Unsurance
Since my grad school insurance is up in August, am looking around for health insurance for thereafter. I tried ehealthinsurance.com, but they make you apply for a plan before finding out whether you get approved, and the fee you’re quoted is “subject to change.” If you’re accepted, they begin charging you right away. If you withdraw your application, you can be charged an “application fee.” Personally, as with loans, I’d like to find out if I’m approvable and what the final fee will be before I do that.
So I’m beginning the slow process of researching plans company by company. Today it was Regence, and I discovered just how much it costs to get old. Funny, you’re not supposed to discriminate based on sex, race, religion, and sexuality, but ageism? That’s cool.
Have you looked at the medical savings account in combination with catastrophic insurance? My friend Sid (not Foster) is a giant fan of that route, and on the surface at least, seems like a good idea.
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That#39;s an interesting concept. The problem I#39;m aware of with catastrophic insurance is that it covers, say, hospitalization for illness, but not more serious and expensive stuff like a cancer diagnosis or any condition that requires extensive lab work, medication, and outpatient treatment. So you still get kind of screwed. br /br /Seems like an HSA account would help that, but don#39;t you lose money in HSAs if you don#39;t use it? I don#39;t know. I#39;ll look into it.
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HSAs are like IRAs: you can contribute every year and it#39;s tax-free as long as you use it correctly. Cafeteria plans expire each year and you lose whatever you have not used.
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