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I spent like $50 last year, for a strep test when my throat was swollen/sore for over 3 weeks. At the time I was under an employer-paid policy, so I wasn't really paying anything on a monthly basis. Right now I'm on a cheap ($120/mo) private plan, but I was just offered a new job with full benefits - woot!!
About $7,000.00 for dental (two sets of braces, and routine checkups for the rest of us), $500 for sports physicals for 5 boys, around $1000 for eyeglasses and contacts, roughly $2,000 for a kid who had an illness and needed lots of tests, about $1000 for prescriptions (DH--ongoing), and about $1000 for other office visits for flu, sports injuries, etc. $12,500 total for a family of 7, and we were all pretty healthy. We have great insurance (dental, orthodontic, vision and medical) so the out of pocket was minimal. Sports physicals were all out of pocket, and copays on the rest, with a small deductible. We paid 20% of the orthodontics.
We don't have any insurance...it isn't that big a worry...
As I posted elsewhere,in the past few years we have had our income slashed by a third,gone bankrupt,our house is going into foreclosure,a loved one going through the early stages of Alzheimers, and we will be moving to an area with 12+% unemployment with no jobs lined up( a necessity due to foreclosure),as well as having my wife go from a salaried position to straight commission....
When all that happens,you figure out what really is important.
As far as your stand against better health care coverage in this country--if you've already lost everything, I guess you don't have much more to lose, and you might feel differently about your lack of coverage if someone gets sick. I'm so sorry you're going through this--I really am. Whether you think it's important or not, most people without insurance worry that one illness is going to put their family over the brink. If it doesn't concern you, that's fine, but don't project that on to everyone else in this country. My family is very fortunate to be in the position we're in--nothing for us is going to change under the new program--but for lots of people who currently can't get or don't have coverage, HCR is a lifesaver. Insurance companies stay afloat from premiums paid for by healthy people--you don't really need insurance until you DO get sick, and then it's too late to buy it.
Whether you think it's important or not, most people without insurance worry that one illness is going to put their family over the brink.
That's the main reason I got a cheap private plan, once my employer benefits ended. As a single adult, my parents (namely my father) would be responsible for medical costs if I became seriously ill or injured... and while they are financially comfortable, I don't think they could handle a $1.5M hospital bill! My best friend's father died of leukemia after a year-long battle, and that's about what his costs would have been - he was actually a doctor himself, so thank goodness his coverage was excellent. Imagine not only dealing with losing a loved one, but also having to worry about astronomical bills?
Roughly,how did your medical expenses come to last year?
It doesn't matter if it was paid for by insurance,medicare or by you personally.
I think we paid less than $200 for the whole year,and that was mainly a prescription.
We just totaled them up for tax purposes- $167,000. All in all for what I had done, I thought that was not bad. That was a very odd year for us, as we usually have about $14,500 in insurance costs and 100% coverage for everything after $2,000. Our average expenditures with meds, surgeries, exams, tests, ect is usually about $8,000.
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