Bought a United Health Care plan last week.

[NW Admin]

I finally broke down and bought a United Health Care insurance plan last week. I have gone 11 years without health insurance. Thank goodness nothing too terrible has happened to me. I do have some medical bills in collections though.

My husband and I are talking about having a baby now. That, on top of getting older, I knew I needed to get health insurance. If you want to stay out of more debt then you are already in and not lose everything you own, you have to have health insurance in the US. It's just always been too expensive for me.

I started a new job earlier this month. I told my boss the wage that I needed and he wanted to pay me a little less then that. His health plan was with Anthem and I didn't like their Maternity benefit. It has a ridiculous waiting period. I ended up having to negotiate a .50 cent raise after the first 30 days that would pay for me to have my own UHC plan. Thank goodness my boss is wonderful and understanding. None of his employees uses his insurance plan anyway because they are all insured under their spouses plan.

So it took me FOREVER to figure out what plan to choose, what deductible, etc etc. It was a nightmare to me. I was so worried I would make the wrong choice. There was so much information there. I imagine people get confused and buy the wrong stuff all the time. It shouldn't have to be that way. We should just be taken care of and that's it.

I ended up having to take a high deductible plan ($2,500) in order to lower my monthly cost. In the mean time, I added a rider for preventive care that allows me only pay a $35 copay on preventive things. That suited me better then the $1,500 deductible plan since all I really ever need is preventive visits (knock on wood). I also added the maternity rider which I don't think will be a whole lot of help anyway. It costs an extra $100 per month for it and they only pay up to $2,500. If I get prego now, I will get some money out of it, but not much. The benefit increases after two years, but I think we are only having one child. The other upside is that I get discounted rates for having it.

So, I am not sure if I am happy to have it or not. But I have to have it.