The same day we applied for coverage from the site (Wednesday of this week) my wife came home with her new insurance package from her employer. We casually looked it over to see if anything had changed. Low and behold they were offering a very low priced bronze plan that seemed affordable even on our low income. For a mere $93 every two weeks we could have coverage for our family of three, looking at this quickly we thought hmmm take home is about $875 every two weeks sooo would we be ok somewhere just south of $800 every paycheck? You know we do poor well and this only a temporary situation until I am able to work, or my wife gets paid her worth (or maybe sell our kid to the gypsies.... I heard there is a website for that.) After much thought discussion and quick google of the gypsy site we decided we could do it,....... would be a stretch but we could do it.
Let me insert at this point we manage our money well, we have slow internet, no cable T.V. no iphones, one vehicle with no payments, we don't go out and eat ever, no movies, no net flicks in fact nothing extra at all. This is not a poor us moment in fact we do poor very well. We buy fresh produce, cook at home as family make our own everything like bread, ketchup and etc. We have found it fun figuring out what we really truly need as a family then finding if we can make it, and if not, how can we get it on the cheap without ski masks being involved.
So now back to it, once we realized we could afford it we breathed a huge sigh of relief, grabbing some coffee we started reading the plan. That relief turned to shock then the shock, I hate to admit anger... This coverage, if you can call it that, was set up to pay 60% of medical costs, not great but ok, one annual wellness visit per year, that part is nice, some discounts on drugs, ( sadly not the type I was contemplating after reading the rest of the plan), and um....well... that's it. Oh yeah and there is a $6,000 deductible. So here is what the plan means in real dollars to us. We can each go to a doctor once a year for free, get some discounts if they give us pills... and that's it, UNTIL we pay the insurance company $6,000. There is no copay for doctors, labs, specialist or any at all, nada, none. OK so if we were all the picture of health this may be ok. But we are in the situation because I crashed, they are still trying to to figure out why my stem cells seem to be compromised and that means lots of doctors, specialists, tests labs and even hospital visits, ergo why our savings is wiped out.
OK so if I am reading this right we have to pay $6,000 or about 22% of our GROSS income, and if we budget that over the year and pay $500 at the first of each month and pay our premiums every two weeks we would have to shell out a smidgen over $8,400 or over 30% of our annual GROSS household income before our "affordable" insurance will even pay ONE CENT TOWARD ANYTHING other than the one wellness visit per person and some drug discounts. Nothing for doctors visits, labs, tests, specialists or anything else. Sooooo unless we spend between 22% to 30% of our gross annual income we have really no help from our insurance company at all. No bueno. I don't know about the rest of the working poor but shelling out 22% of our gross annual so we can just get help going to a see a doctor is a non starter. Again if all we needed was one visit a year for a quick oil change and look under the hood we would be fine. That is not the case for us and I would imagine lots of other folks. Thank God I have options on the new Health Care Marketplace Right?
Let me insert at this point we manage our money well, we have slow internet, no cable T.V. no iphones, one vehicle with no payments, we don't go out and eat ever, no movies, no net flicks in fact nothing extra at all. This is not a poor us moment in fact we do poor very well. We buy fresh produce, cook at home as family make our own everything like bread, ketchup and etc. We have found it fun figuring out what we really truly need as a family then finding if we can make it, and if not, how can we get it on the cheap without ski masks being involved.
So now back to it, once we realized we could afford it we breathed a huge sigh of relief, grabbing some coffee we started reading the plan. That relief turned to shock then the shock, I hate to admit anger... This coverage, if you can call it that, was set up to pay 60% of medical costs, not great but ok, one annual wellness visit per year, that part is nice, some discounts on drugs, ( sadly not the type I was contemplating after reading the rest of the plan), and um....well... that's it. Oh yeah and there is a $6,000 deductible. So here is what the plan means in real dollars to us. We can each go to a doctor once a year for free, get some discounts if they give us pills... and that's it, UNTIL we pay the insurance company $6,000. There is no copay for doctors, labs, specialist or any at all, nada, none. OK so if we were all the picture of health this may be ok. But we are in the situation because I crashed, they are still trying to to figure out why my stem cells seem to be compromised and that means lots of doctors, specialists, tests labs and even hospital visits, ergo why our savings is wiped out.
OK so if I am reading this right we have to pay $6,000 or about 22% of our GROSS income, and if we budget that over the year and pay $500 at the first of each month and pay our premiums every two weeks we would have to shell out a smidgen over $8,400 or over 30% of our annual GROSS household income before our "affordable" insurance will even pay ONE CENT TOWARD ANYTHING other than the one wellness visit per person and some drug discounts. Nothing for doctors visits, labs, tests, specialists or anything else. Sooooo unless we spend between 22% to 30% of our gross annual income we have really no help from our insurance company at all. No bueno. I don't know about the rest of the working poor but shelling out 22% of our gross annual so we can just get help going to a see a doctor is a non starter. Again if all we needed was one visit a year for a quick oil change and look under the hood we would be fine. That is not the case for us and I would imagine lots of other folks. Thank God I have options on the new Health Care Marketplace Right?
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