wendow
We create happiness.
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2012
This is pretty much our story with our dd18. She got sick 3+ years ago with a mystery illness, and we were on a HDHP. We ran through the max OOP (10k) in a year and ran through our maxed out HSA...the doctor who she ended up needing was not a doctor our health plan covered so we still have had to pay all bills OOP. It's crazy expensive and has really depleted what was a once healthy savings account. During the midst of all this, I was told the number one reason for bankruptcy is medical bills. I have no idea if that is true but I can believe it.My DH's employer switched to high deductible plans 5 years ago. That is all they offer. We put the max in the HSA from the first year. DH became ill, but no one knew what was wrong with him. We visited every specialist, and were still ok with the high deductible plan because everyone was in network. Then he was diagnosed, and the specialist we needed to see was not in network. We had a $6000 in network deductible, which we hit early every year until then between the two of us. But now, his specialist had a separate out of network $6000 deductible. So, we didn't hit either. Also, in 2017, he ended up needing to get IV treatments twice a week for 3 months. Didn't hit the $6000 until the end of November. There went the entire HSA buildup. So, basically, for the last 2 years we paid everything out of pocket because we just missed the deductible, and now we have no cushion in the HSA.
So, the high deductible plans are great unless someone suddenly becomes ill, there aren't many specialists in the field, and you're forced outside of the network. Then it gets pricey very fast!
This year, I'm going to check out options outside of his employer, while I can still get something that accepts preexisting conditions. Just in case.
ETA: My dd still is in treatment and we pay OOP but the cost is not as bad now as she needs less care.