Health insurance: Would love to hear your thoughts on deductibles

[DUS]

Hi,

 

My annual health plan is up for renewal next month and the insurer has sent me the following renewal options:

 

a/ Renewal of existing policy with a premium of EUR 1,581 and EUR 1,100 deductibles

b/ Renewal of existing policy with a premium of EUR 1,376 and EUR 2,200 deductibles

c/ Renewal of existing policy with a premium of EUR 1,051 and EUR 5,500 deductibles

 

This is OPC only.

 

Is there an easy answer to which option is financially better than the others? I guess, it all comes down to what one can reasonably expect to pay in health costs every year but with nobody having a crystal ball this is difficult/impossible to predict. So, if I may ask, how did you guys decide on the level of deductibles you pay with your policies and what was the reasoning behind your decision? Would be great to learn from your decisions and decision making process. Thank you!

 

DUS

 

[4MyEgo]

I searched long and hard, the main reason was that none of the insurers I tried would take me on with a pre-existing condition which happened a decade ago, so I self insured for 2 years, the deductibles were confusing to say the least, that said, I then sent my broker that does our house and car insurance an email asking if they knew of anyone, bingo, they did all the hard work and found me a health provider who would take on my pre-existing cover for only $50AUS extra per month on top of the normal policy fee.

Why I didn't think of the broker earlier is beyond me ?

 

As for deductibles, there are none.

 

Who did I insure with http://www.davidshieldgroup.com/

[DUS]

1 minute ago, 4MyEgo said:

I searched long and hard, the main reason was that none of the insurers I tried would take me on with a pre-existing condition which happened a decade ago, so I self insured for 2 years, that said, I then sent my broker that does our house and car insurance an email asking if they knew of anyone, bingo, they did all the hard work and found me a health provider who would take on my pre-existing cover for only $50AUS extra per month on top of the normal policy fee.

Why I didn't think of the broker earlier is beyond me ?

 

As for deductibles, there are none.

 

Who did I insure with http://www.davidshieldgroup.com/

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I could have 0 deductibles as well but am tempted by the reduced premiums based on higher deductibles. But being tempted doesn´t necessarily mean that those deductibles make financial sense. I will have another 1-2 weeks to make up my mind. ?

[4MyEgo]

1 minute ago, DUS said:

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I could have 0 deductibles as well but am tempted by the reduced premiums based on higher deductibles. But being tempted doesn´t necessarily mean that those deductibles make financial sense. I will have another 1-2 weeks to make up my mind. ?

It's a tough one, as I would expect you would want to keep your premium down, that said, I suppose you could ask yourself, if you had an emergency and was hospitalised for over 24 hours and the hospital fees came to 350,000 baht, would you want to pay out nothing, or having taken the chance and paid the deductible out of your pocket.

 

Usually takes years to re-coupe the deductibles in savings, so do the math and if you do not foresee yourself ending up in hospital in the next X years, go for the lower one and just hope you don't have an emergency in those years, age will do that to you, all of a sudden, you have had a bla bla bla, not wanting to curse you ? 

[DUS]

Just a quick correction to my original post #1, which I seem unable to edit.

 

I wrongly wrote "This is OPC only", but I actually meant this is for in-patient cover only. Sorry!

[impulse]

On 8/14/2018 at 6:07 PM, 4MyEgo said:

I searched long and hard, the main reason was that none of the insurers I tried would take me on with a pre-existing condition which happened a decade ago, so I self insured for 2 years, the deductibles were confusing to say the least, that said, I then sent my broker that does our house and car insurance an email asking if they knew of anyone, bingo, they did all the hard work and found me a health provider who would take on my pre-existing cover for only $50AUS extra per month on top of the normal policy fee.

Why I didn't think of the broker earlier is beyond me 

 

As for deductibles, there are none.

 

Who did I insure with http://www.davidshieldgroup.com/

 

Just out of curiosity, have you made any claims?  Any big ones?

 

I always find insurance recommendations to be more valuable after someone has made a whopper of a claim, and is still able to renew their policy at a reasonable rate the next year. 

 

Don't get me wrong.  It's good information.  But I've known too many people who were bankrupted when their insurance company found a reason not to pay out, and others who had sticker shock (or were dumped completely) when they tried to renew their policy after they made a claim.  They all look good in the brochures, though.

 

That's the other consideration when looking at deductibles.  If you claim everything down to a sniffle, is your insurance company going to use that against you?   I'm asking the question.  I'm not claiming to know the answer.

 

So many of us have been covered under our employers' group policies where our risks were spread out over a large group.  The calculation changes when you're on your own, buying insurance for a group of one.

 

[brewsterbudgen]

I have a deductible of $2,000.

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[stevenl]

Whether or not deductibles are a good option depends on your ability to pay the deductible out of pocket and the reduction in premium.

[chakatee]

In your quote, the price reduction is too low for the deductible (or the deductible too high for the price reduction). Only if you are admitted (in future) less than once every 10 years the higher deductible will be in your favor.

[gk10002000]

On ‎8‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 2:09 AM, DUS said:

a/ Renewal of existing policy with a premium of EUR 1,581 and EUR 1,100 deductibles

b/ Renewal of existing policy with a premium of EUR 1,376 and EUR 2,200 deductibles

c/ Renewal of existing policy with a premium of EUR 1,051 and EUR 5,500 deductibles

 

c is the best if you don't have any chronic issues and you never require regular payouts or never have any issues.  a is best if you plan on having some issues or maybe getting some expensive treatment done in the next year.   Over the years I always took the highest deductibles with the lowest premiums since I had zero medical issues and I did not care about the deductible, and I was only interested in catastrophic coverage to protect me against major medical expenses.  I saved a ton of money.  Now that I am 61, a few things seem to be creeping in there and statistically are likely to creep in there so I may alter my thinking a bit.  If you take c and have 5,500 in expenses, you would pay 1,051 + 5,500 a year or 6,551.  If you chose a and had the same expenses you would pay 1,581 + 1,100 = 2,681.  So that is over a 2 to 1 cost reduction.  In my mind (a) is the better bet . 

[stevenl]

2 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

c is the best if you don't have any chronic issues and you never require regular payouts or never have any issues.  a is best if you plan on having some issues or maybe getting some expensive treatment done in the next year.   Over the years I always took the highest deductibles with the lowest premiums since I had zero medical issues and I did not care about the deductible, and I was only interested in catastrophic coverage to protect me against major medical expenses.  I saved a ton of money.  Now that I am 61, a few things seem to be creeping in there and statistically are likely to creep in there so I may alter my thinking a bit.  If you take c and have 5,500 in expenses, you would pay 1,051 + 5,500 a year or 6,551.  If you chose a and had the same expenses you would pay 1,581 + 1,100 = 2,681.  So that is over a 2 to 1 cost reduction.  In my mind (a) is the better bet . 

Agreed.

 

I do feel though that the reduction in premium is not enough for the level of deductable. Of course it isn't, the company doesn't want to lose (on average).

 

If high risk I would do a deductable as low as possible, if low risk as high as possible. Those in between options don't contribute very much.