We just got a letter from United Healthcare, the health insurance that our family has had since January 1, when they switched over from Anthem. The letter said something about annual maximum in network deductible, so I went online to find some examples of that, to understand it better. I found this example:
So I looked down at our insurance, and I see that we have a family annual in network family deductible of $5,000. It also shows that we have a Maximum in network Out of Pocket Maximum of $6,850.
The letter also showed that as of March 31, we are about $4,000 of the way towards meeting the $5k annual deductible, and $6,850 out of pocket annual maximum.
WOW!!! These numbers are definitely higher than they were last year under Anthem, and they have really jumped up a LOT over the past 8 or 9 years. It was about 9 years ago when my wife's workplace took away the choice of
traditional health insurance, where you would just have insurance, and you would pay a copay, something like 10% each time you went in for medical treatment. They switched over to high deductible, which the first year had something like
$3,000 that we had to pay up front, maximum. It has grown every year.
Anyway, I found myself thinking how unlikely the example is, but then realized that I have absolutely no idea what typical numbers are for a family. Is the $1,000 annual deductible and $4,300 annual out of pocket max example
pretty common for a family, or is out situation more common?
All I know for sure is that we used to be able to put money into our IRA, but now that we pay the first $5K or more of health care costs out of pocket each year, we don't have much left to sock away for retirement. Not sure what folks are going to do if it keeps going this direction. Let's say, in 15 years - how will the typical family deal with having to pay the first $15,000 of heatl care costs up front out of pocket each year???
Deductible vs out-of-pocket-max example
Let’s say you have a health insurance plan with a deductible of $1,000 and an out-of-pocket maximum of $4,300.So I looked down at our insurance, and I see that we have a family annual in network family deductible of $5,000. It also shows that we have a Maximum in network Out of Pocket Maximum of $6,850.
The letter also showed that as of March 31, we are about $4,000 of the way towards meeting the $5k annual deductible, and $6,850 out of pocket annual maximum.
WOW!!! These numbers are definitely higher than they were last year under Anthem, and they have really jumped up a LOT over the past 8 or 9 years. It was about 9 years ago when my wife's workplace took away the choice of
traditional health insurance, where you would just have insurance, and you would pay a copay, something like 10% each time you went in for medical treatment. They switched over to high deductible, which the first year had something like
$3,000 that we had to pay up front, maximum. It has grown every year.
Anyway, I found myself thinking how unlikely the example is, but then realized that I have absolutely no idea what typical numbers are for a family. Is the $1,000 annual deductible and $4,300 annual out of pocket max example
pretty common for a family, or is out situation more common?
All I know for sure is that we used to be able to put money into our IRA, but now that we pay the first $5K or more of health care costs out of pocket each year, we don't have much left to sock away for retirement. Not sure what folks are going to do if it keeps going this direction. Let's say, in 15 years - how will the typical family deal with having to pay the first $15,000 of heatl care costs up front out of pocket each year???