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Pneumonia is Scary but Health Care Costs Don’t Have to Be

This post on How to Manage Health care Costs is a sponsored post on behalf of our client, UnitedHealthcare. All opinions and experiences are our own. 

My husband and I thought long and hard about our insurance options before 2017 started. Since the girls are getting older, there are less vaccinations, and hopefully less illnesses, we went with the Health Savings Account (HSA) this year.

Going with an HSA, like those available from UnitedHealthcare, just made sense for us…at the time. Pretax dollars would be going towards our copays, prescriptions, and deductibles instead of the post-tax money from a traditional HMO or PPO plan.

The hope was that during “good” years when everyone’s relatively healthy and our medical expenses are low we’d be able to save funds that would have been spent towards having a PPO or HMO and our HSA would continue to grow.

And then on years where our expenses grew and unforeseen expenses like ER or urgent care visits happened, then we’d have the money to cover them from our account without tapping into our personal accounts or having to budget for the unknown. Even doctor’s visits and prescriptions can come out of this account.

Just three months into the year and we’ve already had an urgent care visit, two pediatrician visits, and an appointment at the radiologist not to mention the prescriptions to go with it. For two sickness…on one child.

In the short term, this has been an expensive couple of months but I know in the long run going with the HSA is the smartest move for our family especially during the slower summer months when we’re hardly at the doctor. It’s hard to earmark funds specifically for medical bills when you don’t know when they’ll happen or how much they’ll be but it’s so reassuring to have the funds ready and waiting.

Even better, all of those expenses that might not otherwise be covered like adult orthodontia or laser eye surgery can also be covered with this money so you get to decide what expenses you and your family need!

Are you ready to learn how to manage your health care costs? Check out these three activities below with three separate chances to win on the site PLUS be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card right here on Live Love Texas for completing at least one of the activities.

1. Check out Cost Quiz 123 with a 3 question, multiple choice quiz.

2. Then check out the Look and Learn video. This short video shares how to avoid cost surprises after enrolling in a health care plan.

3. And finally, Perfect Match, a memory/concentration game with generic health care terms, which helps you understand the basic cost terminology that you may come across in your health care plan.