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Background: I'm a green card holder that moved from a regular country where breaking a bone won't bankrupt you, so health insurance has been a relatively new thing for me over the last few years. I'm widowed now, but didn't have coverage for most of the time I was here anyway, except for a short time period under my wife's coverage at her workplace which then ended. I got sick about 2 years ago and kinda jumped onto an ACA plan due to freaking out that I was kinda on my own now and I should probably get something sorted. In the end it passed and in the last 2 years I've not actually used my healthcare coverage for anything other than COVID related things that would've been covered anyway. Yes, I should see a doctor anyway for checkups esp as I'm a bigger dude but I've never been diagnosed with anything or need to take any medication, and don't have any health concerns currently. Obviously, I'm aware that anything can happen at any time to put me needing to be seen by a doctor or worse. At the time, I wasn't earning a huge amount and ACA got me 50% off the plan so it was costing me about $200 a month. I'm earning more now so my ACA coverage only gets me a $60 discount. My other expenses have naturally skyrocketed, ie my mortgage is going to be close to $2,000 a month when it used to be $1,100 before and the same cost of living bullshit that everyone is dealing with. My workplace is small and doesn't offer anything kind of benefits. I do online 'challenges' and whatever each month and it currently charges me $326/mo, this might go up with the renewal though. So my question is... I'm currently spending so much a month on something I've not gotten any benefit out of. I have some bills that really need paying off and a few months saving that kind of money would definitely help. I get almost daily emails/texts from ACA telling me I need to confirm my plan for the next year by Dec 15th or I'll lose out... but would I really? Would it be a fair assessment to say that taking 6 months off from it and either joining back on (possible? not possible?) or just forgoing the $60/mo saving and joining someone directly might not be the worst idea. I feel if I even get a tiny raise over the next 12 months they're just going to sting me again and I won't actually save a penny anyway. I try to use the cheapest plan offered, which is still insanely expensive to me given I'm still out of pocket for up to something like $8,000 if I actually did end up in hospital, and it's kinda hard to justify. Is there an option I'm not aware of? It shouldn't really need to be said, but man gently caress the politicians on both sides for making this a necessary thing. I'm in nowhere near as bad a place as a lot of people and this is still smothering and I'm not even sick, I can only feel for people raising kids and dealing with this too. e: just in case it's of any use, my current plan is Florida Blue HMO Bronze 2129 which is $3,400 deductible, $9k out of pocket max, $1k emergency room care, $25 generic drugs, no charge primary/$20 specialist. The other plans don't save much monthly and have a higher deductible which feels like would probably gently caress me over if I went with them? EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Dec 6, 2022 |
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Dec 6, 2022 19:27
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 07:51 |
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