Healthcare and the Family Budget – How to Get the Biggest Bang for your Buck!
January 18th, 2010 | 
Author: When considering the family budget and being a good parent, providing quality healthcare at a reasonable price is right up there with the mortgage payment, car payments and college tuition. Consumer driven healthcare is a movement in the United States. Consumer Driven Healthcare relies on a free-market approach to control costs through consumer choice, with employees assuming greater ownership for their healthcare decisions and related finances. Consumer driven healthcare is about changing employee behavior. Consumer driven healthcare is just talk and will fail unless we want to walk the walk. In simple words, the hope for consumer driven healthcare comes from the simple notion that putting responsibility for expenses and decisions back into the hands of the consumer will result in more rational utilization of resources. So while the healthcare debate heats up in Washington, across the state capitals, in corporate boardrooms, on the campaign trail and on TV, some of us folks are trying to make sense of “consumer driven healthcare”.
Consumer-Driven Healthcare also referred to as “CDH”, is a type of health plan that gives members more choice and flexibility in making health benefits decisions and more control over their health benefits dollars. Consumer-driven care will change the way your hospital does business. Consumers will increasingly take on the responsibility of managing their own health benefits, in many cases through individually held health savings accounts that will give them greater freedom to determine when and how they spend their healthcare dollars. Consumer-driven healthcare is defined as a system where consumers, not the employer or insurance provider, determine how and where to spend their healthcare dollars. However, consumer-driven healthcare (CDH) can result in savings and greater flexibility for consumers of all kinds. The merits of various types of consumer-driven programs are being hotly debated, but the reality is that CDHC simultaneously creates both a consumer “movement” as their financial responsibility and involvement in their care choices increase, and a consumer experience.
If healthcare were consumer-driven, “maintenance” prescriptions (medications you need over long periods of time) wouldn’t require complicated pre-authorization forms from your doctor, which are usually rejected the first time around. If healthcare were consumer-driven, basic allergy medications like Zyrtec wouldn’t be so hard to come by, and wouldn’t cost $25 a bottle out-of-pocket. If healthcare were consumer-driven, patients wouldn’t be forced to choose between complex HMO, PPO, and POS plan options that leave a loophole for various “medical groups” to decline responsibility for specific doctor’s office visits or treatments (sticking the befuddled patient with the full bill). “Consumers have choice in every area of their lives, except healthcare,” he stated. Nearly 85 percent of consumers responding to a new survey said that they believed hospitals and doctors should be required to disclose their prices.
Opponents argue that CDH is really just cost shifting from employers to employees and that rather than spending more responsibly, consumers in these types of plans will be more inclined to avoid necessary care.
Consider these options for maximizing your health care discounts: Ask your doctor’s office if they provide a discount for paying cash. Start today and put these easy steps into practice to become a champion of consumerism and proactive consumer of health care. A survey of more than 70 leading health care insurers (representing more than 100 million insured individuals) found that over the next 12 months health care costs are projected to increase by 10. However, consumer-driven healthcare (CDH) can result in savings and greater flexibility for consumers of all kinds. Learn how CDHC will change the way health care is financed and delivered. Understand how CDHC will affect health plans, healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies.
Shop-Till-You-Drop the debate rages on about how to reform healthcare in America… Meanwhile, what can we do to become more successful consumers? We consumers may not be in the healthcare driver’s seat yet, but we can at least become more vocal back-seat drivers. ” The consumer experience combines the individual’s sense of empowerment, because he has direct input into decisions about his healthcare, with the knowledge and tools he needs to make those decisions.
In my opinion the ultimate goal of CDHC should be to put control of you health decisions back into the hands of the consumer and their healthcare provider of choice, (in other words you and your doctor) not into the hands of the insurance companies and the employer. To get the biggest bang from your buck look at getting a
1. Discount Health Plan,
2. Health Savings Account
3. High Deductible Health Plan
The Discount Health Plan saves you money on the day to day health care expenses. The Health Savings Plan is a savings account where you deposit money for future large medical or other expenses. The High Deductible Insurance Plan will kick in to cover the hospital expenses when something really serious happens such as heart attack, stroke, cancer etc. But and this is a big but, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING THE DEDUCTIBLE and that could be up to $5 or $10 thousand dollars or more depending on your plan. This is why you will need the discount plan and the savings plan. If your cash flow is low and you have a really good Discount Health Plan which includes a Patient Advocacy program at no additional cost this is a good start. The Patient Advocacy program will negotiate with the hospital and GREATLY reduce or eliminate your hospital bill when you have one. You can find a really excellent plan for less then $60 a month for an entire household. When you can afford to add the other one or two do so if you desire. You may want to read my other article Healthcare and the Family Budget – What is a Health Savings Account and Do You Need It?
Watch the video
SHOCK UNCOVERED: Obama IN HIS OWN WORDS admitting his Health Care Plan will ELIMINATE private insurance OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS HEATH CARE GOAL IS A PUBLIC OPTION THAT WILL ULTIMATELY ELIMINATE PRIVATE EMPLOYER PROVIDED INSURANCE (Obama SEIU forum on health care 3/24/07, Barney Frank, Jan Schakowsky all admitting a public option will put the private insurance industry out of business) NAKED EMPEROR NEWS (Hat tip to Morgen at Verum Serum for the 2003 clip)
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If you are business saavy you may consider being on the administrative side of healthcare. Physicians are required to bill with special codes called CPT-4 codes that describe services that they provide to patients. There are also codes to describe every diagnosis.
In order for the physicians to obtain payment for services these codes must be submitted in a timely fashion to insurance companies and they must be within the scope of usual practices.
Insurance companies also deny payment to the physicians more often than not and they need people to fight for their money.
Administrators allow physicians to concentrate of helping patients without the nagging concern of redtape and paperwork.
There are also budgeting, managerial and operational issues in healthcare offices or other settings that are handled by these professionals.
You may consider obtaining a masters in heatlh administration. Please refer to http://www.ache.org.
1) No. Insurance may be offered through occupation, or you can get a private provider.
2)Depends on how badly I needed it.
3)78. 75 for men, 81 for women. From wiki
4)It has pros and cons. I'd like to see some reform.
5)I'd like to see more employers offer insurance, and private insurance be more affordable. I'd also like to see caps on the cost of healthcare.
6)Somewhat. If it stopped at universal healthcare, I would be okay with that. I'm afraid it may open a door allowing more socialist ideals to enter.
I am English and now live in California. Like most people I thought that there was a huge tax burden in Britain, but after coming here I now think that's not the case.We pay two forms of tax from our wages:Income tax and National insurance. Your income tax is tax like everywhere else, national insurance pays for your pension and healthcare. I have lived in England all my life up till now and I will fiercely defend our healthcare system, the NHS (national health service). In thanks largely to the effort of our heroic doctors and nurses (and all other staff) the NHS survives….the healthcare is nothing like as bad as people make out, and there are no long waiting lists anymore (now if you're waiting more than six months for routine surgery they'll send you abroad to have it done, paid for of course). No-one pays anything for medical care and the one reason it's under stress (As a healthcare proffesional I know this from experience) is the fact that something built as a national health service is used as a world health service. People come to the UK from all over Europe to take advantage of the NHS and from all over the world. I would like to see treatment restricted to citizens/people who have paid at least 5 years national insurance contributions but at the same time I would never ever want to see anyone, citizen or not, turned away or denied medical care because of money. I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford health insurance in the US but the amount hospitals/doctors charge is disgusting and I don't really understand why people are so opposed to universal health care, can you really put a price on life?
By the way income tax is 20% of anything you earn over about 5 and a half thouse pounds ($11k) and national insurance is 11% of anything you earn over 84pounds a week ($160) And people have the option of private healthcare in england too if they want to pay for it
I am from Canada where medical coverage is free for everyone,regardless of whether you work or not.
Hospitals carry liability insurance for their nurses. It is unlikely that a nurse will get sued unless she/he does something very deliberate and intentional to harm a patient.
Since the drug companies became privatized, there have been far, far less cures than when it was government controlled. Drug companies only want symptom relievers, since they will be reused over and over, whereas cures are not needed once the problem is gone. No money in cures. Drug companies are more interested in Marketing. Obscene amounts go into marketing. At least thousands if not millions are spent on just pens, clocks, notepads, lunches, clipboards, and a ton of little practically useless stuff they give away for the sole purpose of having the name all around the dr. You should go in a dr's office and just look at the amount of stuff with a drug name on it. That is only a small fraction. The government should really take back the pharmaceutical industry, that would definitely lower regular health insurance prices.
If universal health care is brought in, it doesn't mean you can't get regular health insurance. Considering how very little the health insurances pay out ($0.67 on a $10 charge) I highly doubt that the doctors income would be impacted negatively.
I think universal health care would be a great thing. And this is coming from someone who would probably have to find a new job. You don't see the people who come in who don't have to money to get seen. People who are already sick, dying, and still getting harassed about payments. There are already tons of people who die because they just didn't have the money for a doctor. What is a couple of days wait to that?
6 months is quite far fetched. I was in the military, and the same type of system ran. Health care was FREE and there were no massive wait times.
The only valid complaint that I have heard is that you would not always be able to see the same doctor. Not exactly a big deal.
It could very well be that some doctors could choose to take more regular health insurance patients, and then you could have one of those for your regular doctor.
As atrocious as regular health insurance is, most doctors take most of them. Why? To boost the number of patients. Universal health care could work the same way.
Universal health care will certainly not stop the advancement of medicine. With a little less fear involved, it may even enhance it. Besides, that sounds an awful lot like you want to believe the US is the only place in the world who has helped medicine. Nope.
Would you give up your career to keep universal health care from coming?
That's how strongly I support it.
First, I doubt that healthcare will become universal.
Second, I see no reason why you as a X-ray technician should lose pay…ompare it to salaries in France & other places where they have universal health care.
Don't get sick!
An option to consider is traveling overseas for your dental work. I am originally from Los Angeles, but have been living in Monterrey, Mexico for about 2 years now. I have had regular dental visits and am VERY impressed with the quality of the facilities and the doctors. The best part is that dental work is about 50% less expensive here than it is in the U.S! Monterrey, Mexico is just two hours south of Texas, so it is very easy to get to wherever you are. And, you can always combine your visit with a vacation! If this is something that interests you, check out http://www.travelforcare.com a Medical Travel facilitator that will help you with all the details.