Which serves as a reminder that over the past 15 years, my wife and I, and our respective employers, have sunk about $120,000 into the system and only used about $20,000.

Or something like that.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Yes, darn your collective good health.

Kuan, the Missus and I paid into our health insurance for nearly 20 losing years. But in the past 4 years we have had family medical bills of $20-$30K per year. It's a royal PITA, that's for sure but it beats the heck out of facing a $30K hospital bill all at once.

Hijacking!

Anybody pay into a medical savings account? It's been available for me for 2 years or so but I haven't done it yet -- got confused by the voluminous paperwork. Anybody?

B

I don't feel too bad about it really. Just wonder where all the money goes. It's a benefit I hope to never use.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I've gotten my money's worth with 4 C-sections for the Mrs., some expensive yet not overly serious procedures done on my 5yo over the years and almost weekly trips to the pediatrician during the course of the school year for one kid or another. Trips to the pharmacy are practically bi-weekly thanks to one allergy med or another for the Mrs. and 2/4 my kids and my 5yo, thanks to his Down syndrome, is almost guaranteed a sinus infection with every cold.

We currently have Anthem BC/BS through a local business association. One thing we as a company did last year was to increase the employees copay for surgeries and hospitalization. Instead of $500 we bumped it up to $3000, BUT the company would write a check for the balance over $500. For the employee it came out a wash. It did provide a fairly significant decrease in the cost to the company without sacrificing coverage which allowed us to keep the employees weekly contribution in check.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

You could get yourself an HSA, but it really works best if you start it when you young - younger the better. As soon as my wife's headache "issues" get resolved hopefully next week, we were going to open an HSA and start saving that money rather than spend it on insurance companies.

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

What is disturbing and most discouraging about those medical savings accounts is that if you don't use the use the money it gets confiscated by the federal government.

I understand the funds are tax exempt for the year, but to be fair and equitable one should be able to rollover the the unused portion to the following year, even perhaps pay a small penalty to account for the lost revenue.

To have the funds confiscated just doesn't encourage participation in my opinion.

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Question Authority before it Questions you.

I have an HSA as part of my employers plan. I wish it had been around earlier. It can effectively makes all health care spending down to bandaids and antacids become pre-tax spending. Unlike Flex Spending Accounts, the HSA will carry over into the next year. And build interest if over a certain amount is held.

I was a similar situation as Kuan. I've only had annual checkups to bill to insurance. i had one bout of salmanella that the campus doc gave me a shot and a couple pills for. Haven't had a cold or virus since 1986.

This year though, my wife was in the hospital for a month before delivering our baby five weeks early. (Admitted to hospital with BP of 170/110 I think). Baby spends three weeks in the NICU and another week in the regular nursery. Add in a trip to the cardiologist and radiology department to diagnose acid reflux.

My now healthy little girl tallies up with over a quarter million in associated medical bills. Insurance looks a little better now.

The downside is, I get to pay the out-of-pocket maximum twice since all this took place over two calendar years.

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Greg Schwall

1983 300SD - 465,000 miles

Be aware that some insurance companies are for profit and some are non-profit. The non-profits have much better reputations.

Some facts on HSA's

http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/public-affairs/hsa/

They must be associated with a high deductable employer plan, and of course, the money will be taxable if you use it for non med purposes. It's your money, and you put it away.

We have a high ded BCBS plan (3,500 single, 7,000 family) We coupled that with a Health Reimbursement Arrangement. (HRA) and a Sec 125 plan (cafeteria). 2007 was the first year for this and we (as a small firm of about 35 people) saved huge money.
We set the reimbursement limit so that individual's cost would be capped at 1,000, before he hit the deductible threshold of the insurance policy. The cafeteria plan covers the ov & ER copays, non covered expenses, out of network and other vision and dental expenses of the employees. (We offer no vision or dental).

Worked pretty well, except there is more paper shuffling, and we gave up th eprescription card, so we pay full price at the pharmacy FIRST, and the company reimburses us later.

There is no set aside account (and no employee funding either) of money in an HRA and there is no use it or lose it as in a cafeteria setting. You pay and if it's covered under the health insurance coverage, the company will pay up to it's limit. Then you pay up to 1,000.Then the insurance company pays all above their deductable kick-in threshold. For anything else, you have the cafeteria plan fallback.

Works for us.

For small companies, the biggest driver of plan cost is the Rx card. Solve that problem with an HRA (or HSA I suppose)and you can reap substantial savings. Especially if your employee base is young and healthy.

One short miscue on my bicycle (coulda sworn the other side of that ramp was another ramp, not a straight 3' drop) and I wound up with some shiny new titanium bits in my spine and a stack of bills I get to ignore that total (so far - 18 months out and I still get PT and occasional check ups) somewhere north of $220k.

All the more thankful for employer based insurance since my form of arthritis is treated by most insurance companies as the same level of risk as HIV/AIDS (well, you know, they are both immune system diseases, after all). Means that getting private health insurance (or life insurance) is effectively impossible for me.....

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1961 220b: first project car - sold.
2000 CLK 430: first modern Benz - sold.
2001 CLK 55: OMG the torque!!! - sold
1972 280SE 4.5: Baby Gustav
1991 300TE 4Matic: Gretel the Snow Bunny - sold
1978 300SD: Katz the Free Man - given away
1980 Redhead: Darling Wife

I do. At AA it is called a Flexible Savings Account (FSA). I just determine at the beginning of the year how much I think I will spend and allocate that amount. The amount gets split 52 ways (we get paid bi-monthly). A M/C credit card was issued to myself and Mrs. M which we use for any medical related items. Co-pay, glasses, aspirin, cold med you name it. Our company alows us to roll over any excess to the next year as long as that amount is used by Mar 31 of the roll over year.

For any companies who do not take M/C (very rare) I just copy the receipt and send it into the FSA people. They cut a check and send it to me. I can access my account on line and see what I have left and all activity.

I figure if I can save tax on $2,500 a year (wife has extensive dental work to be done) then why not.

I have never had a problem with it.

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Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

My wife is a school teacher and we have a flex acct as well thru state benefits. Comes in handy especially since we have had over $450 in copays this month alone for the nasty colds, bronchitis, flu, breathing treatments and all the other crap that we have been fighting in my house this month. 6 trips to the Dr. last week for the family combined!

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Current stable......
17' Rogue SV 70k
11’ Saab 9-5 NG 94k
10’ e550 4matic 185k

sold
02' e320 210k
00' e430 167k
01' e320 171k (regret sale)
91' 300d 2.5t 300k (sold to ecoofidaho)
79' 240d 177k (old yellow my avatar)
87' 300d 169k (junk but fast)
85' 300tdt 261k (RBM parts delivery)
85' 300dt 68k (one owner cream puff)
82' 240d 250k
84' 300dt 198k (sold to diesel don)
91' 190e 2.3 61k
88' 260e 140k