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I'm going to vent here a minute about health insurance but I want to sound as apolitical about it as possible. I have my own views about the Affordable Health Care Act but not expressing them here.
Through an employer I chose a high deductible health insurance program. I chose it because I have relatively few health issues with me and the family members on it and the high deductible dollars were affordable because of the advent of the HSA or health savings account that I and my employer would fund over time. The deductible was fairly low - it started at about $2k and over 3 years jumped to $2,500. This was all do-able because the HSA was tax deferred and I was paying a little bit over time. The HSA also transferred into the next year without penalty and the money was mine - I could essentially do whatever I wanted with it, knowing of course, that the money is meant for health issues and would be taxed if spent on something else. To me, this was a good program because after the $2,500.00 was paid, the health insurance which was way more affordable would pick up health costs 100% after the deductible was met.
Now suddenly this year my deductible went up to more than double - $6,500.00 and my premium went up too. This puts my health costs in a whole new bracket. Now - I'm self insured basically. There's no way in the world I can meet the deductible in a HSA unless I paid into it for several years! Then, if something happened health wise, I'd be back at square 1. In my case, meeting just the deductible would be crippling financially.
This essentially forces me into a health care plan next year where there is no cost controls or HSA that can defer tax. I would have to go with a conventional plan of the much higher premium and much lower deductible or co pay. This leaves me with no control over my own money and provides the government with more money to tax.
So I have to think.....there are two things in my life right now that cost me more dollars than anything else and those two things are taxes and insurance. When I added those things up from 2013 EACH were higher than any other bill I had. So I have to ask myself what's going on when I'm being forced out of a health care program that worked for me and I'm paying more for ....you guessed it....taxes and insurance?
Through an employer I chose a high deductible health insurance program. I chose it because I have relatively few health issues with me and the family members on it and the high deductible dollars were affordable because of the advent of the HSA or health savings account that I and my employer would fund over time. The deductible was fairly low - it started at about $2k and over 3 years jumped to $2,500. This was all do-able because the HSA was tax deferred and I was paying a little bit over time. The HSA also transferred into the next year without penalty and the money was mine - I could essentially do whatever I wanted with it, knowing of course, that the money is meant for health issues and would be taxed if spent on something else. To me, this was a good program because after the $2,500.00 was paid, the health insurance which was way more affordable would pick up health costs 100% after the deductible was met.
Now suddenly this year my deductible went up to more than double - $6,500.00 and my premium went up too. This puts my health costs in a whole new bracket. Now - I'm self insured basically. There's no way in the world I can meet the deductible in a HSA unless I paid into it for several years! Then, if something happened health wise, I'd be back at square 1. In my case, meeting just the deductible would be crippling financially.
This essentially forces me into a health care plan next year where there is no cost controls or HSA that can defer tax. I would have to go with a conventional plan of the much higher premium and much lower deductible or co pay. This leaves me with no control over my own money and provides the government with more money to tax.
So I have to think.....there are two things in my life right now that cost me more dollars than anything else and those two things are taxes and insurance. When I added those things up from 2013 EACH were higher than any other bill I had. So I have to ask myself what's going on when I'm being forced out of a health care program that worked for me and I'm paying more for ....you guessed it....taxes and insurance?
