Health Insurance

I hate dealing with insurance. When you pay a premium, you are betting that you will need to make a claim. With health insurance, you are betting that you are going to get sick!

About eight years ago, I bought a policy with Fortis, one of the world\’s largest banking and insurance companies. At that time, we decided that all we needed was a major medical policy. So we choose a $2500 per person deductible and ended up with a premium of $191/month.

Since then, the rates have increased annually. Our agent would send us a nice little letter telling us that in order to continue providing \”excellent service\”, a small rate increase would be taking place when our policy renewed. In the beginnning, it really was a small increase. I think it jumped $20 the first year.

Last year, our premium rose to $465/month. I just received the friendly renewal letter telling me our premium was set to rise to $590/month! Yikes!

That was the last straw. It is time to search for a new policy.

A friend referred me to an agent representing Blue Cross/Blue Shield. He visited with us yesterday and we have already filled out the application. We raised our deductible to $5000 per person/year. After all, we are hoping we never have to use it, but in case of a major catastrophe, we wouldn\’t have to go bankrupt.

Our new premium will be $260/month. And it is my understand that the new Health Savings Account policies will allow us to achieve an even lower premium with tax deductible status. I am still looking into this option.

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