The End of Employer-Provided Health Insurance: Why It's Good for You and Your Company

Chapter 12How to Reduce Your Individual Healthcare Costs

By now, you have most likely discovered you can save thousands of dollars each year by purchasing your own individual health insurance plan. Once you switch to individual health insurance your healthcare paradigm shifts:

• You now want to cut down on your healthcare spending since each dollar you save you get to keep—and over the years these dollars could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• You must learn to balance your new financial incentive to save on healthcare costs against the legitimate healthcare needs of your family.
• You have a new incentive to eat better, exercise more, and invest in wellness care to improve your health—since staying healthy is the best way to save on your healthcare costs.

In this chapter, we will examine six things you can do to save on your healthcare costs:

1. Ask your employer to reimburse your individual insurance premium.
2. Shop for a new health insurance plan annually.
3. Open a health savings account (HSA).
4. Ask your doctors to spend your money as if it were their money.
5. Save on pharmacy costs.
6. Change your lifestyle (diet and exercise).

1. Ask Your Employer to Reimburse Your Individual Premium

If you or your spouse is employed, you should contact your company's HR department to request they adopt a defined contribution healthcare program. With this approach, instead of providing a one-size-fits-all employer-provided health insurance plan (a defined benefit), your company reimburses ...