BLTC
VIP Member
- Dec 23, 2010
- 753
- 245
.and paying everything out of pocket????
So long story short I got laid off from a very nice gig in wireless telecom in July of 2018. One of my old managers reached out to me this past July and said they had head count for 1 contractor to lead a small project that's IT related but much more business than technical in nature. I agreed and am grateful to be earning again but it was a 40% pay cut from my old job and it's really starting to hurt.
To make matters worse I've been paying my family's health insurance out of pocket since the layoff to the tune of nearly $1300/month. Mind you we are very healthy people and rarely go to the doctor and the cost of the goddamn insurance and the premiums are so high we avoid using it like the plague. I've researched and most medical practitioners offer cash prices which are usually discounted by about 30-50% compared to the costs set by the insurance companies.
I've been toying with the idea of just dropping all the insurance altogether and using the savings to pay out of pocket for everything. A friend of mine's been doing this for a couple of years for his daughters who are very active with sports and it's worked out well for him.
I know dumping the health insurance goes against everything I've ever been taught but the costs are killing us and eating up what little savings we have left. I'm currently contracting right now but there's a pretty good chance I'll get hired on full time in a year so the company will pick up half the insurance costs.
I've rationalized that any large medical bill we get like for an ER visit or surgery or something of that nature I would allow to go to collections and negotiate down expecting to pay no more than 50% of the bill. I've negotiated a 75% reduction for a non medical related payment in the past and that discount seems to be the norm. Being that Trump will most likely get re-elected I can assume there'll be no penalty for not carrying the insurance.
Is anyone doing this right now? Am I nuts to consider this or crazy like a fox? The thought of keeping nearly $15K of my hard earned money over the next 12 months is very appealing.
So long story short I got laid off from a very nice gig in wireless telecom in July of 2018. One of my old managers reached out to me this past July and said they had head count for 1 contractor to lead a small project that's IT related but much more business than technical in nature. I agreed and am grateful to be earning again but it was a 40% pay cut from my old job and it's really starting to hurt.
To make matters worse I've been paying my family's health insurance out of pocket since the layoff to the tune of nearly $1300/month. Mind you we are very healthy people and rarely go to the doctor and the cost of the goddamn insurance and the premiums are so high we avoid using it like the plague. I've researched and most medical practitioners offer cash prices which are usually discounted by about 30-50% compared to the costs set by the insurance companies.
I've been toying with the idea of just dropping all the insurance altogether and using the savings to pay out of pocket for everything. A friend of mine's been doing this for a couple of years for his daughters who are very active with sports and it's worked out well for him.
I know dumping the health insurance goes against everything I've ever been taught but the costs are killing us and eating up what little savings we have left. I'm currently contracting right now but there's a pretty good chance I'll get hired on full time in a year so the company will pick up half the insurance costs.
I've rationalized that any large medical bill we get like for an ER visit or surgery or something of that nature I would allow to go to collections and negotiate down expecting to pay no more than 50% of the bill. I've negotiated a 75% reduction for a non medical related payment in the past and that discount seems to be the norm. Being that Trump will most likely get re-elected I can assume there'll be no penalty for not carrying the insurance.
Is anyone doing this right now? Am I nuts to consider this or crazy like a fox? The thought of keeping nearly $15K of my hard earned money over the next 12 months is very appealing.