Your Health : Your Money

Your health -- Your money Triangle Medsaver introduces some old fashioned ideas whose time has come

Who should be part of your health care future?	You. You are very valuable and your good health is priceless. You want to feel better, or have an injured or worn body part work better. You likely want to stay healthy and live longer.
	Your family. They’ll want to see your good health, but neither you nor they want to lose all the family assets like the house or your life savings that might be needed to pay for the best medical care money can buy. That’s what health insurance was originally for - (more on this in a moment).
	Your doctor and medical staff. Let’s face it, your doctors did not endure medical school, internships, residencies, fellowships, and the many hours studying and continuing to study medicine just so they could push paper around and make billing related phone calls. They are practicing medicine because they want YOU to feel better. They want you to have all your working parts, stay healthy and live longer too. Most doctors would rather spend their time with you and studying treatment options for you. Doctors don’t want to waste that precious time filling out forms to satisfy your insurance company, the government regulatory agencies, or the malpractice insurance compliance committees

Who does not need to be part of your health care future?	Politicians who gain votes with ideas about patient protection, patient privacy, universal health care while the details of their programs will bring just the opposite results.
	Financial managers who say they’ll care for you when their profit will come by how much they can get you to pay for "health coverage", how much they can squeeze the doctors who would provide your "health care", and how well they can limit what services they will have available for you.
	Your employer who sees your health benefit as tax deduction for the business as well as a method to attract and keep you in his company.

Introducing Three Health Care Freedom Strategies
High Deductible Insurance	A Savings Account	Cash agreements
Let’s go back to who should be involved in your health care? If you are the one this year to need major medical treatment, you want to know that you can come up with that money. Your insurance company will pay for the large claims. You want to purchase health insurance only for the purpose of paying very large health care costs, costs beyond a reasonable deductible. What size deductible is practical for your situation? If you are only comfortable with the risk of having to pay $250 or $500 in addition to your usual premiums, then you should purchase health insurance with those lower deductibles. However your premiums will cost significantly less if you can purchase the higher deductibles of $1,500, $2,000, or more. Remember your premiums pay for the insurance to be able to cover high medical costs beyond your deductible and coinsurance. Most people never spend above $500/year on medical bills. Also clinics and hospitals will generally allow you to pay the bill over several months if you can't pay all at once.	Medical Savings accounts were created to give you the equitable tax benefits for money you set aside for health care expenses. Due to the money & politics involved with "tax benefits" MSA's at this time only work for special situations. However you could begin your own Medical Freedom Account. With either the HSA or the MFA you can save through cash agreements with your health care providers.	If you pay cash for health care services at the time of your visit there is a savings in both time and money. The overhead burden of claim forms & billing administration is estimated to be 30-40% of overall health care costs. The savings generated by using cash will benefit both you and your physician. Triangle Medsaver Corp. is a network for physicians and citizens of North Carolina. Member physicians have agreed to offer preferred rates to patients who do not need to involve a third party to pay for routine health services. This win-win solution to health care access is for anyone without insurance or with high deductible insurance, or for anyone wishing to simply pay for services outside of a health plan. See our Membership page for more information. Around the U.S.A. there are various discounts-for-cash agreement systems. In Washington state, SimpleCare has begun a network of physicians and patients based on a simple contract that if you pay cash at the time of the visit, the physician only has to charge you for the time spent on your case. Their website: SimpleCare.com.
Health insurance was never meant to be pre-payment for all medical services you ever want or need. The insurance is to cover the risk that you, or a member of your family, might need a large amount of medical service during a certain time of your life. The insurance is to cover that risk and protect your assets, so that you don’t have to sell your car or cash in your life savings to pay those bills.	If you want to keep your premiums low, go for the highest deductible you can find and put the money you save away in a savings account. If you are eligible for the IRS approved Health Savings accounts use that framework; otherwise you can fix for yourself a medical freedom account. Get the highest deductible insurance that is practical for you and put the money saved by the lower premiums into your savings.	What if you can’t afford that office visit or that screening test? How valuable is your health? A doctor visit or a screening test is about as expensive as a dress and a pair of shoes, or 3-4 family outings to McDonalds, or the price of 5 books and a CD. Surely you can find the cash or credit to pay for these items. 78% of the population pays less than $500 a year on medical expenses. Only 10% ever exceed $2,000 a year. If you are poor enough, have no life savings, or major assets you can get financial assistance for medical care from programs that were set up for that purpose. Everyone can obtain health care one way or another. In the United States we have the best health care in the world.
Watch out for policies that are so cheap that they won’t really be able to help you when you need it the most. Look for the sound coverage you would need in a major medical situation. Don’t waste your premium dollars getting coverage for every kind of doctor visit or for the medical needs you can plan for and save for, like maternity.


Now back to the benefits of paying cash for your routine health needs. Triangle Medsaver Corp. will help you find the physicians in North Carolina who would rather spend time with you than on paperwork. The real benefits will come when your doctors have primarily patients who apply these cash agreements. Those doctors will be the ones who can take the time to talk to you, study treatment options and help you to make your treatment options clear and affordable.