Hello members of Cathinfo, I need some advice please. My wife and are looking for a private health insurance for our family, but are also considering remaining cash paying patients. We are both in our early 40's and have 3 kids under 5 yrs and rarely visit the doctor. We live in California and I am self employed with modest income. If you were in my situation, would you shop for and insurance or continue paying out of pocket when necessary? If having private insurance is better, are there insurance that are Catholic or does it matter? I would like to know your thoughts, I've notice almost all members are very knowledgeable on the forum. Thank you very much.
In theory, being "self insured" would work.
HOWEVER, the reality is that our salaries are priced in pennies, and medical procedures are priced in 10s of dollars.
Imagine a group of 3 dozen children with 30 pennies each, trading with each other for different things, buying and selling trinkets, beads, pinecones, cups of lemonade. Now imagine one of them wanted to sell enough pinecones or beads to buy a NEW CAR for $30,000. Would it be possible? no. The two economies are not on the same scale; one is orders of magnitude more than the other. One of those children could get ALL the other kids' pennies and STILL not be able to afford to buy a new car.
That's what healthcare is like. Normal people can save $50 here, $100 there, maybe even a few thousand here or there from the yearly IRS refund. But a single procedure can be $30,000, or $50,000, or even $500,000.
All the frugality and hard work in the world isn't going to be enough for one major operation or extended hospital stay. It's screwed up, yes, but Healthcare is not on the same scale as the average person's income or savings. In short, it's impossible to self-insure. Unless your income is over $500,000 a year AND you can manage to save a huge chunk of that.
Hence, you NEED at least catastrophic or Major Medical insurance, to cover those potential astronomical hospital bills. And no one can know what lies in their future. We all have frail bodies post-Fall, and even if you're healthy in your 20's that might not continue into your 60's. Know what I mean?
How many people own their own home free-and-clear in their 20s? That's only $100K, or $200K. Heck, most people don't even own their cars outright, and cars can be had for $3K to $20K. How could they ever expect to pay astronomical hospital bills out-of-pocket, from their savings? Some operations, hospital stays, and treatments cost MUCH MORE than a house.
Topic: Health Insurance Advice (Read 10663 times)