It’s a new year and one of my resolutions is to give this woefully neglected blog a little more attention. So what have I decided to write about on this auspicious kick off you ask? Well I’ve decided to write about:
The shiny new health insurance policy we have been blessed with this year. My employer, and in their defense this is a national trend, has switched us to a HSA/High deductible plan. It saves a little on your premium, it saves a lot on the company’s premium, and you can save up for when you get sick since the HSA or “health savings account” can roll over into next year if you don’t use it. This sounds good right? We’re pretty healthy, well here comes the sticker shock. Since you will be paying 100% of the first $3000 you might be surprised to find out that the doctor visit is between $60 and $90. Multiply that times how ever many are in your family and it adds up fast. Now just suppose you need a prescription every month, thyroid around $160 per month, suppose you have a child with ADD, $330 per month, suppose you have more than one. You’ll burn through that $3000 pretty fast this year…and next year and the year after.
The move to shift health care costs off of employers is national, and I can’t say it’s bad, but the shift to the employee is awful. I can afford this, or at least it won’t break me, but what about all the people just getting by? Obamacare was supposed to fix this but it seems like it just made it OK for employers to shift the costs faster. Wages are stagnant, costs are going up, this system is going to crash and crash hard. The sad part is it doesn’t have to be this way.
