On my big to-do list that I listed in my first entry, I put finding a new insurance plan pretty close to the top of my list. If I quit my job I have to find an alternative insurance plan. It also needs to be a whole lot cheaper because, well, I’m quitting my job.
This task was pretty daunting for me, but I want to use the difference in my old insurance and new insurance to pack into savings to get ready for this big change, which is another HUGE part of my to-do. I absolutely do not want to leave my job without a pretty hefty savings account.
I have always just enrolled in the insurance that my work has. Mostly because it was easy and taken care of for me. Now that we are a family of four, we are on the employee + family and yikes… It’s a lot of money. We are pretty healthy and don’t usually need to go to the doctor, so it just feels like flushing money down the toilet.
There were 3 main things that I was looking for:
Number 1: Saving Money!!
I have looked at other blogs and articles trying to get prepared for how to do this. Most of them look at the total savings and say that a lower premium and higher copay is better. They say this because the overall cost for the year will be less.
Although I get this logic that if you pay a high premium then never actually need to go to the doctor very much, you end up losing money. I get it.
BUT… What I like about the premium is that it’s always the same and I can budget it. Even if it’s a little high. I don’t like the idea of a surprise copay when something happens unexpectedly and we need to go to the doctor. That’s exactly not what you need when you are dealing with medical stuff. These are things to consider when looking at insurance plans.
Thankfully I found something that lowered our premium quite a bit and still has a similar copay to what we already have (the dental and vision is better too!)
Number 2: Keeping our Family Doctor
When you are looking for insurance you need to look at the networks. I knew that I wanted to be able to keep our family doctor. He has gotten me through two pregnancies, so knows my kids from birth. He takes care of all four of us for everything. Keeping him was important to me.
Number 3: Good Coverage (Obviously)
I wanted something that was more specific to our needs. Paying extra for a coverage that we won’t even use is silly. I wanted coverage for the things that my family would need but not a lot of extra fluff.
The Million Phone Calls
I filled out one of those forms to get quotes for my area and let me warn you if you are going to do this. They call IMMEDIATELY. I HAD NO IDEA! They were like vultures. I probably got 4 phone calls in a single 50-minute class at work! My students would laugh every time my phone would go off, saying, “Who keeps calling you?” My lunch break was just me listening to all the voicemails…
Please be warned. If you need insurance and you fill out a form for information, you will get a million calls within the next few days. It did eventually die down but, wow. But I’m actually glad I did that because I ended up being able to talk to someone that was really able to customize what we needed. We have the coverage that we need and it is much better for our budget.
The winner ended up being the actual intellectual that probably looked at my age and realized I most likely hate talking on the phone (especially to strangers and about scary things like insurance) and texted me. I mean, it worked. I actually responded to her! I will take a text over a phone call any day (queue the “Lazy Millenials” rant!).
Why Did I Wait?
This is one of those experiences that make you think, “OK, NOW I’m officially a grown up.” They keep happening! You’d think after graduating college, getting a “grown-up” job, getting married, buying a house, and two kids I would feel like an adult by now. But I’ll admit I still had the urge to call my mom and have her do it all with me. I didn’t! See, Mom… I don’t call you for EVERYTHING… Just hair appointments and stuff. (I did call her immediately after to tell her though.)
Don’t be afraid to talk to an agent like I was! I probably should have shopped around from the beginning but was too intimidated by all of the talk of premiums, copays, deductibles, etc. I just figured my district’s insurance probably was fine and there were people that would come right to my building to talk to me and it was just easier. Once I found the agent that I liked (from my million phone calls), she helped shop around and compare prices. She explained so much to me and she really tried to make it work for us.
I have cut down the cost of our insurance significantly and will be able to start putting that money aside. While I am making my regular income, we will just pretend that we are paying what we were for insurance (we’ve been able to afford it thus far) and put the extra aside.
Which brings me to my next big task: BEEF UP OUR SAVINGS!
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