health insurance question

[nickbits]

I wouldn't skimp on health insurance. I am a "healthy 31 year old" and was in the hospital last december. My bill was about $70,000.

 

[yuchai]

I thought that was use it or lose it every year?

HSA funds are always yours to keep (even if funds were contributed by your employer), unlike HRA and FSA funds.

You can use HSA funds to pay for eligible medical expenses, tax free. I think you can even use it for non-medical expenses (maybe after a certain age), but then you definitely pay taxes on that money and maybe incur a penalty.

 

[mundane]

..

 

[ViviTheMage]

Interesting, any advice as to what sort of plan I should look at? What are some normal numbers?

 

[yuchai]

HDHPs also usually cover preventive services like routine physicals at 100% (forgot whether it's required). It really is quite attractive for young, healthy individuals as it gives you the catastrophic coverage protection, and also gives you the opportunity to actually save some money for future expenses while you're healthy.

OP - I'm not too familiar with the individual marketplace, but based on the amount you're contributing on your employer's plan, my guess is that you can't get decent coverage on your own for that money. You can certainly re-evaluate your options again if your employer decides to significantly increase your costs over the next few years.

 

[Patranus]

What makes you say that?

Well, for starters, the health care plan mandates that all plans cover X, Y, and Z at ZERO cost to the consumer.

 

[BoomerD]

$125/month? STFU and quit whining...

Just wait till you get into your 50's...right now, shitty coverage...high deductible, high co-pay insurance is over $1000/month for my wife & I...

 

[the DRIZZLE]

You are not going to come out ahead on this. Right now your employer is paying $400+ per month for your insurance. They aren't going to put anything toward a HDHP + HSA. HDHP is only a good option if you are paying the full cost of your insurance anyway or if your employer offers it as an option and puts money toward it. When you compare an employer subsidized health plan to an unsubsidized plan the subsidized plan is almost always going to look better.

 

[ViviTheMage]

$125/month? STFU and quit whining...

Just wait till you get into your 50's...right now, shitty coverage...high deductible, high co-pay insurance is over $1000/month for my wife & I...

Just looking at my options, not whining.

 

[blinblue]

I'm a healthy 21 male and I have a high deductible plan ($5200) for $47/month from a private insurer. Everything past $5200 is 100% covered. Get to participate in the HSA which is an awesome thing, especially if you have prescription costs. Basically its an IRA that you can always (even if you stop your insurance plan) take money out for medical expenses (some non-prescription meds are no longer valid oddly), and upon retirement it acts just like a regular IRA.

Maxing out Roth IRA, IRA and HSA is great way to invest for retirement

 

[ViviTheMage]

That is pretty much I what I want to do, I am going to wait for HR to let me know if they'll do these sort of plans or not.

 

[Bignate603]

I wouldn't skimp on health insurance. I am a "healthy 31 year old" and was in the hospital last december. My bill was about $70,000.

Yeah, my wife and I are both active, healthy, and in our 20's but we still had an issue this year that racked up a huge bill last year. My wife started having debilitating stomach pain and we couldn't figure out why. After more than $30k of testing to make sure it wasn't any of the scary stuff (mostly different kinds of cancers) they were able to conclude that her digestive tract had just gotten sensitive to a few kinds of foods. Because of insurance we paid about $2k.