Paying for health insurance can be a real drag, especially if we’re young, healthy, and convinced we’re invincible.
News flash: we’re not invincible, and even though health insurance can be a little expensive, there are ways our responsible selves can ease the financial burden while continuing to be covered…just in case our non-invincible status begins to show.
During the ‘90s, the powers that be introduced one of those ways, known as an MSA, or “medical savings account.” MSAs, when coupled with HDHPs, allowed peeps to save up for and afford medical expenses, while at the same time lowering the overall cost of medical treatment.
An HDHP is a high-deductible health plan, and here’s how it works:
Picture a sandwich. Not just any sandwich, but an ooey, gooey, PB&J. Mmm, right? Okay, in this analogy, our HDHP is the jelly and the MSA is the peanut butter. The HDHP is our actual coverage plan: it’s sort of sweet, kind of messy, maybe thicker than we need over here, but a little sparse over there. The MSA is like the peanut butter, because it’s the part that gets the HDHP to...stick. We put money into the MSA (tax-free), and then we can use that money to pay for our deductible health expenses.
After changes in healthcare laws created health savings plans (HSAs) in 2003, MSAs largely went the way of the dinosaur. In fact, MSA funding expired in 2007, though there are some MSAs still out there in existence. HSAs act very similar to MSAs: in simple terms, they are a tax-free savings account where we can stash money until we need to use it for medical expenses.
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Finance: What is medicare versus medicai...3 Views
Finance allah shmoop what is medicaid medic You hear the
soldier screaming all the time in war movies i need
aid Well that kind of is what it is Financial
aid but medicaid is basically health insurance for the poor
that is administered by the states but whose purse strings
are generally controlled federally i'ii centrally In washington medicaid is
the financial health bomb for over sixty five million americans
who simply can't afford their own health insurance Taxpayers give
their dough to the government which then re apportions it
to the masses to pay for everything from treatment of
boo boos and out cheese Teo you know serious things
Why do we have it Why do we have medicaid
Well if you're a middle class quote average josie unquote
in this country and on any given sunday night you're
sitting in your heated home while it's snowing outside and
you have your tv on and you belt from a
nice meal How you going to feel seeing a slow
moving stream of homeless joe's walking by outside coughing desperate
for health care How does that feel Well maybe the
costs were so high they used to be you sitting
In there nice warm house but their kid got sick
or they got sick or something else happened and had
to sell their home their car everything covered the doctor
bills So yeah as a country we just don't do
india Yeah we don't treat people like that We don't
have our politicians and successful people live like this while
the huge percentage of our population you know lives like
this Medicaid is one of a bunch of social welfare
entitlements we offer as a country and we posit that
these combined are in fact one of the many things
that does make us great So yeah medicaid is specifically
angled toward covering the medical cost of the poor it's
not done perfectly it's not done efficiently it could be
done a whole lot better but at least it's done
We also have medicare which covers the medical costs of
the old the g's er's the ones who no longer
work for the most part except for driving for uber
there are over sixty five and many of them are
sick or at least they need pills in one form
or another Medicare comes in a few flavors all named
part this and part that like there's part ay which
covers hospital insurance ever been to an e r they
cost like a grand or three a night Yes more
than the honeymoon suite at pebble beach and way less
fun And if things are really bad it covers hospice
Yeah for the the end with capitol the end then
there's part b which covers the more basic less emergency
today today outpatient care issues from pill subscriptions toe therapy
then there's part c which is basically the arrangement between
your employer and government health care You know hmo's p
pose and so on that is essentially your employer pays
medicare to just handle your coverage soup to nuts and
you know unless you're allergic to nuts don't don't don't
do that and party is all about drugs D for
drugs see thats what it stands for that's how you
remember it that's medicare and medicaid these social entitlements while
helping plenty of people cost the country of fortune And
yes there is corruption in the system and lazy people
who are just they're collecting a paycheck And yes computers
and robots will help us manage all this stuff more
efficiently in the future But the suffering they stave off 00:03:07.92 --> [endTime] is worth it