full dental and vision coverage as well — things that were not previously covered on our old plan. The BEST part? I would be saving over $150/month just on the health insurance premiums alone. Less money and more coverage. Less stress. Sign me up.
The other thing a friend told me about was the most amazing thing ever. I mean, game changer. She told me about a prescription savings club that I really didn’t know much about. I won’t go into detail about that here, but if you’re looking for more information on the prescription savings plan, but I am working on a separate post on that and I’ll post the link soon. Bottom line is it ended up saving me another $120 per month — and our DOG can be included on the plan and even his medication is $23 cheaper with the savings plan.
So this was the first change in a series of many where I cut quite a bit out of our monthly budget, mostly because I became more aware of options that were out there, programs available, and everything sort of fell into place. That’s also for another time.
The main takeaways from this information are:
