Signed up for health insurance yesterday

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I guess part of it is ignorance. I don't know how it works, but I gather that it runs somewhat more similar to standard health insurance, vs. the "no cost for anything if you do it at a military clinic or with a PCP referral" that it currently is while on active duty. I just need to actually do that research I suppose. Though I do think it's far less expensive than private/ACA coverage.... Like on the order of $1k/yr, not $1k/mo.

But as I said, the other side is just shock at the cost of the insurance. Ignorance is bliss I suppose, but you could buy a car every year or two off of what families spend annually on health insurance! It does at least help explain why so many folks would see going without health insurance as a necessary/practical choice (albeit shortsighted).

when i see what families are paying absolutely you can buy a car for that. Or a nice size car payment

[srblanco7]

When I searched on the exchange, there were 80 plans available. It isn't 80 different insurance companies. It's just a handful but they each offer many different plans. Gold, Silver, and Bronze. HSA or not. Higher or lower deductibles. Higher or lower office visit copays and prescription costs. Higher or lower coinsurances for labs and imaging and hospital stays. Just slicing and dicing everything a bunch of ways.

He said to cut through all of that, focus on the max OOP and the network. You want to make sure that the providers and hospitals you use and prefer are in the network you select and that the max OOP is something you can handle. Everything else just ends up being "noise" in the grand scheme of things. Whether an office visit costs you $30 or $50 is way less important than whether or not your preferred PCP or specialist accepts your insurance. A deductible of $2,500 vs $5,000 isn't all that meaningful when you compare it to what the maximum out of pocket expense could be which is a significantly larger number.

In the end, I chose a plan very similar to what we already have. The two big local hospital systems (including the one I work for) are in the network and that's where all of our current providers are. The deductible is reasonable and the max OOP is something we could handle if necessary.

Thanks. This is helpful insight.

[MonkeyMama]

when i see what families are paying absolutely you can buy a car for that. Or a nice size car payment

I don't know what you guys are all talking about but our health insurance is a mortgage payment. (Actually, more than any mortgage we've ever had.) You could buy a house for that.

[ua_guy]

I don't have any advice, only empathy. Health insurance is MESSED UP. I have friends who purchase through the exchange and they thought they had it figured out until (Premera?) increased their rate almost 60% from the previous year. Back to the drawing board for them, researching and selecting a new plan.

Health Insurance has also become a driving factor in how/when people can choose to retire early before they are Medicare eligible.

[Fishindude77]

We all gripe about the cost of health insurance but one major health incident will be mostly covered by insurance and the total cost might be far more than we have paid in total premiums in a decade.
If those medical bills aren't being paid by your premiums, they're going to be paid in another fashion such as taxes, and nobody will like that either.

As screwed up as this system is, we could be a lot worse off.

[ua_guy]

We all gripe about the cost of health insurance but one major health incident will be mostly covered by insurance and the total cost might be far more than we have paid in total premiums in a decade.
If those medical bills aren't being paid by your premiums, they're going to be paid in another fashion such as taxes, and nobody will like that either.

As screwed up as this system is, we could be a lot worse off.

Not really, short of not having any coverage at all.

[disneysteve]

We all gripe about the cost of health insurance but one major health incident will be mostly covered by insurance and the total cost might be far more than we have paid in total premiums in a decade.
If those medical bills aren't being paid by your premiums, they're going to be paid in another fashion such as taxes, and nobody will like that either.

As screwed up as this system is, we could be a lot worse off.

About 40% of Americans already have taxpayer-funded insurance. We just need to get the other 60% covered and we'll be all set. I certainly wouldn't be complaining if universal health insurance became a reality in this country like it is in every other developed country in the world.

[ua_guy]

Medicare is an extremely efficient model. Remember, as part of ACA, for-profit insurers had to be forced to use a certain percentage of premiums on reimbursing patient care. What does that say about them...hmm.

[jenn_jenn]

Would be great if we are able to get some form of universal healthcare. However, food for thought since this is a personal finance topic: I’m really glad we the option to pay for private health insurance or pay things not covered by insurance out of pocket. I hope we never lose this flexibility.

My husband has free healthcare for life from the military. We chose to pay for his private healthcare anyway because we’ve found that he has access to better care in doing so. It’s a very worthwhile expense to us and I am lucky to have fantastic medical benefits through my employer so it is not prohibitively expensive. However, it is also nice to have the fall back of free healthcare for him should we ever need it.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

If medicare was so awful why does everyone choose it and like it? And it's impossible to take away