Do your health insurance premiums make sense?
Posted by Sharon Nuttall on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 Under: Premiums
Everybody complains about them but most don't do anything about them. I'm talking about health insurance premiums.
When was the last time you ran the numbers to see if what you're paying makes sense for your situation?
If you're dealing with major illness and have been in and out of the hospital and are receiving ongoing treatments, by all means, stay with what you have. You're most likely getting WAY more than your money's worth! (Which brings me to a question for a whole other day: why do people complain about NOT getting their money's worth from their health insurance? But I digress.)
Fortunately (from a personal health perspective), most people are in the "paying more than they need to" category. Even some of my clients, although I do my best not to have that happen. (First rule of sales: you have to give people what they want, not what you think they need, or in this case, don't need.)
Recently, I had a call from a young woman whose family's premium had recently gone to over $2000 a month, which gives me a headache just to think about! As many people do, they had bought their plan a number of years ago and had just adjusted their budget as they got hit with each rate increase.
The solution was absolutely simple and totally painless. Staying with the same company, we moved her to a $10,000 deductible HSA health plan. That deductible, by the way, is per family, so everyone's medical expenses go toward meeting it. The new premium? Just over $400/month!
Dollars saved? Over $19,000 per year! And that's not all...
She and her husband can put up to $6,150 tax-FREE into a health savings account each year. There's no requirement that they fully fund the health savings account of course (or even open one, for that matter). But if they do, depending on their income tax bracket, that can be in the range of an additional $2,000 saved in income taxes. (Of course, I'm no tax advisor so consult yours for details.)
I'm not the "Hey buddy, I can get it for ya' wholesale" type -- but I just LOVE when I can play with the numbers and save people money like that. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy...and those clients seem just a little pleased, too!
When was the last time you ran the numbers to see if what you're paying makes sense for your situation?
If you're dealing with major illness and have been in and out of the hospital and are receiving ongoing treatments, by all means, stay with what you have. You're most likely getting WAY more than your money's worth! (Which brings me to a question for a whole other day: why do people complain about NOT getting their money's worth from their health insurance? But I digress.)
Fortunately (from a personal health perspective), most people are in the "paying more than they need to" category. Even some of my clients, although I do my best not to have that happen. (First rule of sales: you have to give people what they want, not what you think they need, or in this case, don't need.)
Recently, I had a call from a young woman whose family's premium had recently gone to over $2000 a month, which gives me a headache just to think about! As many people do, they had bought their plan a number of years ago and had just adjusted their budget as they got hit with each rate increase.
The solution was absolutely simple and totally painless. Staying with the same company, we moved her to a $10,000 deductible HSA health plan. That deductible, by the way, is per family, so everyone's medical expenses go toward meeting it. The new premium? Just over $400/month!
Dollars saved? Over $19,000 per year! And that's not all...
She and her husband can put up to $6,150 tax-FREE into a health savings account each year. There's no requirement that they fully fund the health savings account of course (or even open one, for that matter). But if they do, depending on their income tax bracket, that can be in the range of an additional $2,000 saved in income taxes. (Of course, I'm no tax advisor so consult yours for details.)
I'm not the "Hey buddy, I can get it for ya' wholesale" type -- but I just LOVE when I can play with the numbers and save people money like that. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy...and those clients seem just a little pleased, too!
In : Premiums
Tags: "health savings account" hsa "lower premiums"
