Three Simple Ways to Make Your Healthcare Dollar Go Farther

The following is a guest post from Health Harbor.

The average American spends about 6% of their monthly household budget on healthcare, when you include premiums, deductibles, medications, and other related purchases.  For some, the figure can approach or exceed 10%.  While it can be easy to assume that you have little control over healthcare expenses  – your premiums are dictated by your employer, for example, and when you are sick, you’re sick and need care – most people have an ability to make their healthcare dollar go farther than they realize.

While there are dozens of things you can do to get better healthcare value for your money, here are three simple steps that most people could take immediately to pull a few healthcare dollars back in to their monthly budget.

• Go with generic prescriptions when you can.  We have all sat in our doctor’s office, been handed a prescription, and with no questions asked gotten it filled.  Be assertive, though, and make sure you ask about generic alternatives.  A good doctor or pharmacist will work with you to find cheaper options, as well as explain to you if there is a valid medical reason why you need a brand name drug.  The average generic is $40 less expensive than its brand name cousin, and for a few common prescriptions that difference can be over $100.

• Understand the different level-of-care options.  There is a time and a place to go to an ER, for example, but there are many more instances when you really need a walk-in clinic staffed with a Physician Assistant or, at most, an urgent care.  A recent trend, the emergence of “retail clinics” in big box stores and drug chains, can be your budget’s friend, especially for routine care.  Going to the ER is almost always going to be the most expensive way that you can seek care, with the next most expensive being an urgent care, followed by a scheduled doctor’s appointment, followed by a retail clinic.  For common ailments – sore throats, ear infections – the retail clinic will probably suffice and will cost a fraction of the other alternatives.  If you need to see a doctor, scheduling an appointment (if it can wait) will likely cost half of what an ER visit would.

• Use your Flexible Spending Account (FSA).  If you are employed and your employer offers an FSA where you can save pre-tax dollars for healthcare, use it.  There is no other way to get an automatic 25 – 40% discount on your health expenditures.  Your FSA can be used for premiums as well as out-of-pocket expenses, and your Human Resources department should have more information on how to sign up for it.  At a minimum, it usually makes sense for most people to pay for their premiums and save the equivalent of their insurance deductible in an FSA.  Don’t overshoot, though – unlike the Health Savings Account (HSA) which is an entirely different animal, the FSA has a use-it-or-lose-it provision each year.

Comments

[kuros]

here is a suggestion
some time ago there was a balanced report on healthcare in other countries germany, england and japan and i will focus on japan..as a country they wanted to provide universal healthcare..mri machines..the ones that were avaliable where VERY expensive half million and up made in the USA..so Japan built their own...samsung, panasonic..whatever..the point is they made them a hellva lot cheaper in their own country thus bringing down the cost of healthcare...no one in the USA has yet to buy these machines..only the cadillac of MRI machines for us (no GM pun intended) but why not use the ones made in japan?..i hurt my back use the cheaper mri machine..i may have cancer use the cadillac mri...money saved hint: the affordable mri machine will see the cancer too

[Money Beagle]

I just started using the FSA account offered by our company. It's defnitely helped level out health care expenses, which had been a point of frustration in the past. I also expect it to alleviate stress when my wife delivers our first baby next month.