We're a young family of 5 who pay our own healthcare insurance out of pocket because I'm self employed. We scrape together the money each month to buy decent healthcare insurance because any injury to me, a pregnancy or even a single trip to the ER could bankrupt us. We sparringly use it but know we are shut out of care without it.

Today we got notice that premiums are going up for next year. Guess they waited for the elections to be over. Not a little, but a lot. Roughly about 200-250% increase in costs per month plus extra co fees and etc.

For my wife and me, I'm thinking of trying to keep the plans and pay because we will be shut out of care if I get injured working or she has another baby. My kids? Do we just give in and get medical assistance? I literally want to cry saying that.

I'm lost please help me think out options.

OP here

Thank you for the reply, was just reading through it.

How are you treated then saying to a dr or specialist you are "self pay" or "cash?" I guess my understanding would be they wouldn't want to take that patient for fear of nonpayment.

When prescribed medicines (such as asthma, breathing meds) how can those be cash paid when the cost of a single inhaler can be $50

Every provider is different as far as what they think about self-pay patients. In my (limited) experience, I tell them that I'll pay cash and they give me a reduction to what I believe is a fair price. For example, the place I've gone to for ultrasounds has a set cash price that is about 1/3 of their insurance price. But, that only works for smaller bills where you can afford to pay cash and wait (4 months) for reimbursement.

What CHM recommends is that you take the time to explain to the provider a little about how they work. The provider's biggest concern is getting paid, so if they know that they WILL get paid and don't have to look at you like a huge liability, they can offer you a fair price. If you're not comfortable handling these sorts of "negotiations", CHM has a department specifically for arranging discounts and payments with providers. They really prefer to be involved with larger bills such as hospitals as they often will get reductions of 50% or more off of the billed rates.

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Prescriptions. Generally speaking, you're on your own for routine prescriptions. They give all members a Rx discount card, but we have no routine prescriptions, so I don't know how beneficial that card is. I've read a few testimonials which say they saved significantly with the card, but I have no personal experience with this. If the Rx is related to a medical event that is paid for by the group, then the Rx costs will be shared as well (if you're a gold member which is the $150/unit/month level).

If you have significant routine medical expenses, you'll want to factor that in as you're comparing costs between your options. CHM is for medical incidents (over $500) and not for routine medical expenses.