semi-necessities: insurance

*i wrote this a few days ago, before oct. 1...i will make some changes based on obamacare (what i know if it right now)

we thought life insurance would be more than we can afford, but it's actually not that bad. and we realized that the more in debt we are, really the more we need it. jake's insurance covers what we still owe on the house, and my student loans, and roughly one year of his salary, and a little extra (we rounded up). so if something were to happen to him tomorrow, i would be more than covered. i would have no more debt, be able to give him a nice funeral, and take some time off work without worrying about anything. since we live on jake's salary, with our debt out of the way i'd then be able to live on mine. i'd probably be able to still work only part-time (this would be most important to us if we had kids). it's making me sad to think about all this! but it's the reality. my insurance would cover my student loans, a funeral, and a little extra. since my salary pays for debt only, basically he would be wiping out what he would otherwise have had to cover on one less salary. if we had kids, our moms/grandmas would likely be able to cover childcare, so that wouldn't be an additional cost.

sorry to seem morbid. but after looking at all that, i am once again so glad we have life insurance. we pay about $64/month for both of us. mine is a 30 year term policy. but in 30 years my loans will be paid off anyway. the majority of jake's is a 30 year as well, but again, at that time the house and student loans will be non-issues. jake does have a little in a lifetime policy -- it would cover about a year of his salary. so that's the life insurance.

because i work part-time, we do purchase my health insurance. it is beyond outrageous what it would cost to add me to jake's; i would literally be working to pay for my insurance. so anyway. we have the super duper cheap-o plan from blue cross blue shield. it doesn't even cover maternity costs, but i guess obamacare is going to change all of it anyway? but i'll just talk about the way it is right now. i think my deductible is about $5000, with a maximum out of pocket of $8000. i happen to know that we qualify for financial aid at our local hospital. so if something awful happened, we would first apply for that. it would knock off about 50% of the bill (from my estimations and the info given on their website). NOT that anyone should plan their lives around a handout -- but we are talking worst-case scenario here. anyway, we would then take out our "emergency medical" amount in our savings, and if we still owe, we could tap into our IRAs. it's kind of scary to think about. but the truth is that i'm very healthy, and have no propensity for anything right now, so a high deductible plan is fine. we really could even raise it. on sept. 30 i received a letter from blue cross blue shield. they automatically chose a plan for me for next year that is similar to the one i have currently. it is simply unaffordable. i have been unable to get on the marketplace, but from what bcbs is telling me, since i am eligible to be added to jake's insurance, that negates my eligibility for any subsidies? which is pretty devastating for us. otherwise i would have been eligible for at least one (everyone under 400% of the poverty level) and probably the other (under 250% of the poverty level). i have chosen a bcbs "catastrophic" plan that looks like it would be fine - this is only an option for those under age 30. i am anxious to get into the marketplace to see what other options i have. so anyway, just keep in mind that our health insurance mindset/planning is now different than when i originally wrote this.

so there's insurance. not so much about ways to save, but more some important things to consider when looking at insurance. hope it's helped :)