Ep 22How to Save REAL Money on Health Insurance
Ignore a hospital bill or call them? A $1,200 sonogram bill came down to $22.31
The answer is not if it's negotiable, it is negotiable.
Carey Gruenbaum
How to Save REAL Money on Health Insurance
with Carey Gruenbaum
Most expensive in insurance is not the best. Most expensive in insurance means less money out of my pocket when I go to the doctor.
More moments · 4
Try this · top 3
Quotes
“You never need insurance until you need it.”
“Insurance is a game of shifting cost.”
“The plan that your doctor says they're in network for.”
“The answer is not if it's negotiable, it is negotiable.”
“The idea of buying long-term care care is to protect your assets.”
“Disability insurance is probably the most overlooked insurance.”
“The actuarial numbers that come up for health insurance, dental insurance, and vision insurance were not based on families with six, eight, nine, 10 kids.”
“It's not hard to get an ID number or get insurance. It's doing it the right way to make sure you have the proper coverage when a problem happens.”
Takeaways
- 1 About 30 million Americans are uninsured, mostly because of cost. Hospitals must treat anyone in the ER, and people can sometimes get Medicaid retroactively.
- 2 In 2022 New York, the cheapest family plan ran about $1,800-1,900 a month with a $5,000-10,000 deductible. Typical low-deductible family plans ran about $2,400-2,500.
- 3 The big carriers (Blue Cross, United, Cigna, Aetna) share about 96-98% of doctors. Regional carriers can be a problem when traveling. Emergencies are covered anywhere.
- 4 When employers pay 100% of premiums, people overuse care and rates rise. He advises employers against it.
- 5 His married daughter's $1,200 sonogram bill was cut to $22.31 after she answered the hospital's financial questions.
- 6 A $11,000 deductible became $2,000 when the hospital absorbed $9,000. Picking a high-deductible plan can work when hospitals negotiate.
- 7 Health insurance doesn't include vision, dental or long-term care. Dental costs about $180-230 a month per family, with about a $2,000 per-person cap, so large families often come out ahead.
- 8 Travel medical coverage is cheap (a few hundred dollars a trip). Israel required it during COVID.
- 9 Health share plans cost about $200 single or $500 family a month, but exclude smokers, diabetics, overweight members and some past conditions, and phase in pre-existing conditions.
- 10 Medicare pays hospitals far less than commercial insurers. Health shares and 'reference-based pricing' plans use Medicare rates as a base to cut costs.