Do You Give A Duck?

You’ve just had a major car accident and we need to hospitalize you for a week.  How much is your recovery worth?  You gotta pay if you wanna stay!

This is what happens everyday in our country.  Unfortunately many of us are in denial about the possibility of major unexpected events happening to us.  See how this recent study shows how optimistic people are:



Not to be morbid or a pessimist, but here’s the reality:

• In 2012, around 2.36 million people were injured in car accidents and 33, 561 died.¹
• Every 34 seconds someone suffers a heart attack and in 2010 1.9 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed for people 20 and older (results are over 1,900 deaths a day).²
• 1 in 2 men as well as 1 in 3 women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime (results are over 1,500 deaths a day).3
• Over 37 million Americans are classified as disabled; about 12% of the total population. More than 50% of those disabled Americans are in their working years, from 18-64.⁴
• The average length of a hospital stay is 4.8 days and it costs an about $10,000.⁵

Here’s the complimenting financial reality of this:



Now having the wool pulled off of you, what are you doing to prepare?

Unfortunately it is not a question of it things will happen, but when will they happen and how will you handle them.  It’s bad enough these events are physically, mentally, and emotionally straining, but adding the financial aspect is adding insult to injury (no pun intended). 

Quite simply, as I always say:

Have A Plan, Not A Plea.

Do something to help your employees prepare for this.  Undoubtedly if they work for you for some length of time, their families often expect owners to do something to help.  It’s the right thing to do, but do it the smart and fair way.

1. http://www.nhtsa.gov
2. http://www.heart.org , http://www.diabetes.org
3. http://www.cancer.org
4. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2011
5. The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Read More

I Got 99 Problems And ……….

……. Healthcare is number 1 !!



The new year is here and for a lot of people improving their health is a resolution.  Now it’s a mandated law for all of us! 

With that being said, this creates a new budget for a lot of people.  This can either be something that has never been in a person’s budget, an increase in an existing budget, or a decrease.  Either way, a lot of health insurance deductibles are rising. 

This is similar to what happens in the automotive insurance world because people choose a low monthly payment with a high deductible.  I believe this is because most car damage wouldn't be a necessity to fix.  Quite frankly, it’s a little less important to fix your windshield than to fix your heart.  Therefore a lot of people will be financially exposed by going from an average deductible of $2,000 to $4,000.  This doubles the amount that you are responsible for towards your health carrier.  Health expenses planning should be as high on your list as getting your beach body because they both need to be handled by March!

The great thing about this new law is that it greatly improves citizens access to means of preventative care and reduces small emergency costs.  You have to realize though that these health insurance companies will get their money one way or another.  Either you will pay more monthly and less at the hospital or pay rock bottom monthly and take out a loan when you’re in the ER…….

Plan for the worst and hope for the best is what my wife has always said and now we all really should.  Don’t let a decision to get a cheap insurance bill now affect  your family later when you actually have to use that plan.  Cover your risk (the deductible) so bankruptcy doesn't cover you.

Have a plan not a plea.

Read More

This is really a problem….

In 2013 the United States personal savings rate was 4.20%.  That means that a little over 4% of a household’s income is saved over a period of time. 

4%

The median household income is about $51,017 ₁  with an average household size of 4.16 people ₂………………

That means that about $2,000 is saved a year (yeah right) and that is to be used for retirement, emergencies, hospital bills, and child expenses…………

With the new policies for the Healthcare Exchanges rolling out, it will not be odd to see a deductible of $4,000 for the Silver plans (the “benchmark” plan offering the federal savings subsidy).  In general, before Obamacare arose, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average deductible was $2,086₃ for a single person.  That number is already outside of the bounds of the average American’s savings.  Now double that………….

Imagine one doctor visit eating up years of savings for you and you have health insurance………..

The funny thing is that the deductibles for most Silver plans is $4,000, but the maximum annual out of pocket is $6,350.  So the Affordable Care Act does greatly help with preventive care, which all human beings need to improve their quality of life, but for the emergencies it only pays out about $2,000 which is what “we” save on average! 

The creation of national healthcare is a novel idea, but we all now need to intelligently plan our income and expenses so that we protect our futures. 

It’s great to have fire and pet insurance, but now you should look into income insurance, because if something disables you will you have the ability to pay your bills?

Have a plan not a plea.

_{1. Median Income Falls For 5th Year, Inequality At Record High http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/median-income-falls-inequality_n_3941514.html2. The demographic evolution of U.S. households  http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2013/02/18/the-demographic-evolution-of-u-s-households/3 . High-deductible health plans are a growing trend for employers  http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/09/28/5200346/high-deductible-health-plans-are.html}

Read More

It won’t happen to me,……..right?

The world we live in today is riddled with ways to die…………With that being said, we have more technological advances in medicine now to survive these things.

Daily I deal with people and their future.  It’s amazing the things I hear from them though.
For some reason, all people think they are impervious to cancer or a heart attack won’t happen to them. 

Some will even say “if I die I die” or they will pray so it doesn't happen to them. 
Sadly enough, a lot of these people either have family members that have had major diseases or they themselves have the warning signs of them.

61% of people say they would rather die of a crippling disease than live with it because of the money…………..

1 in 2 men will develop cancer in their lifetime……….

1 in 3 women will develop cancer in their lifetime………..

Over 1,900 people a year die of heart related issues…………

These stats come from the American Cancer Society and CDC, not my logic.

With all of this evidence around, why are we in more denial than ever?

Quite simply, it’s the money.  People hope that nothing happens to them because they can’t afford it.  It therefore creates a culture of “I don’t want to jinx myself” or “if I don’t talk about it or think about it, it won’t happen to me.”  If only that were true.

This post is a cry for help.  Not for me, but for America.  It goes back to the old saying, prepare for the worst and hope for the best. 

People work too hard to get where they are and it’s a shame they can lose everything in an instant just because they weren't prepared for an event.

If saving money is extremely hard for your situation or your staff’s you really need to look at some new strategies to help deal with some of life’s inevitable tragedies.

 I don’t mean to be a downer, but it’s better to be a little uncomfortable thinking about this now than when something happens and you have no- way to deal with it…………..

Read More