This chart is helpful, but it only reflects Premium changes.
Here in NY, our premiums may be lower, but our personal out-of-pocket and co-pay amounts have increased by thousands.
My family’s overall payments have increased by about 75%, but we combat that by not going to scheduled medical appointments and skimping on prescriptions.
“Here in NY, our premiums may be lower, but our personal out-of-pocket and co-pay amounts have increased by thousands.”
Oh, you betcha. I also lost $800 of Flex Plan contribution through my employer. It is now ILLEGAL for him to be as generous with us as he was. Max for full time employees is now $500 that he throws in (we can make up the additional, up to $1,300.00/year if we want) and part-time employees that WERE in the Flex Plan have lost that benefit, entirely.
When this all shook out, I did a few things: Raised my deductions so more of my $ would be in MY pocket each month, versus getting ANY ‘refund’ at tax time, and I upped my 401K contributions to the max (I was half way there) to also protect those dollars from taxes. For now.
It’s just insanity! And after doing all of THAT, any monthly cash-flow I gained has been immediately eaten up in higher food and fuel bills. Grrrrrr!
And don’t even get me started on negotiating the MAZE of Medicare that I have to run through each time my elderly Dad get the sniffles. He’s not eligible for Medicaid because he has a lousy $16K in an IRA that we have to burn through first, and he was just diagnosed with diabetes, so we now have THAT added expense each month.
Yep. We had a pretty good system, not perfect, but how anyone can make sense of it these days is beyond me. I mean, it’s become another full time JOB for me to keep up with this stuff!