Category: ACA and Policy

Category: ACA and Policy, Cost of Healthcare, Health and Wellness

Why Bother With Health Insurance?

It’s Expensive, I Don’t Use It Much

As we were developing our recent Straight Talk posts that dealt directly with terminology, how health insurance pays for your health care, and how your out-of-pocket spending and your health insurance carrier’s spending relate to your premiums, another question kept coming up. This one came specifically from younger folks with health insurance. It went something like this: Read more

Category: ACA and Policy, Cost of Healthcare, Health Insurance

What’s the Deal with Copays?

Very recently on Straight Talk, I wrote a piece designed to help you understand your health insurance. This explained what all the words –deductibles, networks, claims, etc. – really mean. I also broke down who pays for what when a medical bill shows up. You might remember the three payment zones – the deductible zone, the coinsurance zone and the max out-of-pocket zone.

As soon as we published that piece, I heard this question: “So Mike, how do copays fit into all this stuff?” Read more

Category: ACA and Policy, Government Programs, Health Insurance

Health Care Coverage and 2022

One thing that has always struck me about the way people spend money is how much it has evolved during my lifetime. Today, we are much more savvy and flexible about how we use debt and insurance than we were 50 years ago. Most people don’t really think about the retail prices anymore when they buy a house or a car; instead, they think, “Hey, I can make the monthly payments!” and that’s typically about as far as it goes. Read more