Book Review: Health Care on Less Than You Think

What's the biggest threat to your long-term financial outlook? I could easily make the case that it's paying for health care. Each year throngs of uninsured people go bankrupt due to their inability to pay medical bills. It may be that they couldn't get insurance due to preexisting conditions that an insurer wouldn't cover. Or they simply couldn't afford health insurance at all.

And they're not the only ones feeling the pain. For those lucky enough to have health insurance through an employer, they're finding that more and more of the costs of maintaining that insurance are being pushed onto their shoulders as business owners' premiums rise. It's a problem that everyone knows about, but no one has done much to correct.

The new book Health Care on Less Than You Think by Fred Brock takes the approach that until the current health care system collapses under the weight of unmet expectations, you're stuck dealing with it - so it's best to learn how to cut your costs as much as possible. At the same time, the book has a loftier goal - to teach you how the health care system works today and to suggest ways that it could change for the better. Maybe all is not lost?

Now, if you're going to title your book Health Care on Less Than You Think, you'd better have some real tips on how to lower costs, and this book does.  For example, Brock goes into detail on health savings accounts (HSAs), which allow you to put money aside tax-free to pay for the deductible portions of your health care. If you don't use all the money in your account, it can continue to grow year to year. In many cases, having an HSA will allow you to get lower premiums because you can keep insurance deductibles higher. (Of course you need to have the money to set aside in the first place for this to work.)

Brock cites a quirk in the prescription drug market that allows pills of different strengths to be sold for virtually the same price. If you have a pill that can be split in half, get your doctor to write you a prescription for the double-strength pills and suddenly your drug price is halved.

There are many other suggestions, some more doable than others depending on your situation. Brocks covers common ways that insurance companies deny claims that you're entitled to, with the thought that most people don't know enough to question or won't go through the hassle to make it right. He discusses the different health insurance rates you might expect in different states - if you're in dire straits, you might consider moving. His information on the costs of branded versus generic drugs is an eye-opener. (Generic drugs may be cheaper to you, but their pricing varies widely, with some pharmacies making a killing on them in comparison to brand-name pharmaceuticals.) And there are plenty of other interesting and/or useful ideas on cutting your costs.

Article Author: Justin McHenry

Justin McHenry is president of Index Credit Cards, a site offering credit card comparisons, research, tips, calculators and a listing of over 1,200 currently-available credit cards.

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