To insure or not to insure?

December 25, 2010 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: I have a 6-year-old daughter. In the past, I decided not to have health insurance for her or myself. This is because we eat healthy and exercise. When we get sick, we eat even healthier and drink lots of tea and get lots of rest instead of going to the doctor. However, she is at the age where I worry about her breaking an arm or injuring her teeth or something. I don’t want to pay $350 a month and up for full coverage when I will use only the accident portion of the coverage. I know they offer accident-only coverage. Do you think this is a good idea and do you know which ones are good? Or am I better off putting $200 a month into a savings account in case she has an accident?

DEAR READER: I personally know a number of people who “self-insure,” meaning that they put a specific dollar amount away each week or month in case of an accident. [Read more...]

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Reader takes Gott to task on insurance issues

April 24, 2010 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: My husband and I are both self-employed. I won’t even go into what has happened to our businesses these past few years. We are 56 and 57 years old. Our health insurance costs us $14,000 a year, with a $5,000 deductible. Please don’t advise us to find a cheaper policy, as I continually shop around! We have no preventive-care coverage. When you and all other medical advisers recommend routine tests, you are simply talking to patients with the best medical policies provided by their employers. These are the patients who are making doctors and medical centers wealthy and causing us private payers to pay unaffordable premiums.

My husband and I do not get a routine colonoscopy. It’s a $4,000 expense at our local facility. The last time we had routine blood work, it was around $500 each. [Read more...]

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