Paying for medical care when your parents have a HDP
Demographic: M18 now that I’m an adult, my parents basically told me that I’m on my own when it comes to all medical stuff. I’m on my dad’s insurance plan who always picks the highest possible deductible possible ($7500). while my dad does have a HSA, he no…
Demographic: M18 now that I’m an adult, my parents basically told me that I’m on my own when it comes to all medical stuff. I’m on my dad’s insurance plan who always picks the highest possible deductible possible ($7500). while my dad does have a HSA, he no longer has his card on my account so I’m paying for all of it out of my savings/checking account. im on a medication where I *have to get* blood tests every 6 weeks ($136 for blood tests + $298 for doctors appointmen) + therapy (once a week, $120 in network). On top of that, I have to get a 11k surgery next year. Since my dad is healthy and my siblings are now on their own plans now, almost entirety of the deductible is paid by me. As a broke college student, paying for medical care is more than all my savings is it worth getting my own plan rather than staying on my dads high deductible plan? ETA: his out of pocket maximum is $12500 INN
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I don’t qualify for Medicaid (like anywhere close to cause my dad is a doctor) so I’m still considered a dependent.
Why do you say you're considered a dependent -- are your parents supporting you financially, but just not covering healthcare? Your father being a doctor or a garbage truck driver is irrelevant
My college has a plan $2670 a year and the plan has a $250 deductible.
My school does $2670 a year
My school does $2670 a year Check the coverage, especially if it is HMO or EPO. Changing insurance to a more restrictive plan can take a lot of work. Even if the coverage is the same, anything your current insurance already authorized may not carry over. You may have to start over by seeing primary care again.
Does your therapist take that insurance? And check the formulary...does it cover your medication?
The out of pocket max for my dads is 12500, for the school insurance, it’s 3k
I think you know what the answer is looking like. I would still do a spreadsheet because I am a spreadsheet geek.
He’s a workaholic internal medicine/hospitalist 😭😭😭 Bro makes probably 350-400k a year. There is 0 reason why he should put me in a position that I have to spend every single dime I make on health care that I need. At the rate things are going, I’m gonna have 0 savings and be in debt over medical expenses especially cause of the surgery. Whatever ig.. is what it is.
I am so sorry. 😞
Medicaid might be an option depending on where you live. You can talk to your college as well about their health plans. It could be a better choice, but you'd need to get their plan details/costs.
Sorry that your parents actually suck. I truly will never understand parents who have the means to set their children up for financial success but just refuse to.
You'll need the summary of benefits documents from both your school's plan and your parent's plan. See which one's cheaper overall. Hopefully your parents will help with that, at least. You can actually ask ai for help with this too - you'll need to model a piecewise function to graph out the total cost of each plan under 3 different scenarios: 1. If you meet your deductible, 2. If you don't, and 3. If you meet your out of pocket maximum. Consider that you'll be paying your own premium on your own plan, but it sounds like your folks will still pay that as long as you cover costs incurred otherwise. (Which is messed up - you're basically paying the family's deductible. Maybe your parents aren't that well off if they need their 18 year old kid to pay for the family's healthcare costs. I'd think about getting my own plan just to make them pay their own deductible still...)
while my dad does have a HSA, he has taken me off so I’m paying for all of it out of my savings/checking account. There is no "taking you off" a HSA. HSA is not insurance or a joint account. He can tell you that he doesn't want you spending his HSA money anymore (this is probably what you meant?) is it worth getting my own plan rather than staying on my dads high deductible plan? Does your school or workplace offer insurance? How much a year?
What are the plans available to you, if you drop off your dad’s plan? How does their pricing compare to the deductible with him? I suspect that the monthly premium plus the new deductible will be at least as bad as the deductible through him. Do you have a job which offers insurance? If not, can you get a job that does? It is my understanding that Starbucks offers pretty good benefits, so maybe check out how much work would be required to qualify to get benefits through them. I’m sorry your parents cut you off this suddenly from their support, especially knowing you have ongoing medical expenses and an upcoming surgery.
Create a spreadsheet. List out and add up all the costs you are paying now under your dad's insurance in one column. In the 2nd column place your 2640 and what you will pay for the same services and meds. It should have a out of pocket max. That will come into play for tour surgery. Comparing the two options should be straight forward.
Of course parenting is all different but wow I this your dad is horrible for this. I am a doctor and got health insurance this year through work specifically because my son was dropped from Tricare (no longer in college) so my kids could keep a decent insurance with a low deductible. I pay the premiums. I will be keeping it until he turns 26 then going back to Tricare for me because Tricare is less expensive and still covers everything I need. I don’t want health care expenses limiting what my kids can do. Both my kids work hard. I like making their lives a bit easier. Both have no student or car loans. And I am a pediatrician. We make the least of all the specialties.
Yes, follow your siblings and get your own plan. He is paying for the cheapest plan possible. You might find savings if you have limited income. Just be aware, make sure you choose an in-network plan for your upcoming surgery.
>is it worth getting my own plan? There's not enough information here. We need to know what kind of options you have and what those premiums and deductibles would be.
Getting your own plan is unlikely to be less than $7500 a year unless you can qualify for Medicaid or subsidies through the ACA. I would think of it as having to pay premiums for your own plan and set that money aside to cover medical expenses. HDHPs aren’t horrible, they just move the costs from premiums to point of service. Your dad’s helping you out by covering the premiums for you, which is better than having to pay for your own insurance premium plus the cost of services…
136 for blood tests, 298 for an appointment, etc This is just the cost on your parents' plan. If your dad's a doctor, he probably has hospital insurance, which counterintuitively sucks ass and is super expensive. (Source: I work at a hospital. For profit companies that aren't hospitals have much better coverage. Consider studying engineering...) Those costs will all be different depending on what and how your plan covers them.
Does your college offer coverage?
How much of the deductible has been paid so far? If you're close to deductible, then changing to your own plan may not make sense until the next plan year. If you are on a standard jan-jan plan year, I'm estimating that you have paid around $2400 so far for the tests plus appointments.... Plus, around $3360 for therapy appointments. That's $5760. That means that if nobody in your family has had any appointments at all, you only have $1740 left until you hit your deductible. What is your coverage like after that? I know for mine, most stuff is covered 100% once we hit our deductible. If yours is similar, your costs should drop extremely low pretty soon. Also, are you currently in a position where there is an opportunity to switch to a new plan? You generally can't just sign up for health insurance whenever you want. There has to be a qualifying event that allows you to change health insurance. Leaving for college may count for that, especially if you are moving to a different area, but it depends on the plans. Make sure that you check the details of the plans. You could end up getting a plan with a much lower deductible, but find that you're paying more in copays and premiums than you would have paid in deductible for a high deductible plan, especially since it sounds like you currently don't pay any premiums. And, again, since I'm guessing you are over halfway through the plan year, switching to your own plan will reset deductibles, which may it may not make sense. High deductible plans are not always a bad idea. We have high medical costs, and high deductible plans are usually a better deal for our family than standard plans. It means we pay more up front at the beginning of the year, but over the course of the year, we pay significantly less overall. That's not true for every plan option, but it is often true. A lot of people won't even consider the high deductible plan because they see the huge deductible, but they don't look at the rest of the plan details. You do have to be financially able to handle the upfront costs, though. We had $6000 in oop medical expenses by March this year, but we had planned to hit our deductible early, so we had the money ready for those expenses. If you are in a jan-jan plan, I would consider sticking with the plan you are currently on for now, since you're almost through the deductible. But, you may want to at least look at what your options are for next year. You may qualify for insurance through the marketplace or other sources for insurance that will meet your needs better. Unfortunately, as a dependent, you may not qualify for any subsidies, so those plans could be more expensive than what you have now. If you think its worthwhile, you could potentially talk to your parents and see whether they would let you pay them the premium difference between the plan they are currently on and a plan your dad is offered that would meet your needs better. You shouldn't have to do that, but it may be a financially better option than either moving out of the house and supporting yourself, or getting your own plan without any subsidies. Not really sure, but it's worth at least running the numbers. Good luck! I hope you can find something that will work for you!
Only you can decide if it’s worth ing getting your own plan. I say that because none of us can say what kind of plan you’d qualify for. Marketplace? Check to see if you qualify, and at what level subsidy, and with what deductible. Job based plan? School based plan? Check for yourself to see which of these are even available to you. For the bloodwork, look online at places such as walkinlabs (there are many others). These places do the blood work at the same places your doc uses, but often a fraction of the price. Also many schools have a student clinic where such stuff is covered. Finally, since you have a known big expense year next year for medical bills, can you try pitching a different plan to your parents? “Hey, I’ve done the math and figured out that I’ll be spending $xxx next year on medical bills with our current plan, but it would be $xx if we had this different plan. Can we consider the more expensive plan for next year since overall, the output would be less?” Also, sorry your parents suck.