The Grown-Up Reality of Losing Health Care Coverage
A few nights ago, I got together with some of my close girl friends for dinner and catching up. It was a great dose of laughs and good conversation, until someone brought up healthcare. Instant mood changer. We vented together about crazy premiums, all of the unknowns, the challenges of finding affordable options as small business owners, all of the confusing terminology, etc.
And then we all laughed at each other and wondered how in the world we’ve gotten so old?!!! We even digressed to talking about putting robes on our Christmas list. Robes! Before you know it, our GNOs will be spent discussing Poly-Dent, knee-highs, adult diaper absorbency, and who owns the trendiest cane.
Regardless of how old you feel, you can’t change the channel on the television, browse a news site on the web, or even go a day without hearing a conversation about health care reform for 2014. Political preferences aside, there’s no denying that things are changing in a drastic way. Personally for Brad and I, it means losing our current coverage like millions of others across our nation. This means with very little notice, we have to somehow try and make sense of all these new terms, apply for new coverage, and have something in place in just the next few weeks.
Honestly, it’s all too overwhelming to process and complicated to understand on our own. Health Savings Accounts, PPOs, Open Exchange, Off the Exchange, Primary Exclusive Providers, Out of Pocket Max, etc. are terms I don’t use around the kitchen table with our family of six. We needed someone to sit down with us and explain some of our options for this coming year in a way that we could comprehend, and assess the best alternatives to what we currently have for insurance. We also wanted to explore our future options as we anticipate growth in our small business and other potential family medical needs.
Because we trust Dave Ramsey’s ELP referral program, we filled out a simple form to discuss our options with a health insurance professional (for free), and within a day we had an appointment made with someone locally who came to our home to discuss our options. Our ELP was prepared with several plans for us to consider, welcomed any questions, and was a patient teacher to help us wade through all of the unfamiliar terminology. We appreciated his honesty and easy-going conversation through the process, and then allowing us time to process our options after he left.
Even if your policies aren’t changing for the 2014 calendar, expect major changes next year. Currently, there are endless unknowns about how this reform will affect policyholders and their health care, so it’s definitely something to pay attention to, and know your options (even if it makes you feel elderly).
Personally, we have a little bit of work left to figure out what we’ll do for coverage for this coming year, but I’m so thankful we were able to seek professional advice, and have our options explained in laymen’s terms. Although the changes are frustrating, confusing, and even disappointing, I’m thankful for the best healthcare in the world. We have been blessed as a family with amazing care during my pregnancy, when our boys were in the NICU, specialist referrals, and our amazing family physician. My hope is that nothing compromises the amazing care we are so fortunate to have experienced due to the dedication of our medical community in this country that we call home.
Thank you for this post! Thankfully—at this point—my husband’s insurance through his employer does not look to be changing…but like you, we have multiples (half as many, twins!). In addition, my husband is a stage 4 melanoma fighter…insurance coverage is extremely important to us! Of equal importance is our ability to select our oncology team and location of top-notch treatment…we drive over an hour (we’re actually blessed it’s so close!) multiple times a month for my man’s appointments.
Hoping all take the call to action to empower themselves with KNOWLEDGE and not just “accept” what they get.
Love to you and yours!
Cheryl, it’s always great to hear from you! Thanks for the input and sharing your experience. Continued prayers for his fight!
I LOVE Dave Ramsey, but didn’t realize he could help with our health insurance needs. I was a single mom without health insurance for 5 years and I certainly could have used the wisdom. We’re not certain where we will be with health insurance this time next year. We have decent work-covered insurance now, but I’m hoping my husband will go back to his old employer. The health insurance was horrible, but the job would be better than what he has now. I have bouts of skin cancer here and there and some significant female problems that need to be addressed. I’m so glad to know I have somewhere to turn if we make that leap.
We didn’t either until recently! What a relief to have someone professionally look at our situation and give us options! Definitely look into the ELP program. Not only just for health care insurance, but for real estate, investing, insurance, and tax services as well! So helpful! http://bit.ly/1db1Ffx
Thanks Jenn! Our family has not had health care coverage for many years. Being self-employed, it just has never been affordable.
For us it’s a matter of trusting God at this point.
Thanks for this information, Lisa~
Understandable…so are you making any changes for 2014 or just will take the penalty? Just curious. Don’t feel obligated to answer! =)
My husband works for a small biz and the changes this year were tough. I hope it doesn’t get worse! Our health insurance has always been expensive but more so since the ACA, and his employer doesn’t hire FT employees anymore for positions they can make PT because of the cost of providing benefits (even though we still pay a ton out of pocket and have a really high deductible!) A real bummer for a lot of folks. Fortunately he isn’t in danger of being made PT.
Ugh. Sounds so familiar to what so many are facing. When did we all grow up and have to face all this big-kid stuff, anyway? I want my Barbies back.
As soon as we decided to be self-employed, we joined Samaritan Ministries. We’ve been 100% thrilled with them and love that our monthly contribution is going to a family with a medical need.
I’ve heard some great things, but need to look into them further! Thank you so much for passing this along, and for your message today. We’ve also went with Medi-Share in the past and been very pleased.
Thankfully, our employer insurance isn’t changing much for 2014!
However, I *am* in desperate need of a new robe…
Hooray! Count your blessings, Girl!
And for the robe, make sure it’s not sear-sucker. That’s what our friend Katie M wants!
Great timing! We’ve been using an ELP to help us with out health insurance needs for a few years now, and it’s been so helpful. One of the hallmarks of any ELP is that they have “the heart of a teacher,” and we’ve always found that to be true. I always feel like I’m talking to someone I can trust and who will take the time to make sure I 100% understand what we’re looking at.
I’m so glad we’ve been introduced to it! Game-changer for sure! So glad you have someone to walk you guys through all this too!
I am a big Dave Ramsey fan. As for health insurance, the whole Obamacare debacle has drastically altered my plans for the future. For two years now I have worked two jobs, planning for the day when I could quit my day job (job 1) and just stay home and do my self employed night job (job 2). It was all in place for me to do so and I had even given my notice at work when POOF…the insurance plan we had planned to buy was suddenly not good enough. We are healthy. We have 10 grand in savings to cover the deductible. But according to the rules, it was not good enough. We scrambled for a bit trying to find something else. The cheapest plan that we were ALLOWED to consider buying would have been 3/4 of my pay from my stay at home job. My husband’s health insurance through his job is horrible. So I had to go to my employer, essentially beg to un-resign (uncomfortable) and keep my day job just for the health insurance, which is in no way cheap but at least is better than the private options we were presented with.
So no, I am not a fan at all of health care reform. Because of it and the decisions I was forced to make because of it, I am still working two jobs, still missing out on too much of my children’s lives, and still exhausted 24/7. NOT A FAN.
Susan, that is just plain hard. It sounds like you are making some amazing sacrifices for your family, and I hope that this all smooths out for you soon. Hang in there, and we’ll be praying for your family!
Ugh. One of my least favorite topics. Like you, I am lucky to have someone helping us figure it all out! Great post – it’s nice to know there are trustworthy professionals out there.