At the time of this writing, our country is going through a major health care crisis. For many years it has been common for employers to provide medical insurance to their employees at no cost or very little cost. However, since medical insurance premiums have skyrocketed over the past several years and businesses have struggled to maintain profitability, many employers are requiring their employees to bear a much higher portion of the cost or are dropping coverage completely.
If your employer still provides medical insurance benefits at a nominal cost, I strongly recommend that you take it. If you are self-employed, or if your employer no longer provides these benefits, you need to get your own policy. Even though you will probably pay much higher premiums for this coverage than for any of the other essential types of insurance, it is critical to have.
To help mitigate the cost, you may want to consider a high-deductible major medical plan, maybe even with a $5,000 or $10,000 deductible. Remember that we are not trying to make the insurance company pay for every little prescription and doctor’s visit. We just want them to handle the enormously expensive services, such as major surgeries or long-term hospital stays, so we do not lose everything if we incur a serious injury or illness.
You might feel like high-deductible plans are a rip-off at first if you are used to small co-pays because you will have to pay the full cost of everything until you meet your deductible. However, you may be surprised to discover that the cost of most doctor visits are not much higher than the co-pays, and chances are you will come out ahead.
If you do go with a high-deductible plan, be sure to also sign up for a Health Savings Account (HSA) if your plan qualifies for it. An HSA allows you to make tax-deductible contributions up to a certain limit each year. Then you can take tax-free distributions from your HSA to pay for qualified medical expenses.
Capstone Capital does not issue medical insurance.
