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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   2003 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for February 12, 2025

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

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Unfortunately this is how insurance used to work. Now for a plan to be legal and widely available, it has to cover a huge swath of services, including preventative and elective stuff.

Some things I know:

  • You can find a GP and dentist who will let you pay a flat rate per visit or year to cover preventative healthcare.
  • You can use sites like mdsave.com to get massive discounts on things like MRIs etc. - basically by paying upfront you can get an MRI for $600 that would be a $2,500 walk-in.
  • Catastrophic health plans are only available if you're under 30 or poor. Even then they're required to cover preventative junk.

My opinion is that you're better off being uncovered and negotiating that ER visit if you get in a car wreck, but if the hospital comes after ya and you have a fat savings account maybe they're going to take it all anyway.

Very frustrating that a DIY approach is so barely viable.

I don't think that they can go after your savings account. Medical debt doesn't even affect your credit score.

If the hospital plays hardball you can wait until it goes to collections and then settle for pennies on the dollar.

Disclaimer: I've never tried this but report back if you do.

They can go after your savings account and put liens on your property. Depending on the state, they may be able to garnish wages.

Yeah this is the sort of stuff the anons were talking about but I was trying to verify

Note that I can't see why you'd need to enter bankruptcy to deal with medical debt. I don't think bankruptcy even discharges medical debt.

Bankruptcy discharges medical debt. When I was doing bankruptcies it was a pretty common reason for filing.

You're right, I misremembered.

You can still get a lower premium with a high deductible, right?

Yes, and an HSA. If you get lucky it's fine I guess, though premiums are outrageous. If you get unlucky you get super-fucked. Almost all of your money gets vaporized through premiums and creative deductible accounting to make you hit OOP maxes, even if you make 6-figures.

Yes, but the minimum premium is very high and doesn't cover much.

Premiums for a family on a Bronze Plan might be $15,000/year for example. Then your deductible might be like $8,000 per person, or $16,000 per family.

Then of course you have co-pays even once you meet your deductible. And, depending on the service rendered, the co-pay might be higher than simply paying out of pocket.

So, yeah, unless you are getting subsidies or are in terrible health, insurance sucks. Obamacare actually made insurance illegal, and all you get is this ridiculous other thing. My family is going to drop it next year most likely. I'm sick of paying for other people's bad habits.

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