Post by Tim Collins on Jul 1, 2009 6:18:24 GMT -7
I have been crunching numbers lately regarding Health Insurance Costs. I was surprised by what I found. If you have a health care plan that you pay out of your pocket, you might want to do the math for your self. In my case, on a purely cash flow basis, it looks like I should join the ranks of the unisured.
Let me share some numbers that illustrate why I am seriously considering dumping my health insurance.
In 2008 my total spend on Health Care was $12,560.17 broken out as follows:
Private Health Insurance Premiums $8,892.02 (dependents only)
Cash payments to Health Care Professionals $ 815.12
Cash Payments for prescription drugs $1,159.26
Medicare Payments/Taxes $ 930.90
Medicaid Estimate $ 487.44
Thomason Hospital Tax $ 275.43
I am more than willing to remove the cost of Medicare, Medicaid and Thomason Hospital, which in my mind serve a purpose other than my own care – for now. Also, I have no choice but to pay these taxes. In the case of Medicare and Medicaid, neither any of my dependents or I qualify to use these government insurance programs. In the case of Medicare, we are too young. In the case of Medicaid, I make too much and my son is not old enough to qualify for any support related to his disability.
Honestly, I am happy to support these programs financially because I recognize the shared responsibility we all have to care for those most needy among us. Yes even the non-citizens, when it comes to providing health services, I do not think citizenship matters. Heal the sick and worry about citizenship when health is restored. For the same reason I do not argue about providing financial support for Thomason Hospital. Public Hospitals and medical facilities help fulfill our duty to provide for the weakest or least “powerful” in our society.
So adjusting for those costs, and excluding the $4,800.00 my employer paid for my own coverage, I’m left with a total cost of $10,866.40. What did I get for my money?
In theory, Health Insurance helps reduce my cost for medical care, but did it really? I’m not so sure.
During the year my wife and son had a total of 12 appointments with doctors or for lab work, for which we paid $815.12 or an average $70.93 per month to be seen by a Health Care Professional. So far so good, that sounds like a good deal to me. Those co-pays and negotiated charges seem to have worked.
We also spent $1,974.38 on prescription medicines. I don’t have the number of prescriptions, so using 12 months we spent about $164.43 per month. That is a lot of money every month anyway you look at it, but what can you do, the medicine is needed.
So what am I complaining about – everything seems fair right?
Not really. Remember I am paying $8,892.02 in premiums to get these discounts. That’s $741.00 per month. So what are my savings per month?
Well from personal experience with my son’s specialist physician, when she did not accept insurance plans, her normal charge for an office visit was $125.00. His primary care physician charged $130.00 per visit. Let’s say all the physicians are charging $130.00 per visit. So without Insurance we would have paid $1,560.00 for our 12 visits instead of $815.12, a savings of $744.88.
On the pharmacy charges part of the accounting, the Insurance companies tell me what I saved on every prescription receipt. Looking at the full year of prescription charges my health insurer proudly proclaims it saved me $4,552.68. That sounds like a deal, pay $1,159.26 and get $5,711.94 worth of prescription drugs.
Let’s add up the cost of the same medical care if I did not have insurance:
Cash payments to Health Care Professionals $1,560.00
Cash Payments for prescription drugs $5,711.94
Total cost: $7,271.94 or $605.99 per month, versus $741.00 per month in Health Insurance Premiums.
Looks like I could save $135.01 a month by dropping the health insurance and not taking any other action. That’s at least two fancy dinners out for the three of us each month, or a couple of trips to Western Playland with my son (he loves roller coasters) instead of the rare occasions these events are right now.
If I really do some homework, I bet I can even do better. Don’t Wal-Mart and almost every major drug store chain offer reduced cost prescription plans? I bet with some smart shopping I could reduce the cost of my prescriptions by at least 50%, after all the insurance company claims they are saving me 80%. That would save me $238 a month. What if I also reduce the number of office visits to nine instead of twelve. That saves me an additional $32.50 per month. Add it all up and now I’m saving $405.51. Now in addition to a nice dinner and trips to Western Playland, we can think about a real vacation, or a new car or actually saving some money for a rainy day. We might even be able to afford some catastrophic health insurance just in case.
What value do HEALTH insurance companies add to the delivery/availability of health care? It’s beginning to look like the answer for me is – not much.
The question I need to answer is - can I live with the insecurity being uninsured can bring?
Let me share some numbers that illustrate why I am seriously considering dumping my health insurance.
In 2008 my total spend on Health Care was $12,560.17 broken out as follows:
Private Health Insurance Premiums $8,892.02 (dependents only)
Cash payments to Health Care Professionals $ 815.12
Cash Payments for prescription drugs $1,159.26
Medicare Payments/Taxes $ 930.90
Medicaid Estimate $ 487.44
Thomason Hospital Tax $ 275.43
I am more than willing to remove the cost of Medicare, Medicaid and Thomason Hospital, which in my mind serve a purpose other than my own care – for now. Also, I have no choice but to pay these taxes. In the case of Medicare and Medicaid, neither any of my dependents or I qualify to use these government insurance programs. In the case of Medicare, we are too young. In the case of Medicaid, I make too much and my son is not old enough to qualify for any support related to his disability.
Honestly, I am happy to support these programs financially because I recognize the shared responsibility we all have to care for those most needy among us. Yes even the non-citizens, when it comes to providing health services, I do not think citizenship matters. Heal the sick and worry about citizenship when health is restored. For the same reason I do not argue about providing financial support for Thomason Hospital. Public Hospitals and medical facilities help fulfill our duty to provide for the weakest or least “powerful” in our society.
So adjusting for those costs, and excluding the $4,800.00 my employer paid for my own coverage, I’m left with a total cost of $10,866.40. What did I get for my money?
In theory, Health Insurance helps reduce my cost for medical care, but did it really? I’m not so sure.
During the year my wife and son had a total of 12 appointments with doctors or for lab work, for which we paid $815.12 or an average $70.93 per month to be seen by a Health Care Professional. So far so good, that sounds like a good deal to me. Those co-pays and negotiated charges seem to have worked.
We also spent $1,974.38 on prescription medicines. I don’t have the number of prescriptions, so using 12 months we spent about $164.43 per month. That is a lot of money every month anyway you look at it, but what can you do, the medicine is needed.
So what am I complaining about – everything seems fair right?
Not really. Remember I am paying $8,892.02 in premiums to get these discounts. That’s $741.00 per month. So what are my savings per month?
Well from personal experience with my son’s specialist physician, when she did not accept insurance plans, her normal charge for an office visit was $125.00. His primary care physician charged $130.00 per visit. Let’s say all the physicians are charging $130.00 per visit. So without Insurance we would have paid $1,560.00 for our 12 visits instead of $815.12, a savings of $744.88.
On the pharmacy charges part of the accounting, the Insurance companies tell me what I saved on every prescription receipt. Looking at the full year of prescription charges my health insurer proudly proclaims it saved me $4,552.68. That sounds like a deal, pay $1,159.26 and get $5,711.94 worth of prescription drugs.
Let’s add up the cost of the same medical care if I did not have insurance:
Cash payments to Health Care Professionals $1,560.00
Cash Payments for prescription drugs $5,711.94
Total cost: $7,271.94 or $605.99 per month, versus $741.00 per month in Health Insurance Premiums.
Looks like I could save $135.01 a month by dropping the health insurance and not taking any other action. That’s at least two fancy dinners out for the three of us each month, or a couple of trips to Western Playland with my son (he loves roller coasters) instead of the rare occasions these events are right now.
If I really do some homework, I bet I can even do better. Don’t Wal-Mart and almost every major drug store chain offer reduced cost prescription plans? I bet with some smart shopping I could reduce the cost of my prescriptions by at least 50%, after all the insurance company claims they are saving me 80%. That would save me $238 a month. What if I also reduce the number of office visits to nine instead of twelve. That saves me an additional $32.50 per month. Add it all up and now I’m saving $405.51. Now in addition to a nice dinner and trips to Western Playland, we can think about a real vacation, or a new car or actually saving some money for a rainy day. We might even be able to afford some catastrophic health insurance just in case.
What value do HEALTH insurance companies add to the delivery/availability of health care? It’s beginning to look like the answer for me is – not much.
The question I need to answer is - can I live with the insecurity being uninsured can bring?