Rising health care costs are nothing new to the average person living in America these days. However, with unemployment on the rise and the economic recession upon us, having affordable health care has become a greater concern for many people. I recently saw a story on the nightly news a few weeks ago about the rush of surgical procedures that took place right before the new year. The reason for this increase was that people were concerned about losing their jobs in the coming year or losing their health care coverage from their employers. Another reason was that many employers and health care providers are raising deductibles in order to outlast this economic downturn. While I understand where a lot of these people were coming from, I found it sad that they felt forced into having procedures within a set calendar year just to afford it.
My wife and I have our own concerns about rising health care costs and fitting them into our monthly budget. Our oldest son has severe asthma and food allergies. Last year, he was hospitalized for a week due to complications from his asthma. At that time, our health care insurance had a $1,500 deductible per family member – which ended up being the bill for that week long stay. Fortunately, he was hospitalized in January which meant that we didn’t have to pay anything else for him the rest of the calendar year. Since that time, our deductible has increased to $2,000 per family member. That is a significant increase and one that we are very concerned about. Anyone with young children knows that they risk picking up all sorts of bugs from school and their classmates. Having a child with asthma increases those risks dramatically.
While it is impossible to completely prevent the risk of having your children or others get sick, my wife and I are looking to the following list of items to avoid another hospital stay for our oldest son. In addition, we are using these practices on our youngest son as well as ourselves to try and keep rising health care costs in control for our family budget.
- Eat Healthy – An obvious tip, but one that is so true. A proper diet can go a really long way to staying healthy and keeping out of the doctor’s office. We try and eat our fruits and veggies in place of chips and junk food.
- Exercise – Another tip that doctor’s and experts always say but one that has worked so well for myself over the years. I am an avid runner and love to exercise. I find that when I stop for a week or so, I feel more lethargic and my immune system becomes weaker. I am a firm believer that keeping a healthy weight and exercise is the most important thing you can do to stay healthy.
- Vaccinations – I have some mixed feelings in this area but we get our two boys the flu vaccine every year. It is not even a question for our oldest son with asthma. My wife and I choose not to get the flu shot and debate this often. I am not a huge supporter of pumping your body full of these vaccines but also understand why people choose to. I think people with lower immune systems like children and the elderly should receive these vaccines.
- Sleep – This is the hardest thing for me to do. There are so few hours in a given day that I often jeopardize the number of hours I sleep. I hope to personally work on this area in the coming year. We absolutely make sure our two boys get the appropriate amount of sleep for both developmental and health reasons.
- Avoiding Exposure – This is very difficult to do with children but something to think about. While I believe it is important for children to have some exposure to sickness in order to build a healthy immune system, we don’t overdue it with our oldest son. Kids with asthma are at a greater risk of coming down with a cold or flu. When we know that someone may be sick, we simply avoid seeing them until they are better. Obviously you can’t control going out in public and coming down with something, but we try and limit exposure that we can control.
- Combat Sickness Early – This is so important for our oldest son with asthma. The first signs that he has a cough or stuffy noes, we take action. Raising children with lower immune systems requires a lot of discipline and extra care. By combating an oncoming sickness early, we can reduce the chance of a doctor’s visit or hospital stay.
I actually feel fortunate to have health care provided to me by my employer. I can’t imagine how people without health care insurance even survive. I guess they just go without. Recently, I spoke with several friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers about how they are managing their health care expenses in these hard economic times. It was tough to hear but some of the people I spoke with on fixed incomes are actually cutting back on eating and the food they buy in order to afford their prescriptions. I have heard news stories on this topic before where people have to choose between eating and taking their prescribed medication – but I never actually knew people who had to do this until now.
How are you managing your rising health care costs?
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