Yesterday I received the list of charges for my emergency room visit earlier this month (for what was found to be a kidney stone). I added my best guess for what each of the charges were for:

Of course, this is just what was submitted to my insurance, not what I’m actually going to have to pay. My insurance company may have negotiated lower prices, and I have an overall maximum out-of-pocket cap of $1,200 per year. I estimate my eventual bill to be between $500 and $1,000. I guess no Costco Vizio LCD TV this year for Jonathan 😉 I’m still just happy to be living a pain-free life right now, and am keeping myself well hydrated.

Several people have asked me for some tips on how to find health insurance. I didn’t mean to scare anyone, but if my intense pain reminds someone to get insurance, at least something good came out of it! I did do some searching myself last year – the good news is that if you are young and in good health, you can get some high-deductible insurance for around $100 a month. The deductibles may still reach in the thousands, but $5,000 would be the least of your worries if you had just one serious incident. A reader got billed $3,075 for each CT scan taken!

Full-time Students
If your parents have family health insurance, you can usually remain covered under their plan until age 23 as long as you are a full-time student. For some states the age limit is even higher now. I know I did this as long as I could.

Otherwise, many universities will offer their own insurance package at a reduced cost. I knew someone over 40 who took a few units of community college every semester solely to qualify for the school’s cheap health coverage because it was cheap and took everyone regardless of pre-existing medical conditions. In my experience the quality of the plans varies wildly though, so I’d call around and compare first before signing up for rocks for jocks. I wonder if any online colleges are part of an affordable group plan?

Plans For Young Adults
A popular comparison site for health insurance is eHealthInsurance. I like it because they list a lot of the major insurers like Blue Cross Blue Shield, and you don’t have to give them your name or other personal information before seeing the plan’s specifics like monthly premium, deductible, and coinsurance percentage. They do require birth date and zip code. The quotes are usually for those in good health, so if you have pre-existing health problems the actual cost will be higher. Here are some sample results for a 28 year old male non-smoker in Oregon:

Cheapest:

Middle of the road: Lower deductible, higher monthly premium:

Another option to check out for those in CA, CO, GA, CT, NH, and NV is Tonik Health. It’s specifically for young hip folks (could they make the website any more tacky?), and they have plans starting from about $75 a month.

In certain states like Massachusetts, there may be special programs available directly from the state targeting young adults.

Otherwise, one might try a local independent insurance broker. (Yellow Pages?) I’ve never used one, but if you have specific needs or requests they might be able to better tailor a custom package. I did ask my State Farm insurance agent for a quote back when I was looking around, and it was pretty competitive.

This week was filled with wonderful firsts. I had:

• my first time cowering for an hour in the fetal position,
• my first emergency room visit,
• my first morphine shot,
• my first CT scan,
• …and my very first kidney stone!!

Ironically, I was just talking to a friend about how they planned to quit their corporate job and wander around the world for a while, working odd jobs like ski resort seasonal worker, bartender, or barista. Being the ever-practical geek, I pointed out that she should be sure to buy some health insurance or use COBRA. “I’ll just be real careful”, was the dreaded reply. Careful only gets you so far… (And I’m still waiting on my stone to pass!)

I haven’t gotten the hospital bill yet, but I’m sure it would be thousands of dollars without insurance. I’ll have to do the math and see if my decision to stay on my wife’s employer plan for $200 a month instead of going for the high-deductible HSA plan for $100-$150 per month was a good idea mathematically.

According to this PBS article Young Adults Fastest-Growing Group of Uninsured, the out-of-pocket costs can be pretty crazy:

Average day in hospital: $7,157
Burst appendix: $48,151
Fractured ankle, and a tib-fib fracture: $101,790

Geez, now I really want to see my bill.

Follow-up: Not being a homeowner, I may not have adequately expressed the importance of knowing what’s on your free CLUE report. For a better explanation, see this MSN article titled “Insurers keep a secret history of your home“. If they decide your house is high-risk, even if you don’t file a claim, finding homeowners insurance may become next to impossible. This is also something to be wary of when buying a house. Link via Consumerist.

Don’t tell your insurer about problems unless you’re sure you’ll file a claim. This last piece of advice is unfortunate, because insurers and insurance agents can be a decent source of counsel on whether it’s worth filing a claim. Since any damage you report could get passed on to the CLUE database, however, it’s smart now to err on the side of caution.

If you would like to know what the insurance companies are saying about you behind your back, you definitely want to get a free copy of your CLUE report. Short for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, it’s basically the insurance version of your credit report. In the past it used to cost you $20 a pop, but you can get it now for free courtesy of the FACT act, which also brought you free credit reports.

You get both a Personal Auto Report and Personal Property Report, which show how many insurance claims you’ve made on your car insurance and homeowner’s/renter’s insurance, respectively. Insurance companies use this data to decide your premiums, so you’ll want to clear up any mistakes right away as they are probably costing you money right now!
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Normally you’d think of getting life insurance for your dependents – your significant other, your kids, even your grandkids. But over at Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge, she’s single with no children, but still has a sizeable life insurance policy. The beneficiary? Her parents. In case something happens, she wants to be sure that her parents have some money to help them in their retirement in her place. They have no idea.

First, I was surprised. Then I felt guilty for never thinking of doing that myself. Then, I remembered that I really don’t have much of a policy for my wife either. Right now, since it’s just the wife and me, we each just have a $100,000 policy through work. Basically the logic is that if something happens to either of us, we are each still able to support ourselves and move on financially. (Plus I’m not allowed to go skydiving anymore.) But once there gets to be even a whiff of possible daiper duty, we planned on getting significant policies.
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Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) can be a great way for people to save money on health insurance, especially if you are young and healthy. I looked at compatible high-deductible plans last year but missed some deadlines, and need to start again. I found quotes online as low as $80 a month at eHealthInsurance, whereas I currently pay about $200 a month as part of my wife’s plan. I could even stay with the same company (BlueCross/BlueShield), just with different deductibles.

Now, HSAs are great mainly due to the fact that earnings grow tax-free, and when used for healthcare expenses withdrawals are tax-free too. (I list additional HSA pros and cons here). I think of it as a Health Roth IRA. Accordingly, the ideal way to take advantage of this is to max out the HSA (up to your deductible) when you are young, and not use it. You want to pay out-of-pocket now, and leave the HSA money in some mutual funds to compound away until retirement (when you’ll really need it).
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Did you know that they sell life insurance at the Taiwan airport? Big honking booths too. And people are buying it! Talk about preying on people’s fears. Especially considering that you’re much more likely to have died on your way to the airport than on the flight you’re about to take…