One of the main causes of stress for me right now is that I don’t have insurance. I should really have it as I have asthma that requires frequent doctor visits & 3 prescriptions daily, but I don’t work {unless you count blogging, but sadly I don’t offer myself benefits} and private plans start at over $300 a month- more than I actually pay in those doctor visits & prescriptions, and that’s before paying the obscenely high co-pays that come with a private insurance plan.
I’m counting down the days {&crossing my fingers that nothing happens in the meantime} until our wedding, when I will qualify for benefits under Justin’s plan. But here’s the kicker: Justin doesn’t have insurance right now, either. He doesn’t get sick {knock on wood} & it seems silly to pay every month for him to have insurance when I’m the one who needs it. However, now that we’re engaged, he’s going to be signing up.
While we know that we’ll soon be signing up for insurance through Justin’s work, we have absolutely no idea what that includes. We don’t know what the plan offers or what the choices are. Literature has been made available, but in the seven years that Justin has worked there {&in the four years that I worked there as well} no one has ever sat down with him to discuss his insurance options. So we’re looking into it, but right now we have no idea what to do.
Apparently, we aren’t alone. In a recent study by Aflac, it was discovered that 1 in 4 Americans choose the wrong level of coverage, and 89% choose the same benefits year after year without looking into what the best option is for them. Six in ten people don’t even realize that they have benefit changes every year, and so they may be going around thinking that they have coverage for something that they don’t. That is not a surprise that we want to encounter- between all of these mistakes, people waste up to $750 each year.
Aflac gave some great advice in this infographic about how to choose the right benefits, including seeking help from HR or insurance consultants to really understand your coverage, being aware of annual insurance changes and calculating your yearly medical expenses to plan your FSA contributions. While Justin doesn’t have a HR person at work {it’s a company of about 15 locally & 30 total} we can still do the other things to make sure that we sign on for the coverage we need and make sure that it doesn’t switch on us a year from now.
Whether you’re uninsured & looking into getting insurance or are worried that your benefits have changed for the worse, be sure to talk to whoever handles insurance at your company soon! It’s open enrollment time, which also means changes are taking effect, so make sure you know that you’re covered!
&If you have special circumstances {or really crummy insurance}, consider checking out Aflac for supplemental insurance. You never know what might happen & I promise you, living life with your fingers crossed hoping that you don’t get hurt before you get insurance is even less fun than it sounds.
Have you ever been without insurance? Did you get lucky or did something happen? Don’t scare me, but I want to know!
Note: I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Aflac and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.
 |
2 Days Left 
