Monday, March 17, 2014

Five Alternatives to Buying Obamacare Health Insurance

By Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.
  1. Purchase a very high-deductible, catastrophic medical insurance policy.
  2. Use the savings in premiums every month to put money into your self-funded “medical expense savings account” that you control. Even if this account is not tax deductible, the fact that YOU control how you spend the money is what is critical to your health.
  3. Consider joining a religious group cost-sharing program. Examples of these are Liberty Healthshare, Christian Care Medishare, and Samaritan Ministries.
  4. Seek out cash-pay medical practices, imaging centers, and hospitals that offer discounts for cash—pay for services you choose, not for insurers’ promises…or denials, which are becoming more and more common.
  5. Purchase a high-deductible international health insurance policy that for much lower premiums offers you the option of medical services in lower-cost countries such as Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, India and others.

1 comment:

  1. Regarding the first suggestion, from what I have seen, unfortunately, the "catastrophic" plans are available only to individuals age 29 or younger. It might vary state by state but that seems to be the situation in CT.

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