Oh Saturday I love you. Seriously I love you.

I wait all week for this one little day because for some reason I am able to relax more on Saturday than any other day of the week.  

 

Wes and I went to the gym after his MRI yesterday morning for a quick Friday spin session. Neither of us were really feeling into it but we biked for an hour, 45 minutes of which was with a spin class.

I hope to update you on Wes’ injury next week once we get his MRI results back and he has had some time  to consult with his doctors. We are very fortunate that this time around we have purchased insurance so he can go and see a Dr.  I was not able to do this when I first got injured due to the fact that it was shortly after I lost my job and we were living without insurance. Bad, I know.

 

When I first lost my job insurance was not the first thing to come to my mind. I of course automatically thought how am I going to pay for things, find another job, be able to just get through the emotions.

Once the emotions died down, I had accepted my situation, and I was able to think clearly I was able to start thinking about what we were going to do without health insurance. Wes and I are lucky that we have both been relatively healthy (outside of a few running injuries) so at first we opted to go without insurance and “take our chance.” As the time progressed I started to get nervous.  We don’t have health insurance because we need it now we have health insurance because we are protecting ourselves from something we don’t see coming in the future.

I have read horror stories of people going bankrupt because of medical bills and out of no where accidents that cost them everything. I started to realize it wasn’t worth the stress I was putting myself through, so we started researching health insurance options.

 

1. Check into Cobra Options

This was the first thing that I did.  We received the packet from my previous employer and looked at what COBRA insurance could offer us. The positive side of COBRA is that it can avoid any lapse in coverage which is especially important for those with pre-existing conditions. 

We looked into this but it usually is the priciest option.  The costs were outrageous and even if we we wanted to we simply couldn’t afford it at the time.

 

2. Look into Medicaid

You can look and find out if you meet low income requirements for Medicaid.  Medicade will restrict you a little bit in what you can use it for, but it does provide that “just in case” health coverage for you and your family.

I looked into this and while we would have qualified, I was worried it may not have covered what we needed in the future so I continued to research.

 

3. Check out Health Insurance Websites

We went to several websites and put in our information to see what they would offer.  Things of course are changing now that the government has their health care website, but at the time that was not yet up.

There are websites that will compare many of the plans out there such as www.EHealthInsurance.com.  We tried these but be VERY careful which ones you put your information into or you will end up like me and still be getting calls 4 months later trying to get you to sign up for health coverage.

Finally, I checked out the individual sites Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Health America, etc.

We weighed our options and finally ended up finding a plan through BCBS that fit our needs and our budget.  It still is a stretch each month, but that peace of mind is something that I so desperately needed.  

Due to a lump I had removed from my left breast my first year living in Pennsylvania (CHECK YOURSELF!!!!) which ended up being non-cancerous my premium is much higher than Wes’.  We ended up getting separate insurance plans because it would have been more expensive had we done it jointly since he would have had to pay at my riskier tier instead of his.

The key is, look around and develop a budget.  Know what you can spend and that will help you see what is best for you. I have found that speaking via the phone has helped out tremendously because many times the people on the phone know a lot more than you and can help you find the most cost effective method.

 

Also, it varies by state but do some research and find out if your state offers any health insurance assistance programs for those who are unemployed.  

 

I know this post is a little out of the ordinary for me, but I wanted to express just how important having medical insurance is.  It is hard, it is expensive, but there are options out there.  I am so glad now that we opted to purchase it because Wes is able to go to the doctor for his injury, something I was not able to do.

If nothing else has come from this unemployment journey, I have definitely learned a lot about so many things! There is always a blessing in disguise.

 

Ever dealt with shopping for health insurance?

What are your Saturday plans?