My Biggest Gamble  

I think you're nuts too! But also brave! No way could I do that. I'd be more concerned about my kids than myself. Just a year's worth of pediatrician appts and dental appts would run me $1000, and that's not even counting if they get sick or have cavities!

As one of those 45,ooo,ooo Americans who could possibly afford it and don't have it.....I don't think you are nuts at all!!

My extended family, however, would probably try to corner you in a chair and pour out all of possible worst case scenarios to you until your ears are bleeding and you are forced to go to a doctor just to prove how you should have bought that insurance. But I trust that you will be strong like me and push forward!

Eek! It's a huge gamble. I don't blame you for wanting to save the money, but I couldn't do it, mainly because I've been without insurance before, and it was ROUGH. I actually became insured and got pregnant the same month. Whewwwwwwwwww.

I could see why you'd be pondering it, though!

If I didn't have kids I wouldn't be subscribing to insurance. However, because I do have children, I feel it's a good idea to have it.

Or maybe you're the only one covered and G has insurance thru your husband's job? In that case, well, growing up without insurance, I don't see that as a huge deal UNLESS something big happens. And, well? You can deal with that if/when it does.

If you do it right - you're not nuts. I grew up in the medical world (my father is a surgeon) and have never worked outside of it. A lot of people who can afford insurance ARE choosing to give up restrictive, company sponsored plans in order to get better care. And many, many doctors will give you a discounted fee-for-service rate since you'll pay cash and they won't have to mess with the insurance companies. Do your homework and negotiate there. Does your work (or DH's) offer a Major Medical insurance option? Where you insure yourself only in case of hospitalization or major surgery? That can bring a lot of peace of mind. Just cover yourself against the chance of something major happening and pay for the regular stuff out of pocket.

I'm a bit hazy about medical insurance, what with being a Brit and living in Italy.

I do have house insurance though and we did go through a very rough patch where every eurocent counted.
Over my dead body would that have been where we made the saving, despite the fact that is very expensive.

Too much to lose with such a capacity for a dramatic, life changing outcome. And Sod's law says that the second I cancel the insurance my house will catch fire, flood and start to subside...probably all at the same time.

Even if it didn't I'd be holding my breath waiting for it to happen scared to death that we would lose so much for what is a relatively small gain.

What worries me about medical insurance is that we hear what sounds like such incredible sums being bandied around as the consequence of a not-that-serious illness or accident from your side of the pond that losing a whole, uninsured house seems rather trivial in comparison.

You can check out your health now, but things like accidents, or out of the blue illnesses/infections need a crystal ball that actually works and nobody sells them yet.
It wouldn't be my choice, I'd probably worry myself into an ulcer and make my fear of being bankrupted by zillion dollar hospital bills a self fulfilling prophecy.

I think...that's terribly risky. If you would've asked back in December, maybe I would've thought differently. But we got pregnant in Dec, and found out in Jan that myself and my kids wouldn't be insured for 6 months (my husbands company was bought out). It was really hard making monthly payments of $300 for a 6 second OBGYN appt, and then finding out we had a high risk pregnancy (first out of three). We had two unsched. ultrasounds, guess how expensive those were. All in all, had we still HAD insurance, we would've saved $1,457 (that would be AFTER paying a $203 premium every two weeks). I wouldn't do it. At least get a less expensive insurance, but don't go completely without. Accidents are called accidents because THEY'RE ACCIDENTS. Haha.

Nope, I wouldn't take that gamble. One broken bone or car accident could put you in serious debt and all the money you saved would be gone and then some. And if one of you were to get a serious illness (God forbid) you'll never get insured again. Pre-existing conditions don't get insured.

I have some immediate thoughts, one of which is, yes, are you insane? Just after that one I have: Do you have money in savings to handle a "basic" emergency? For example, the kidney stone my husband just had - billing so far is in the neighborhood of $10,000, with more testing still upcoming.
The reality is that, yes, you could set that extra $4,000 aside for other things. The alternative is that a medical expense is likely to exceed that $4,000 pretty quickly, and an uninsured medical event can take you from comfortable to bankrupt in a hurry. (Trust me on that one, k?)
Please at least look into a high-deductible plan, bank the difference in the premiums, and know that in the event of a true emergency, you don't end up homeless by trying to pay the medical bills.

Up until this year, this is a gamble that my husband and I totally would have taken (and did take for a certain period of our marriage.) I was never the 'uninsured' but my husband was... my husband is as healthy as a horse. We've been married for 15 years and he has really never been seriously ill. He is fit, trim, exercises regularly, and eats very well. He went without insurance for several years because he was not eligible for insurance from his employer. Once he was, we added him to the insurance policy.. and I am SO glad that we did.

See, my very healthy, never sick husband suddenly had an arm that was swollen to about twice it's normal size. Turns out that he had a blood clot in the vein that returns blood from the arm to the heart. It's called thoracic outlet syndrome and basically it happens to people who are fit and trim and muscular. He had 4 major surgeries and was hospitalized for 8 days. We ended up paying about $10,000 out of pocket, even with insurance. Without insurance... it would have been about $250,000. We are lucky and had the money to pay the $10,000. But... had he not had insurance... we would have probably ended up going bankrupt.

I don't tell you this story to scare you, but just to make you think. All the preventative tests in the world cannot prepare you for what could possibly arrive. Is it worth the risk of losing EVERYTHING?

Carrie

Its hard for me to comment on this because I have amazing health insurance that I hardly pay anything for. I do feel though that since I get paid minimally for teaching that at least I can get insurance. I would say this though, I would never no matter what the cost was would go without health insurance. One time not breaking your car correctly, one slip down the stairs, and you are in debt for years. More than that, my dearest friend who is only 30 years old has had ovarian cancer 3 times in the last 8 years. She was super healthy and even had yearly check ups. You never know and I am so not a gambler.

If you're relatively healthy, and have the money to cover some minor "what-if's" then I'd say you're not too nuts. Luckily, Eric has insurance that we pay only a few hundred dollars a year for. Granted, he works for a non-profit, so the salary isn't so great.

nuts.
you are absolutely nuts!
i do feel better that g and your husband are covered but you are CRAZY
if i'm being honest :)

i work in a hospital
the patients that have the biggest bills are often the "healthy" ones
accidents happen to healthy people just as often as unhealthy
one second in time could cost you everything you have
health insurance is so high because medical bills are through the roof!
and don't think for one second that some places do not provide the same level of care for the uninsured as they do insured
really...
we'd save a lot if we all dropped car insurance and home owners insurance as well....but i don't think it'd be a wise choice

i love ya in a bloggyland sort of way so i have to say DON'T DO IT!!

I would not take that gamble. I work in the health care industry - I know how expensive a treatment you think may be simple can end up costing. You also have to think about the fact that if you were to develop some type of condition and later tried to obtain health insurace, you may not be approved.

Bottom line - your health is worth more than $4,000.

Why can't you be added to your husband's policy?

Considering my husband just had to have totally unexpected emergency abdominal surgery when he was seemingly healthy and the bills are around $4K if we didn't have insurance (we'll only owe 10% thank goodness), I wouldn't take the gamble! But I understand why you are considering it!

Just wanted to let you know I gave you a blog award--check it out: http://glam-o-mommy.blogspot.com/2010/07/winning-award-and-making-friends.html

My first thought was, "I wonder how much that would save me?!" I'm a super healthy person, but Husband and Baby are both on my insurance, so it wouldn't work out. Right now it's too big of a gamble that we can't risk. Good luck to you, though! (And I did like how one person asked if you are prepared to cover costs should anything unexpected happen.)

I went years without health insurance and was fine, but it's funny because about 3 months after I actually got a job that provided me health insurance, I started to get sick. In that following year, I hit my out of pocket max (spending $3,000 in medical bills), and my insurance spent over $60,000 treating me. $60,000! That number has so terrified me, that I will never again go without health insurance. I was perfectly healthy with not a care in the world and doing just fine without insurance. I never would have thought I would ever need it so badly - but life can change that quickly.

One other thing to keep in mind is that if you were to get sick while you didn't have insurance (cancer or something else that no one ever wants to think about), you wouldn't even be able to get coverage at all after that. No insurance company would be willing to take you on.

Just food for thought lady. Not meaning to lecture at all, but it still scares me to think about what would have happened if I hadn't gotten insurance when I did. I would be bankrupt - no doubt about it.

I recently fell off the Health Insurance wagon too! I chose to go with a High Deductible plan (covers my yearly OBGYN visits and other preventative care) and saves me lots of money every month. The money I'm saving, I'm putting in an Health Savings Account. This way if some big emergency comes up, I have a bit of money to begin paying those medical bills. Plus I can use this HSA money for prescriptions and copays too- brilliant!

a gamble for sure. but you still have G covered which is huge. you're right, if you fall and break a leg, could be a big expense.... $4000 worth? probably not.

keep us posted on how it goes!

I work with people with disabilities, which by the way is the only minority group you can join, and I think it's a bad idea. I suggest looking into other, cheaper insurance plans other than through your work. What others have said is true, it only takes one accident to turn the money you save into a fraction of what you would owe. There goes G's college fund, and then some.
I bet if you looked at your expenses you could cut less important corners.

I think foursons said exactly what I would have. One little issue can set you back miles beyond that $4000 of savings. Sure, I would love to have all of the $$ that I've spent on premiums back, and $4000 extra a year to put into savings would be nice, but I've seen too many people end up in bankruptcy over health care bills and I'm just not willing to take that risk.

My mother doesn't have health insurance and a thyroid issue popped up a few months ago. The bills are already piling up and I'm afraid to see where they end up.

I agree, I would see what it costs to join DH first...

As someone who has batteled life long autoimmune disorder, I cannot consider being uninsured. And after having just had my breast lump scare - I can imagine it even less...

Can you save money by joining DHs? Consolidation to one plan for the family?

I know I'm late chiming in. My 14 year old daughter, who was healthy all 14 of those years, started experiencing a "racing" heart in November, 2009. Three weeks later it was "racing" at over 300 beats per minute. She had surgery in January, 2010, and is now fine. (Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome is what she had). At any rate, those bills were over $110,000. Thank God we had insurance. Don't know what we would have done without it. I guess my point is, just because everyone "seems" healthy, lots of things can pop up.

Hi there - New to your blog (love it!) but wanted to comment that my personal opinion (don't you love that everyone has an opinion??? :-)) is that the $4,000 in savings isn't worth it.

Medical bills are the #1 reason for bankruptcy in the United States. Obviously the hope is nothing would go wrong with your health but if it did...would the $4,000 you could have saved be worth ruining you and your husband's credit history?