All of these things can be read about here: Toe Walking.
What I haven't shared is how we are now drowning in medical bills! Oh we have insurance!! He just have one of those HIGH deductible plans that make us pay $5,000 OUT of pocket, every CALENDAR year, before the insurance will pay anything.
My husband's employer did offer us the option of a "traditional" insurance plan, but we chose not to take it. After all we are young, our kids are young, and for the most part we are a healthy family! Up until this last summer the only time we were at the doctor's office was for our yearly physicals. (The insurance will pay for a yearly physical so that's ALWAYS FREE for us). So it just made sense to get the high deductible plan.
We haven't even had the surgery yet and have already reached our deductible for THIS CALENDAR year, so any medical bills between NOW and Dec 31st will be covered 100% by insurance. However anything that happens Jan 1 or later we will have to pay for again, until we reach our $5,000 deductible.
So you can imagine my relieve when they said that Superstar would have to wear the cast for 4-6 weeks and not the 6-8 like they originally said. With luck the braces and everything should be done by the first weeks of December if NOT sooner!!
Of course there will be some follow ups after the first of the year, but office visits are cheaper then surgery, castings, custom made braces, etc. We are still hoping and praying that most of the expensive things will be done before the end of year!
$5,000 is a LOT of money already and we are drowning, but we would be drowning more if say we waited until AFTER the first of the year; seeing we would have to meet our deductible AGAIN!!!
I know we will be okay!!! I just had to share, because the bills are here one after another. It's just been stressful! I know we are okay and will be okay. It's just amazing what the cost is!!!
Oh and seeing we do have insurance it does get submitted to insurance and we do get a preferred provider discounts applied. Those discounts are applied and then the balance is what we are charged and what gets applied to our deductible.
For example we have 3 different bills for the MRI! One of those bills alone was $3,000. The preferred provider discount was applied, thus the bill was $1,500. So we had to pay $1,500 and that $1,500 was applied to our deductible. That means if we did not have insurance we would have had to pay $3,000. Did you noticed that the preferred provider discount cut the bill in half? No wonder medical bills are the number one reasons people are in debt!!!
Insurance can be so frustrating. Some are paying like $1,500+ or more PER MONTH (for a family of four) which only covers 80% after your pay your $500 deductible. So nearly $20K per year even if everyone's totally healthy all year long. Just sick! It seems that you either have a HIGH deductible and pay only a little each month or you have a LOW deductible and pay out the wazoo each month even if everyone is healthy.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's a relatively painless process for you guys. And I hope that you do get the biggest part of it taken care of before Jan 1st.
Exactly, Shaye. We on top of the medical bills still have money taken out of DH pay for insurance. It's about $500 per month that gets withdrawn from DH's pay.
ReplyDeleteI don't really "count" that because it's all part of payroll deductions, so we really never "see" that money, if you know what I mean.
Either way it's expensive!!
When open enrollment rolls around for next year, I'd opt for a different health insurance with a lower deductible. I know my DH can switch our insurance plans for the following year sometime in the late fall. So if the plan we have doesn't work well for us one year, we can change it to something else for the following one.
ReplyDeleteWe've never really been "insurance hopper". LOL, with the exception of this year, we've been happy with our HIGH deductible plan. Like I said we normally don't go to the doctor. :)
ReplyDeleteOutside of the yearly physicals, my kids have only been to the doctor one other time, that's because they got strep throat, and actaully I didn't even have to take them then.
Daddy (my DH) just went in and got diagnosed with strep and 2 days later the kids (and I) had sore throats. So I called our doctors office and said "DH was just there 2 days ago and got diagnosed with strep, the rest of us woke up this morning with sore throats. I think we have strep too! Do I need to come in or can we just get a scrip?"
Our Dr said He'll just give us a scrip. So we didn't even go in for that one, I just went down to the pharmacy and picked up the scrip for all of us. Well DH did, but the rest of us didn't have to go in....LOL
Yes indeedy...we are one of those families who have to pay like the dickens each month to get 80% coverage (sometimes a bit more) with co pays and deductibles...this is why I relate so well to what you are now going through...as it was just year before last that we had three children hospitalized in ONE year...OUCH...
ReplyDeleteI admire your strength and joy as you state that you know things will be okay...that is the sign of a joyful and thankful heart for sure...thanks for being an inspiration!
Of course that doesn't mean I don't worry about it (the money). I DO worry, but I also know that it will be OKAY!!! It's jut hard to explain that all in words here....
ReplyDeleteI hope that it makes sense to someone how I'm not worried, but I am worried, but I'm not worried. LOL
Yikes! I know what you mean. Insurance can be such a big fat joke sometimes, but how irresponsible would we be to go without out?
ReplyDeleteThose and other Catch-22's are the bane of the Mom's existence. *SIGH*
Just pay a little at a time . . . at least they know you're trying.