Ten years ago, a friend of mine sold his business and accepted a job at Auburn University. Not by choice, by necessity to provide health insurance coverage for his family. Selling his soul, as he called it. Never would I sell mine and be desked.
Now, I'm starting to understand. My entire American life has been spent paying for my own insurance. Not bad when you're in your 20's. But, in my late 40's, the cheapest insurance I can get is $620 per month with an $8000 yearly deductible. With my medical history, that translates to an average of $26,000 per year of out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Years of surgeries and dealing with my insurance company's reluctance to cover services, has left me with the uncanny ability to foresee where they might try to maneuver around me. I paid $9000 out of pocket for a knee surgery that should've been covered, but since then, I document every step of pre and post surgery. I've been known to spend $550 on lawyer fees to coerce them to pay a $380 doctor bill. It's the principle of it.
Now being a full time student at Columbus State University allows me to join the university's health coverage plan.
A fraction of what I pay. Come to mama!
A yearly saving of $4600 on my premiums alone and a mere $500 deductible. I have remained on my current plan for 2020 because in the Winter, my cardiology tests and procedure forced me to cough over $8000, so why jump ships midstream. But, January 2021, I am emancipated.
I had been waiting to see if scholarships I've applied for would come through, instead, I received word that based on my taxable income, I'm fully eligible for 100% tuition and living expenses coverage via federal student loan program. All my medical bills are finally helping me out.
I have found a way to afford to grow old: become a perpetual student. I think I'd like an English major next, followed by French literature.
Might just go for that Master's degree in Kinesiology, that could get me beyond my 71st birthday. I'm onto something!!!
Jamie, Financial Planner Extraordinaire
