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...]