Insurance in America

My dad was a teacher, and when I was growing up, I thought that the only way anyone could ever get insurance coverage was through their employer. Well, upon getting married when I was 20, I learned that it is easy to get insurance coverage, especially high deductible plans, yourself. Even if you do get insurance thorough your employer, it's worth it to check and see if you can actually save yourself money by dropping your employer's coverage and signing up by yourself. When we lived in California, I checked online at an Insurance Broker and found that I could insure both my husband and myself for a little over $100/month. Now, I know that my dad had over $400 taken from his paycheck monthly for insurance, and some people have even more than that taken.

A good thing to evaluate when looking at insurance is whether you are the kind of person who goes to the doctor all the time, or if you are the kind of person who goes as little as possible. My husband and I prefer to self-treat unless it's huge (I've actually never been admitted to the hospital, even for the birth of my daughter!) and if something is big enough that we need to go to the hospital, we will easily make even the largest deductible.

Eating right and exercising and knowing how to tell if you really must see a medical professional is essential to your health overall, and can also save you money through co-pays and insurance coverage. Even high deductible plans usually cover your annual exam and other routine healthcare, so you don't have to pay out of pocket for those. A great solution for young couples, or even older men who absolutely refuse to visit a doctor unless they are on their death bed ;)