Problem: Rising Health Care Costs
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Solution: Drop Your Insurance and Do this Instead
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I recently read a report in Robinhood's "Snacks" email newsletter. I'm a part-time day trader and use Robinhood as my main broker for trading penny stocks. They put out a daily digest of financial news and today's "Snacks" had an article titled, Healthcare stocks fall, because, politics. I was intrigued and read further.
One particular statement in the article caught my attention. It said, "Health insurance makes customers oblivious to treatment prices." This is very true, but it doesn't have to be that way. We customers can change that starting today. Note the article called us "customers" and not patients. They are right to do so.
When my daughter-in-law needed an MRI, my son asked the health provider what the cost would be. The provider told him that since he had insurance, they were not permitted to disclose costs. She said they do not disclose costs to patients with insurance. So, clearly, customers are oblivious to costs through no fault of their own. Try as you might, you will find it nearly impossible to know the cost of a procedure you are about to undergo.
This is not true for me and my family. When my daughter recently had to have an MRI, I called around to all the imaging facilities near us and got price quotes from each one. I was then able to choose which one best fit our budget. We paid $450 for her MRI. That's an average cost for an MRI in the Washington, DC area, where we lived at the time.
Why am I privy to this information and my son was not?
We are self-pay. We do not have health insurance.
We have something so much better. We have something that lets us shop around, pays for the procedures with no questions asked, and gives us the flexibility to choose what works best for us with no restriction as to where we get our health care.
What we have is not health insurance; it's health cost sharing and it's far, far better than any insurance plan we've ever seen.
When my husband had cancer four years ago, his total cost by the time he was in remission was approximately $250,000.00. We do not have that kind of money sitting around, but his bills were paid in full. Chemotherapy, multiple MRIs, multiple PET scans, multiple epidurals and several extended hospital stays were all paid, in full, and we were told the cost of everything up front. His itemized bills show exactly what everything cost, right down to the slippers and socks they gave him to wear.
Samaritan Ministries International is not health insurance. It's a sharing program wherein members pay each other's health care costs. When we mail our monthly membership fee in, we actually mail it to another member who has a health need. These needs are processed through Samaritan's home office and we're given the name, address, and health concern of the individual we are to send our monthly membership fee to. Most members attach a note of encouragement. When my husband had cancer, we received gift cards to go out for dinner, etc., as an encouragement. Children often receive stuffed animals and other gifts with the funds mailed for their health needs.
When we are on the receiving end, we receive a roster of people who are going to be sending their premiums to us in a particular month. Once we receive all the funds listed on the roster, we return it to
Samaritan for their records. If someone who is listed on the roster does not send their fee to us in the prescribed timeline, we notify Samaritan and they either direct funds from someone else, or notify the late comer of their oversight. Either way, we never go chasing down any funds.
Because of this, we get exact quotes on every procedure.
We know exactly what it costs to see any doctor.
We know exactly what it costs to get any procedure done.
Also, health care providers charge self-pay customers differently. Insurance companies reach agreements with health care providers on how much they agree to pay for a given procedure. Health care facilities bill accordingly. But with self-pay customers, they have an entirely different set of fees for their procedures. Being self-pay opens a whole new world that many people don't know exists because they never see a bill.
Billing transparency is already being quietly done in some parts of the US. Many hospitals are now putting the prices of all their procedures right on their website for all to see. Click
here to see the price list for MRIs at
St. John Clinic in Tulsa, OK. Some have criticized this type of list for being "too difficult for the average person to understand," but I beg to differ. If your doctor has given you the exact name and type of procedure you need, you do not need a medical degree to look it up. It does take a little work, but it's worth it. I found the link above in one search and 3 clicks.
Health care costs can be lowered; they are already lower for a good number of us who have forsaken traditional health insurance. Instead, we pay each others bills and write an encouraging note while we're at it.
Problem solved.
Drop your insurance and do this instead.
~Tricia
