When money is tight you may look at cutting down the amount withheld from your paycheck. This could include cutting your health insurance. You may be considering staying home with your children. This will change your benefits and how much you have to pay out of pocket. You may be wondering if you can afford not covering yourself and possibly your children.
You may justify that you will remain healthy. Your feel great and have no reason to expect anything to happen. I know one person who ended up paying out of pocket for an emergency gall bladder surgery. It cost her over $30,000. If you are in accident (such as a boating or skiing accident), you do not have insurance to cover the additional costs as well.
This is a gamble. If you decide that you simply cannot afford regular health insurance you should at least purchase an umbrella plan. These plans have a high deductible, before they begin to cover you, but should help to protect you from financial ruin if you need to have your appendix removed. If you do choose to do this you will need to budget money to cover routine visits and the occasional sick visit.
However, if you are cutting your budget so tightly that you are considering cutting out health insurance completely, you really need to make sure that you continue to have health insurance. Although health insurance can be expensive it acts as a cushion between you and expensive medical bills. You do not want to be in a situation where you can not provide the medical care that you or your family needs. A good health insurance plan will provide you with the ability to visit the doctor when you need to.
If the plan offered through your spouse’s insurance is too expensive, then you can shop around. There are often several plans available to those who wish to purchase an individual plan. If you and your family are relatively healthy you should easily qualify to purchase these pans at a reasonable price. If you do not qualify for these plans you should look at other areas to save money.
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Are You Having Too Much Withheld from Your Paycheck?