Having Insurance
Having insurance is definitely a pain. And I hate having to write the check every month (or every quarter) to the insurance company. But it’s one of those expenses that gets paid no matter what. It’s really nice to have when you need it. I’m very happy that I have had health insurance, even though my health insurance doesn’t cover anything remotely “alternative”. Over the past many years, I have been paying in and not really going to MDs enough to actually surpass my deductible. But it has been nice this year since I went in the hospital once before and then again for my surgery. And it covered all of my TPN (basically IV nutrition), and has so far covered all of my ostomy supplies for this year.
I know that next year it will be back to the same old thing of not going to MDs much and probably paying more than I get, but this year it has made up for the past many years. I had a friend that had to have a surgery without insurance and it took him YEARS to pay it off. And despite the fact that the hospital I went to (OSHU) was very willing to work with us on the money end of things (the actually wrote off everything out of pocket above our deductible), not all hospitals or doctors are like that.
And I have another friend who isn’t really able to do all of the tests and such that he should because he doesn’t have health insurance it they are TERRIBLY expensive without the insurance company telling them how much they can charge (and even that is really high).
The one thing I might change though is the company I have my insurance through. I’m not going to switch until the end of the year (since I have exceeded all limits and everything is basically free for the rest of the year). But in December I’ll probably start looking at what it would take to switch to another company. My wife has Pacific Source (we live in Oregon) and she really likes them and they cover more in terms of alternative care (like chiropractic, NDs, etc.). I think that would be just about right since I would rather see a more holistic care provider than an MD for routine care.
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