Your Most Important Asset

It's time for the (almost) annual health post. I've done quite a few of these over the years usually coinciding with re-upping health insurance. It seems crazy that we all have to start over every year to sign up for health insurance. Healthcare was a mess and then the Affordable Care Act broke it to the point that it appears no one knows how to fix it. When ACA was in the process of being passed into law, skeptics were saying it was a Trojan horse on the way to socialized medicine. I'm not a fan of that outcome but the current system isn't working and they don't know what to do (repeated for emphasis) or maybe we're so politically dysfunctional that there will never be a way to agree about what to do. 

Ok, onto health insurance for 2023. For most of the last several years we've had what has amounted to catastrophic coverage and we're going that route again. The deductibles are sky high with these. I have a quote from Blue Cross of Arizona for $541/mo which would cover both my wife and me. That's actually down $4/mo compared to 2022 for Golden Rule. 

The coverage includes four free doctor visits so an annual physical for each of us and then maybe if there was a follow up needed or if something came up during the year. There's also information about prescription coverage, diagnostic tests if anything needs to be done beyond basic preventative care and so on. Kind of an interesting bit of information they provide as part of the quote is an estimate of all-in costs. The estimate is not defined like is it by age group, non-smokers, is it for everyone, not sure. They estimate that on top of the $6500 for annual premiums, I would need to spend $800 more annually on doctor visits, $4500 on lab tests and $800 for prescriptions for an all in around $12,000/yr, $1000/mo. 

If we went full-boat with an HSA eligible ACA plan, real insurance, we'd probably have to pay about $1500/mo and I don't know to what extent we'd be on the hook for extra doc visits, test and prescriptions on top of that. 

For years, I've tried to make the point here that staying healthy has direct cause and effect financial benefits. As was the case for 2022 we're saving about $1000/mo because we can get away with catastrophic coverage and by Blue Cross' estimate, another $500/mo on other medical expenses. We might spend $100/mo on supplements but that is in our grocery budget. Vitamin D and zinc are cheap, turmeric and magnesium glycinate are expensive. 

It's not lost on us that we've been mostly lucky so far with this stuff but we're also doing the work in terms of maintaining good habits, simple habits. I lift weights, eat very little sugar (carbs) and do a very easy version of intermittent fasting, my first meal of the day is a little before noon on most days.

Greatly reducing healthcare expenses and maintaining the ability to bend down and pick up heavy things contribute mightily to the type of optionality I write about so often. How much are you likely to need to spend per month for everything when you're retired? $5000/mo? $10,000? More? Not spending that extra $1500 per month on healthcare stuff will make a big impact at just about any non-one-percenter level. If it is looking like you might be pinched a little to make your retirement numbers work and you'll need some sort of part time, active income then you'll have more options by still being able bodied. 

To the title of this post, I would say health should be our top priority. Yes family should be the top priority but if you're sick, not able bodied, you can't meet the needs of your family anywhere near as well.

Obviously anything, health-wise, can happen to anyone at anytime. A part of life is that sometimes, you can do everything right and it still not work out the way we'd like. The way I am wired, I would not be able to forgive myself for not doing all that I could to stay healthy and fit.