As expected, we suffered a little setback in debt reduction progress this month when a batch of medical bills arrived. And just as expected, there is no such thing as a cheap medical procedure, so of course we maxed out my wife’s portion of the deductible. Since the deductible on the plan I get through work is fairly high, well, likewise our final bill.
The first obvious lesson is that going without health insurance in this day and age is a sure route to financial ruin. I’m not thrilled with a fairly large bill, but it could have been far larger had we been without coverage!
And since health insurance was forefront in our minds, the wife and I decided to do a little comparison shopping to see what it would cost to get a decent policy on our own. One with perhaps a better deductible. Maybe look into a HSA to get a little tax advantage. That sort of thing.
We used the health coverage comparison engine at eHealthInsurance to look into a pretty broad range of policies. One things was obvious from the get go: we could — assuming we qualify for the plans, of course — get health insurance for a heck of a lot cheaper than what my employer is currently paying on us. Especially after an upcoming rate increase goes into effect.
I broached the subject of dropping us from the group coverage and instead getting a salary increase on par with the plan’s premium with my employer, and he certainly didn’t rule the idea out. So yesterday we submitted an application to see if we could qualify for one of the mid-range plans that meets our needs, halves our deductible(!), and qualifies as an HSA plan to boot.
Anyway, enough rambling for today. 
On to the raw numbers:
| July 31′08 | Aug 31′08 | Change | |
| EVERYTHING We Owe | |||
| Credit Card Debts | |||
| Chase | $18,055.92 | $17,757.23 | ($298.69) |
| Other Debts | |||
| Home Mortgage | 38,514.44 | 38,465.14 | (49.30) |
| Low Energy Loan | 14,428.26 | 14,303.58 | (124.68) |
| Line of Credit | 23,141.91 | 22,826.29 | (315.62) |
| Medical Debt | 0.00 | 4,011.18 | 4,011.18 |
| TOTAL Liabilities | $94,140.53 | $97,363.42 | $3,222.89 |
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Informative post. Thanks for the useful information. Hope to see your new posts soon.
Not having a medical insurance is surely a huge disaster when the bills arrive. Hope you have got one by the time.
Most informative blog….. Really without Health insurances we not to bear the hospitals bill… So always be safe with the health insurances we don’t what happen in future.. so be prepared for everything….And your life experience will lesson for the people who don’t have the health insurance…
health insurance is must for every person.without health insurance you will not pay the bill
health insurance is very must for everyone.after we will pay the bill.with out insurance e will not pay the bill.it is very informative .i told my friends also.
i have come across many rich people who dose not have time to do fitness also, in the future fall sick and spend huge amount to get treated with all types of high quality of machines and medicines. i just feel disgusting knowing all that.
man, i don’t envy your debt. and yes, living without insurance in todays world is tough, but it’s one of those things that you just need to keep up on. a major medical bill can be catastrophic.
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