Our monthly health premiums keep increasing each year even though my husband and I have not had a pay increase for over 3 years. So this means our income decreases each year because of this.
I have type 1 diabetes and I am on the insulin pump. Our monthly premium is now $1100 a month for family plan with $40 copays for the doctor.
Our family just can’t survive another hike in our insurance. It is getting really hard to make ends meet.
Next year if there is an increase we may not be able to afford health insurance. That scares me!
That is $1100 a month our family could use for a lot of other things. We don’t even have cell phones because we can’t afford them. We need the money for our health insurance.
I agree, that is a scary proposition. One thing that might help would be to raise your deductible. This would mean you would most likely pay more out of pocket when you or a family member visits the Dr., but it would also reduce your premium.
Also, you might try and shop around a bit for something more competitive, but I kind of doubt you will find something cheaper…
Sorry to hear this, Insurance causes a lot of stress yet we all have to have it.
Do you own your own business or work for a small company?
I think your rates are higher than what someone would pay as an employee at a large firm. It looks like you are getting little to no employer subsidy perhaps? or you purchased your own policy.
You may need to change employers (sorry, I know that sucks) or see if your state offers a high risk insurance pool.
We are in the same position. Our premiums just went up to $1025 per month. Plus we have a $6000 deductible. So we still have to pay all doctors, lab, Rx’s until we hit that $6000. We have thought about dropping the insurance and just paying as we go. I even checked into the high risk pool and that would cost my husband and I almost $1500 per month plus you have to be uninsured for 6 months. So we are between a rock and a hard place.
I’m not sure where you purchase your health insurance from, but those premiums seem pretty high for group health insurance, so I’m guessing you’re either getting it from an employer that’s a small business, or that you’re purchasing it on your own. If you’re getting insurance through your job, it might be worth looking into getting it from your husband’s job (or vice versa), but I’m assuming you’ve already looked into that as well. The only other things I can think of to mention, that other’s haven’t already are these:
1.Depending on your income level, you or other members of your family may be eligible for New York Medicaid (your profile said you lived in NY), which I’ve heard is actually pretty good coverage. Also check out your state’s high risk or pre-existing condition insurance pool. I participated in one of those once, and it was considerably less than 1100 a month!
2. If you need help figuring out what your options are based on where you live and your personal situation, I’d suggest starting by checking out healthcare.gov and then look at the “Find Insurance Options” tab.
3. Call/contact your state’s insurance health insurance office and explain your situation to them and see if they have any advice to offer. Here’s a link to that: http://www.ins.state.ny.us/chealth.htm
4. If you are currently being seen through a larger hospital-based clinic, those hospital systems might have a medical social worker on hand that you can ask to speak to the next time you’re there. They may be able to offer advice for your situation or put you in touch with resources specific to your area. Some medical social workers do stuff like that, others don’t, so that may or may not be an option for you.
I’ve been uninsured before for quite a long stretch, and it is a total hassle, but it can be done successfully. I had to go off the pump to do it, but I made it through until I was able to get insurance through my job. Good luck and feel free to reach out or ask questions, a lot of us have been in very similar situations before and we’re all here to help each other navigate through the awesomeness that is diabetes.
My husband is the one with the health insurance through his employer. He works for a small private school and they are paying for little of the monthly premiums. A family plan is $1300 if I just went to the health insurance company and paid it myself. So his employer is paying about $200 of the premium and we are paying the other $1100.
They do not pool together with other private/independent schools to get a better rate. My husband has complained about this to the business manager at this school, but nothing has changed.
He needs to find another job with better benefits. He has until the end of the year or else we could possibly be without health insurance next year because we can’t afford the premiums!
My husband is the one who gets his health insurance through his employer. I work 30 hours a week at my job and there is no health insurance.
He works for a small private school. The rates are the same as if we went to our health insurance company and paid them out of our pocket. The school is only paying $200 of the $1300 monthly premium.
We make too much money to qualify for public assistance. Unless we get a divorce, then we would not be married anymore and the kids and I could qualify for Family Health Plus on my income alone. Maybe that’s an idea! Just get divorced so that he is a single person on his companies plan.
Pretty desperate measures to be able to afford health insurance. Or we could move to Canada!
I can’t tell you how many times my husband and I have threatened to move to Canada. Or Norway. Also, I have definitely taken jobs and changed jobs and left jobs I loved because of the health insurance they offer (or didn’t offer) before. I know that is hard to do in the current job market, and I don’t know if that’s anything either of you have considered doing, but it is also an option, although a pretty crappy option and if the world were fair and just we wouldn’t ever have to consider doing that. Hang in there!
My husband and I are self employed so we have to buy individual insurance. When we first started our company we joined a huge trade organization called COSE which groups small businesses together to get cheaper insurance. At the time we were both 50 and my husband was a Type 2 with high BP. I hadn’t been dx’d yet. We filled out all the forms and they sent us the cost for several policies for a family plan. The plan close to what we had had before where they basically cover everything for a $15 co pay was $3300 per month. I thought I was reading it wrong. For a high deductible HSA they wanted $1500 per month. So grouping together with other companies didn’t do us any good. We finally called an insurance broker and she found us a plan for $600 per month. Of course each year the premium goes up and now it is over $1000 a month, now. You could check with an insurance broker and see if you could find an Health Saving Account, high deductible for cheaper and then spend the extra toward your deductible. We are allowed to put $5800 a year in our HSA, tax free each year. It rolls over from year to year, so you can use it for medical emergencies or Rx’s or other medical expences.
I know someone who is 25 years old and a T1 and his mom is a T1. He doesn’t have health insurance, so his mother and him share their pump supplies. Maybe she is able to get more, so they can share them.
Our health insurance costs are approaching our monthly mortgage payment. $1100 a month plus co-pays = at least $1200-$1300 a month.
Every year I cringe when the rate increases come out for our health insurance.
I am not sure we are going to be able to pay them next year. If we go with a high deductible plan, then our monthly premiums would be lower but where am I going to come up with $350 for insulin or $300 for a endocronoligst appointment out of my pocket until I reach the $6000 deductible.
I think you are right, if your hubby is open to it, it might be best if he finds a larger school district to join. It sucks that our insurance benefits are tied to our employers and really out of our control!!! But, there are distinct benefits in being covered by a group plan vs. buying one on your own. I hate it that it is set up this way. I hope you guys are able to find something else.
Or Norway.