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How I Cut My Health Insurance Cost in Half

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Real Estate Agent with Roberts Realty

For years I had Blue Cross and my wife Kaiser.  I take Lipitor, and my wife is diabetic.  Insurance premiums and co-pays for meds had risen to over $1200 per month.  I received an e-mail late last year from the California Association of Realtors about various health plans.  Kaiser had an open enrollment for one month (they'll accept anyone during this period).  I noticed that they have a high deductable plan ($2700 per year per person), and the premium for both of us is $440 per month.

What about the meds?  We live about 3 hours from Los Algodones, Mexico  and have been going there for our dental work and eyeglasses (I'll post another blog about this tremendous saving).  Meds are cheap there, especially generic ones.  They even have generic meds for ones that are not availible up here.  Anyway,for example I get a sinus infection from time to time. My doctor prescribes amoxicillan, $20 co-pay for 20 pills for generic through Blue Cross.  A bottle of 100 in Mexico was $1.90 the last one that I bought! And these 2 cent pills work just as well as the $1.00 a pill ones bought up here. My monthly cost for 20 mg. Lipitor was $58.00 as Blue Cross doesn't like to pay for name brands. I buy a bottle of name brand Lipitor, 80 mg. 30 pills for $80.00 (not much difference in the cost of 20 or 80 mg).  I bought a pill cutter for a couple of bucks, and cut them in 1/4th--120 pills.  $20.00 a month for name brand Lipitor by being a little creative versus $58.00 per month buying them up here.

The bottom line is now our premiums and med cost are right at $600 per month, a saving of $600 per month.  By staying on our old medical budget for 10 months (stashing away the $600 a month saving) we have the full deductable put away, and will save $7200 a year from then on.  At $3.50 per gallon for gas, it cost $45 in gas for each tripto Mexico plus wear and tear.

I know this can't work for everyone, and deductable wise its a slight gamble, but I had to do something to cut the high costs of health care.  And I  have to drive the 3 hour trip to Mexico every 3 months (Customs allows you to bring in 3 months supply of meds at a time).  But the food's great down there, and a great place to do Christmas shopping. The people in the this town are some of the most friendly people that I've met, and they speak English very well. Too well actually, as chit-chatting always adds an hour or so to the tirp.

An important footnote.  Wal-Mart now has a list of generic meds, most at $4.00 for 60 pills.  This might put the Mexican pharamicies out of business.

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