I've been thinking about health insurance, because I'm currently uninsured, and if "shit hit the fan", I could be buried in debt for the rest of my life. It's also important to be insured so that you can get tests for things occasionally.
So I started looking into it a bit. There's quite a bit of terminology involved in deciding which plan you choose, and it's very expensive, being an american citizen.
There's the "deductible" or how much you pay for your medical expenses in full before insurance kicks in. "Low deductible" is about 1500, "high" is closer to 5 grand. The deductible renews annually.
Most either have health insurance through a PPO or an HMO.
Then you have "co-insurance", or how much you pay per visit after you have payed past the deductible.
There is also something called "out of pocket maximum": A predetermined limited amount of money that an individual must pay out of their own savings, before an insurance company or (self-insured employer) will pay 100 percent for an individual’s health care expenses.
The "premium" (the price you pay for insurance each month) is determined by the above factors.
I see a number of different options a younger guy could take:
1. Worst case scenario insurance.
If you have a very high deductible (10k a year), very high co-insurance, and a high out of pocket maximum, then your monthly premium will probably be something under 100, and I've seen even under 50. This would be good really in case you had a major medical problem that arose.
2. The other option is to pay closer to 500 a month to get much better health insurance coverage.
So I'd like to ask what policies you guys are currently using, how much you are paying, and any experiences you've had.
This is definitely an important topic. I'm also interested in anyone who has used health insurance or health care in other countries, outside of the United States.
So I started looking into it a bit. There's quite a bit of terminology involved in deciding which plan you choose, and it's very expensive, being an american citizen.
There's the "deductible" or how much you pay for your medical expenses in full before insurance kicks in. "Low deductible" is about 1500, "high" is closer to 5 grand. The deductible renews annually.
Most either have health insurance through a PPO or an HMO.
Then you have "co-insurance", or how much you pay per visit after you have payed past the deductible.
There is also something called "out of pocket maximum": A predetermined limited amount of money that an individual must pay out of their own savings, before an insurance company or (self-insured employer) will pay 100 percent for an individual’s health care expenses.
The "premium" (the price you pay for insurance each month) is determined by the above factors.
I see a number of different options a younger guy could take:
1. Worst case scenario insurance.
If you have a very high deductible (10k a year), very high co-insurance, and a high out of pocket maximum, then your monthly premium will probably be something under 100, and I've seen even under 50. This would be good really in case you had a major medical problem that arose.
2. The other option is to pay closer to 500 a month to get much better health insurance coverage.
So I'd like to ask what policies you guys are currently using, how much you are paying, and any experiences you've had.
This is definitely an important topic. I'm also interested in anyone who has used health insurance or health care in other countries, outside of the United States.
