A weekend of work

[omahas]

I had a very busy weekend. And not just because of the things that we as a family did that Elf blogged about. I'm talking about things that I did myself.

Comments

[hydrolagus]

Is the MSA a strategy you would recommend?
And big kudos for keeping the insurance companies to their word.

[omahas]

Is the MSA a strategy you would recommend?

Well, first and foremost, you have to have patience, commitment, and organization skills. If you have those, then yes, I would recommend it. For example, we have had set aside about $2600 this year for the MSA account alone (you can do the same for daycare as well). At the 28% tax rate, that means we save $728 in taxes. What we spend in exchange is the time to track the medical bills (which I do already), faxing, and following up with anything that was denied (doesn't happen often).

So I would recommend it for anyone who is willing to keep up with the process.

[lisakit]

I've looked into it myself (the feds offer a Flexible Spending Account for the same purpose) and have decided that the money I would save in taxes is well-spent on not having the headache. Mind you I have lots of medical bills myself, but I also have a very low tolerance for idiots.

[riverheart]

Some firms' FSAs offer something called a Bennie Card, like a MasterCard but only for medical expenses, which makes things much more convenient. I don't know if we pay for having that convenience or not, but it's worth it if we do. It enables either of us to go to the pharmacy, pick up our prescriptions and put it on the card, without paying a cent in cash at the pharmacy and without filling out any sort of paperwork. If you have a lot of up-front medical expenses such as co-pays for prescriptions or office visits, the Bennie Card is excellent.

[technoshaman]

Man, how you make all those faceless bureaucrats toe the line and not go bugf--- insane, I'll never know. I bow to your superior red-tape-fu.

And a word of advice: Stay away from the Kryptonite. :)

[lisakit]

Glad the day was productive for you! And thanks for the loan of your chariot for the party. ;) Hopefully you can make the next event.

[huddyn]

You know, I did the math comparing that thousand dollar plan to the traditional 20 buck copay plan they cleverly tried to steer people away from, and as it turns out, under that plan in 2006 I would have been 1K out of pocket, compared to $300 via the copay system. This year so far has worked out to similar amounts. If your going much past 2K in overall payments, your better off with the 'old fashioned' plan I think. Especially with all the medical emergencies D had this year, it really paid out for us. Might be worth working out the math come spring.

[riverheart]

For us, a traditional plan is probably the only way to go. Charles has an FSA, into which we put the maximum amount allowable by law every month. We use that up by early to mid November, and all of it every year goes for prescriptions alone. We don't have any left in it for other medical expenses.