Jack Hooper from Take Command Health joins us to help clear up the changes to health insurance and give you the tools to shop around for a plan that fits you. There may be some alternative options to traditional health insurance that you didn’t even know existed.
Jack also hooked our listeners up with two months free of Take Command Health through this link, because he cares! CHA-CHING!
Discussion Points
- Why 90% of people are choosing the wrong health insurance plan.
- Minimizing your health insurance costs.
- The changes in 2018 to health insurance.
- How to shop around for health insurance.
- Negotiating your health care bills to stop getting ripped off for treatment.
- Tax credit and deductions you need to know about.
- Alternatives to traditional health insurance.
- Frugal Tip of The Week: How to get an instant price and free shipping to sell the things laying around your house.
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The Cheat Sheet!
- The biggest problem with health insurance is the confusion that exists right now with the political messaging taking over the media, making it hard to figure out the right plan for you.
- 90% of people choose the wrong insurance plan, costing them around $1,000 they shouldn’t have to spend.
- The first mistake people make when choosing health insurance is starting their search in the wrong place. There are off-exchange plans available outside of what healthcare.gov and your employer may offer.
- Insurance companies are choosing to not participate in healthcare.gov due to all of the turmoil this year causing them to miss important deadlines..
- Jack recommends trying to minimize your out of pocket costs with health insurance, starting with your premium.
- People worry about the unknown, catastrophes but 70-80% of your costs are driven by known costs where a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) can be used to help plan ahead along with a premium for coverage that fits you.
- Kevin has seen his health care costs go up drastically as a small business owner after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented.
- You may be great at shopping for cars and cell phones but need to bring those same shopping research skills to buying health insurance that is best for you.
- There is a huge gap in the medical field between receptionists, doctors and insurance companies, leaving consumers in the dark about what they’re expected to pay for treatment.
- Bill negotiators are out there as experts in medical codes to help you pay only what you need to. 52% of bills have an error on them! This is one of the things Take Command Health helps with.
- Obamacare is still the law of the land, so you are still required to have health insurance or subject to a tax penalty.
- Small businesses can reimburse tax free for individual plans and medical expenses through Qualified Small Entity HRA’s (QSEHRA).
- Your lower income could qualify you for a tax credit so make sure you know the credits available.
- If you have a Health Savings Account (HSA) eligible account, you should definitely be setting it up to use pre-tax dollars to pay for your health care that you don’t lose if you don’t use!
- You can change your tax credit throughout the year in cases where you may have variable income.
- There are alternative options to traditional health insurance like health sharing ministries, self-insurance and medical tourism.
- Health sharing ministries seem to be more financially solvent and capable than the large health insurance companies. Jack really likes Medi-Share because it works much like traditional insurance with reasonable plans.
- Jack used to pay $2,000 / month for his family’s traditional health insurance plan and now pays only $500 / month for what he considers a superior plan through Medi-Share.
- Jack got a random infection on his neck and had emergency surgery with a $65,000 bill but only had to pay up to $2,500 with the Medi-Share coverage he had and received letters in the mail from people that were praying for him as well throughout his recovery.
- Health sharing ministries also have health coaches that provide incentives towards lowering your premiums to go along with your progress for getting healthier.
- Oscar integrates with your fitbit and offers you Amazon cards for rewards.
- Kevin pays $1,060 right now per month for a traditional plan but for 2018, he can’t find anything less than $1,500/month for his family when trying to find just a low tier plan. He has decided to use health sharing for 2018.
- Frugal Tip of The Week: Decluttr is an application you can use to scan items laying around your house you want to sell and they offer you a price immediately and even send you a box to ship it for free!
- Take Command Health wants to be your health insurance coach and walk you through step by step to find the best plan for you instead of paying for a one size fits all plan with more coverage and costs than you need. They also help with finding new doctors, negotiating bills and provide free calls to doctors for quick diagnosis to get prescriptions fast.
- You can find out more about Take Command Health and receive two free months here or contact [email protected].
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