Strategies to Save Money on Health Care
Nearly everyone is well aware of the high costs of health care and health insurance, and that it may become more expensive, depending on how much the U.S. government intrudes into our system, plus many other factors.
A few good strategies to save money on your health care can have an impact on your financial survival. Here are a few suggestions:
Use flexible spending accounts. If you have a flexible spending account available at work, take advantage of it. If you don’t have access to a Flex account, open a health care savings account at your local bank or credit union. With the Flex account, you use pre-tax dollars to cover deductibles, co-payments, eyeglasses, kids’ braces, prescription drugs, and more. With a health care savings account, you get the tax savings when filing your income taxes.
Ask questions. Ask your doctors and pharmacists in-depth questions and get involved in your health care. Follow exactly doctors’ instructions on the use of medications or rehabilitation from sickness or surgery. Research on the Internet to learn as much as you can about your health issues BEFORE going to a doctor (but resist the temptation to diagnose yourself).
Consider lifestyle changes. Are you eating healthy foods? Taking a multi-vitamin? Getting enough sleep? Exercising? Do you need to stop smoking? Discuss with your doctor how your habits may be impacting your health and the amount of prescription medications you need to take. Check with your health insurance plan for programs to help you take the steps to a healthier life.
Generics. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if there’s a generic alternative for any prescription drug you are taking.
Prescriptions. Some prescription drugs can be less expensive if they are made specifically for you by a compounding pharmacy. (A couple of our prescriptions were one-half the cost at a compounding pharmacy!) Or ask your doctor to give you a prescription for half as many pills at twice the dose — then purchase an inexpensive pill cutter and cut them in half. You can usually save at least 50% on the cost by buying Rx drugs this way.
If you are going through stressful times, it is even more important that you eat healthy and get plenty of quality sleep. Stress causes more illnesses than we would like to believe.
This article is derived from a post that originally appeared on Family Survival Planning, Strategies to Save Money on Health Care
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Joan has created the web site, Family Survival Planning, to help families prepare for surviving any crisis whether its physical or financial.
2 Responses to “Strategies to Save Money on Health Care”
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Nice post, Joan.
I can’t sing the praises of Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) enough! They are a real gift. Using your pre-tax dollars to cover your out-of-pocket costs and uncovered medical expenses is better than using after-tax dollars any day of the week.
There is another benefit to them– you can use more than what you have already put in at any time. Here’s what I mean– I have used over $600 worth of this benefit already in the first month of the year and yet only a fraction of this amount has come out of my paycheck so far. I will still cover it all by year’s end, but I get the benefit of my new glasses immediately.
The one trick to using FSAs is to accurately budget, because if you don’t use it, you lose it. I budget by doing a combination of the following:
1) I look at last year’s medical expenses and see what is recurring and what was a one-time surprise. I then come up with a recurring number.
2) I then look at what needs to be done (for example: new glasses for me this year) and push it into the coming year’s budget and add this to the recurring number.
3) Finally, I come up with the unexpected or surprise cushion and add that into my total FSA set aside.
If I over estimated and still have money left in the middle of December, I go shopping and stock up on aspirin, cough medicines, and such to use it all up.
I also discovered the benefit of using the entire amount in my Flex account before the end of the year for eyeglasses and such. I found it sad, however, that some of my co-workers did not keep track and lost money they did not use. Then they complained that a Flex account just didn’t work for them. (Can you spell s-t-u-p-i-d?) I can’t imagine NOT keeping track of every penny of income!