Today as I paid the health insurance premium for the two girls and myself (Brandon has different health insurance through his school), I did some quick calculating and decided that we need to have a Trevino family business meeting to discuss whether or not to continue to have insurance.
I know what you're thinking: WHAT?!?! ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!
Maybe a little, but let me explain a bit about how thins have gone the past few months in terms of insurance and you might end up on my "side" of things.
Note: In an attempt to make things a bit easier to understand, I've done a bit of rounding with some of the figures and the word "mil" is Spanish for thousand. And, if you want to know the U.S. dollar equivalent, you'll get close by taking the amount before the "mil" and dividing by 4.
Here goes...
When we first arrived in Paraguay, and while I worked at ACA during the first semester of this school year, we had insurance taken out of our paychecks. Pretty standard. And when I stopped working in December, we were able to transfer Bailey and I onto an independent plan. There was a bit of drama there as I tried to navigate the technical language of the health insurance world with limited Spanish, but we survived.
We ended up purchasing the highest plan available. Not that we're hoity-toity, but it was what made sense to me at the time. After all, the next lower plan still required an 80mil payment for each doctor's visit, and our doctor's standard fee for non-insured clients is 80mil. Why would I buy insurance only to continue to pay the same fee for an appointment? It didn't make sense. Plus Boston's entire delivery would be "free" on the high plan. That I could handle.
Each month we've been paying 400mil for insurance for Bailey and I. My assumption (and you know what that makes of you and me) was that it was around 300mil for my plan, then an additional 100mil or so for Bailey. Today that was proven to be entirely myth.
On a side note, Costco would fail miserably in Paraguay (yes, I'll bring this back to health insurance, I promise). There is no discount for buying in bulk; not that I've found anyway. Of course you expect to pay by the pound (or rather, by the kilogram) for produce and meats, but nearly all products are "by the pound". One liter of milk? 4mil. Want a case of 12 liters of milk? That will be (4 x 12 =) 48mil, please. One granola bar? 1mil. A box of 8? 8mil. You get the idea. You don't save money by buying big quantities. I have my theories as to why, but that's for another post.
Bringing it back to insurance...
Today I (finally) added Boston to our plan. She cost us 200mil. I realized then and there that there is no standard fee for a family plan. It wasn't 300mil for my plan, and an additional 100mil for Bailey. We had been paying 200mil each all along. And adding another child just added another 200mil.
And it gets better.
The shots that Boston needs (and the few remaining ones for Bailey) aren't covered under the insurance, no matter which plan you have. So tomorrow when I take Boston for her 2 month check-up, I have to shell out an additional 245mil for her shots. Granted, I don't have to pay the 80mil for the appointment, but it cost me 200mil for the insurance needed not to have to pay 80.
Now I realize that insurance is not just for routine visits. It's also for emergencies and big things, like giving birth, right? Let me let you in on a little "secret" . . . it would have cost us 2,000mil (i.e. $500) to pay cash for Boston's delivery. The whole kit and kaboodle. $500 to bring a baby into the world.
Right now I'm SUPER frustrated about paying a total of 600mil for insurance for us three girls only to save 80mil on the appointment and STILL have to pay 245mil for shots. It just doesn't seem worth it. And our experience with the hospital is that health related issues aren't as expensive to "resolve" as they are in the states.
Now don't worry (Mom), we aren't going to go out tomorrow and cancel everything. After all, we're paid up through the end of the month and Brandon's leaving for Brazil on Sunday so we don't have much time to marinate on the issue and make a (calm) informed decision.
But it's not looking good for our insurance company.
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