Sooooo today I gave myself a raise...kinda. Anytime I can make a significant deduction to my out of pocket expenses I like to think of it in a positive way instead of a "deduction".
Our health insurance, which was a great one, is no longer an option. So today Johnathan (I sit next to him) and I ran numbers on the high deductible plan that is being offered against the new regular insurance that is being offered.
If...
the baby goes to the hospital again this year and it costs $9000 again I will save $20
I break my ankle and have surgery like Angie S. and it costs $36,000 I will pay an additional $600
we both go to our well visits (free), our eye exams (free) and we each catch something that requires urgent care I will pay $75 per urgent care visit but save $2680 if we stay healthy.
Citi will give me $1000 for the high deductible plan in a saving spending plan. I can use that money towards urgent care visits, contacts, dental work or any over the counter meds I need for colds. For infections, both of us respond well to Amoxicillin which is on Wal-Mart's $4 prescription drug chart. I will save and additional $1680 in premiums for the other plan which was a big step down from what I have now. So I am starting the year $2680 ahead of the game, we'll see if that was a good or bad decision as the year progresses.
I am canceling some other stuff too so I can rebuild my car fund. I'll save $1000 in down payments for Oct that I've already paid and the 2K I would of spent. I am canceling netflix which I was using for movies for Natalie. But dummy me realized that the Disney channel is commercial free and we still own a VCR. I'll tape a bunch of saturday mornings and not pay $19 a month $228 per year. I am also canceling the internet option on my phone I've had for a couple of months to save $14 a month (no great loss there, I get 2 websites on it) for a total of $168 a year. So I'm up to $6076 in planned expenses that I've cut for 2009 including the health thing above. Wish me luck, hopefully I'll be able to stick with everything!
2 comments:
on insurance, just wondering. Have you thought of going private? Might be able to negogiate with your company to pay for private insurance for you and natalie. G and I are under 200 a month for major medical with a co-pay and other stuff. Might be worth just a look see.
The high deductible feels like self insurance in that I only pay $22 a month. A plan through my car insurance people was $550 a month eeck! Since they are so big they don't do one on one negotiations with things like health insurance. We have 5 options, and everyone in the US has the same options to drive down costs. I guess we'll see what happens!
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