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Health Insurance Question(/Rant)
Does anyone else have an individual insurance plan? (As in, not one provided by your/your spouse's workplace.)
Apparently I'm a moron, because I didn't realize that in order to get any coverage through my drug plan, I have to meet my general plan deductible -- $5000. HOLYFREAKINGMOLY. There's no way I'm willing to wait to reach that insane amount before they shell out a little help on basics like birth control.
Right now I think I'm going to switch to a different plan (but stay with my current provider, Scott & White) that has an almost identical monthly premium ($215 for medical/rx/dental, in comparison to my current $209) but a much more reasonable RX deductible of $200. This is kind of my 'cut your losses' solution, since switching contracts will wipe out the amounts that I've already paid towards my current deductible. Uuuugh. *watches money burn*
Anyway, since I obviously don't feel like I made a great choice the first time around, I'm opening this up for y'alls input. Heeeeeeelp.
Re: Health Insurance Question(/Rant)
We looked into individual insurance plans when DH was unemployed after finishing grad school (and my job doesn't offer benefits). The long and the short of it was we couldn't afford it. The deductibles were so high and we are generally healthy - so we risked it for about 8 months with no insurance at all. DH went for (an incredible) 6 years with no insurance. Not that I would suggest it... but the prices are hard to swallow.
We were most concerned about an unplanned pregnancy and the prices/rules for maternity coverage were scary. Some of them wouldn't cover a pregnancy within the first year of enrollment, etc.
I don't have any advice other than really ask a lot of questions! I know I'm biased - because my dad is an agent... but agents can be a great resource to help you compare/contrast different companies and their coverage plans.
Good luck!
"The House We Built."
A journey of building the dream.
I'm pretty certain that my insurance does not have a waiting period for maternity coverage (thank goodness -- not TTC, but things can happen), so that's one good thing at least. One of these days I probably will switch over to using an insurance agent, since there is so much information out there that is difficult to know where to begin. We were without insurance for about 6 months after we got married, but felt that the risk was too high to warrant continuing that way.
Planned Parenthood actually used to be my clinic of choice since it's so much more affordable, but unfortunately I've had some bad reactions with the several of birth controls they had prescribed for me. [This may be TMI but...] Apparently I don't handle the combination pills well (increased blood pressure, fluid retention, etc), but the mini pills (progestin only) have caused my periods to stop altogether. DH and I really do want to be able to have children at some point in the future, so I felt like my only responsible option was to actually get established with a PCP and follow his suggestions to figure out my healthiest option.
After talking it over with DH last night, he thinks that I should go ahead and change my contract to the better plan, even though we'll have to start over on my deductibles. I have a feeling that getting changed over is going to be a bit of a hassle...