Finding Affordable Health Care | Saving Money on Insurance

Last Updated on August 21, 2020 by Ellen Christian

Marty and I have made it our goal to reduce our expenses a bit more this year. We tend to be fairly frugal at heart to begin with but there is always room for improvement. We have some home repairs and upgrades we want to make and in order to do that we need to tighten our belts a bit.  In November, we got the same notice you may have reminding us that it was open enrollment time for our insurance. That meant that it was time for us to look at our options when it comes to saving money on insurance. Did you know that almost 87% of health insurance exchange applicants saved $250 a month or more on their health insurance last year?

Finding Affordable Health Care | Saving Money on Insurance

Finding affordable health care is a priority for me for a few reasons. While we try very hard to live a healthy lifestyle, insurance isn’t something that I would ever feel comfortable without. Marty is disabled so we have frequent doctor’s visits and a number of monthly prescriptions. I’m 48 and while I’m in pretty good health, you never know what kind of unexpected medical expenses are going to pop up. My Mom just had to have gallbladder surgery and I know that wasn’t something that they were expecting to have to deal with.

Because Marty has regular doctors’ appointments and prescriptions, our insurance needs will be vastly different from someone who only visits the doctor when they’re sick and has no regular prescriptions.  Now is the time to do some research and find out what your insurance needs are for your family. Here are some tips that Marty and I used when we were evaluating our health insurance. Just go through each bullet and think about what you and your family need.

• Consider the types of doctors you visit regularly. Do you only go to your primary doctor or do you also see specialists? Think about things like pain management doctors, physical therapy, psychiatrists, podiatrists, eye doctors, etc. Look into what the co-pay is that you’ll need to pay for each visit. Consider what your deductible is for specialist care until you’ve hit the limit where your insurance company starts paying. What will this mean for your budget?
• How many prescriptions do you get regularly? Would you get a discount on generics? What is the co-pay with each and are their tiers depending on the medication? Will each prescription you need be covered by your insurance company? What is the deductible? Is your preferred pharmacy on the list of pharmacies that your insurance company works with? How far do you have to travel to find a preferred pharmacy?
• Is there a maximum out of pocket cost you’ll have to pay in case of catastrophic injuries? No one likes to think about that but what if it happens?
• Look for the value added services the insurance companies offer. Is there a free nurse help line when you just need to talk to someone or ask a simple question? Do they offer discounts at places like the health club or local pool?

I’m really glad we went through our options during open enrollment to see if there were ways we could save money. We found that one of our pharmacies was no longer in the network and found another pharmacy where we would save more money. Open enrollment is from January 15 to February 15 so you still have time to look into finding affordable health care and saving money on insurance costs.

This helpful video on open enrollment should answer any other questions that you have while you’re shopping for health care.

This post on finding affordable health care has been sponsored.

Ellen Christian

Ellen is a busy mom of a 24-year-old son and 29-year-old daughter. She owns six blogs and is addicted to social media. She believes that it doesn’t have to be difficult to lead a healthy life. She shares simple healthy living tips to show busy women how to lead fulfilling lives. If you’d like to work together, email info@confessionsofanover-workedmom.com to chat.