“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Aflac. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.”
When I was a kid, my parents never explained to me the need for medical insurance. I knew we all had it and I always saw my parents take me to the doctor and write them checks but not until I got older did I really know how much medical bills cost.
My parents both worked regular jobs when I was a kid so they had insurance through their employers, like most people do. They had medical, dental, and vision because I wear contacts and my dad wears glasses. And as a kid, I always just thought that going to the doctor cost $20 because that's what I saw my parents pay when we were there.
When I got older, I finally learned that going to the doctor was very expensive unless you had insurance. And I learned this when I got married and didn't have any insurance at all. And during that time, I ended up having a problem with my eyes and had to go to the emergency room. And since I didn't have any insurance at all, I ended up getting a bill for over $2,000! If I would have had insurance, that would have been taken care of significantly more.
Do you know much things cost without insurance? With Aflac's Real Cost Calculator, you can put in your gender, age, and then modify your income level, monthly rent and more. After that, you can also pick what scenario you would like priced. In the above picture, I picked a heart attack for my age. I didn't modify my search results only because my rent and income are private. So for my age, it would cost me $27,621 to have a heart attack. Could you imagine getting a medical bill in the mail for that much?
Up until last year since I'm a full time blogger I didn't have any insurance for myself. Until I found out I needed foot surgery last December. So I applied for insurance for the first time in my life and my surgery which would have cost me thousands of dollars, only cost me my co-payment of $30. I didn't pay another cent towards it at all. But not all insurance is like that, I have to say. Make sure to read up on different plans before you buy something. When I was choosing my insurance, it took me over a week to compare all the different plans for my age and to see what they would pay. And since I take medicines daily and I see doctors, including specialty ones, I had to get a plan that would pay for those things for me.
So if you don't have any insurance, you're putting yourself at a huge risk. What if tomorrow you broke your leg? A broken leg for me is $11,641 and I don't know about you, but I don't have that just lying around to give freely. So it would be a good decision to start checking into health insurance plans. Even if you're a freelancer like me, you can still buy private insurance as well so always keep that in mind.
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