…Last night I rolled into my local CVS pharmacy and got my annual flu shot….for “free”.  And it didn’t even hurt.

Even if you’ve never read this blog, it should be no surprise that I have a high deductible health plan.  I am also one of the thriftiest people I know.  My HDHP provides annual physicals for my family so the bulk of our well care is covered.  Pretty much all our other health expenses, I cover at 100%.  But remember, the 100% I cover is paid at the Humana negotiated rate.

Anyway, about the “free” flu shot, last year, on a whim I asked the pharmacy if my insurance plan would cover my shot.  After what appeared to be a 10 minute love affair with the computer, my pharmacist advised me that it was covered at 100%.  I rolled up my sleeve, then wandered down to the cosmetic aisle, and advised my wife of our good fortune, and she rolled up her sleeve.  We then proceeded to go pick up my son from his job, and shared the good news with him, although he did not see it as good news at all and was pretty much pissed at us for the rest of the day.  We called our daughter and told her about her special plans for the afternoon and to saddle on over to the drug store and share in the fun.  She whined and complained and then complied.

At $25 a shot, we saved $100 and avoided the flu.  I haven’t gotten the rest of the family to get their shots yet, but how can they resist?  It’s a total friggin’ no brainer.

So there are a few points to be made here.  First, if you don’t have health insurance, even a modest plan like my HDHP will enable you to purchase medical services at a discount.  Basically you get the negotiated purchasing power of your insurance company, if you shop right you can, through an HDHP get coverage for your well-care (annual physical), and as an added bonus, you might even get your annual flu shots for free!

Last night I rolled into my local CVS pharmacy and got my annual flu shot….for “free”.  And it didn’t even hurt.

Even if you’ve never read this blog, it should be no surprise that I have a high deductible health plan.  I am also one of the thriftiest people I know.  My HDHP provides annual physicals for my family so the bulk of our well care is covered.  Pretty much all our other health expenses, I cover at 100%.  But remember, the 100% I cover is paid at the Humana negotiated rate.

Anyway, about the “free” flu shot, last year, on a whim I asked the pharmacy if my insurance plan would cover my shot.  After what appeared to be a 10 minute love affair with the computer, my pharmacist advised me that it was covered at 100%.  I rolled up my sleeve, then wandered down to the cosmetic aisle, and advised my wife of our good fortune, and she rolled up her sleeve.  We then proceeded to go pick up my son from his job, and shared the good news with him, although he did not see it as good news at all and was pretty much pissed at us for the rest of the day.  We called our daughter and told her about her special plans for the afternoon and to saddle on over to the drug store and share in the fun.  She whined and complained and then complied.

At $25 a shot, we saved $100 and avoided the flu.  I haven’t gotten the rest of the family to get their shots yet, but how can they resist?  It’s a total friggin’ no brainer.

So there are a few points to be made here.  First, if you don’t have health insurance, even a modest plan like my HDHP will enable you to purchase medical services at a discount.  Basically you get the negotiated purchasing power of your insurance company, if you shop right you can, through an HDHP get coverage for your well-care (annual physical), and as an added bonus, you might even get your annual flu shots for free!

I haven’t had a tetanus shot in about 15 years….wonder if my plan would cover that.  Hmmmmmm.

If anything, the overall health of my family has improved over the past 3 years since I switched to a high deductible health plan so the premium increase is neither the result of higher utilization of the benefits nor a general decline in health.  And it certainly is not the result of a stratospheric increase in the cost of the care we have received.

Our insurance costs are increasing primarily due to uncertainty created by the chaos of Obama Care.  Insurance companies are in business to make $ for their shareholders and as the government creates a burden for them, they simply pass it right on to their customers.  In this case, that would be me.

Pretend for a moment you were in business for yourself making widgets.  You are a pretty good business person and for every widget you manufacture, you make 20% profit.  You compete in the market with other widget makers and through competition, your prices are held at a reasonable level.  One day the government decides that because your widgets serve the greater good of society, everyone should be able to buy them.  As a business person, this sounds pretty good right?  Because the size of your market just increased exponentially.  But here’s the rub, not everyone can afford your widgets and in some cases they don’t even want them.  Normally, if you had control over your business, you would simply refuse to sell widgets to those who could not pay, but the government has said you must sell widgets to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.  Well, you are not in business to lose money so, maybe you do some things to enable you to produce your widgets for less money which is a good thing, but you were pretty efficient to begin with.  If you still want to make 20% profit, what do you do now??  You increase the price of widgets to those who can afford them to maintain your profit and offset the losses from sales to widgets to those who can not pay for them to begin with.

In a nutshell, you are Humana, and I just got a 21% premium increase.  Now I have to come up with $635 to cover basically the same benefits I already have.  Suffice it to say, my privates are frosted over this latest insult, but it could be worse.  What if I had a traditional insurance plan and was paying, say $1,000 per month for my insurance and was hit with a 21% increase?  Annualized, I would have to come up with an additional $2,500 just to cover the premium increase.   That’s a pretty big nut in my book.

So looking at your own situation, how big is your nut and what has Obama Care done for you lately?  Is it the panacea we were led to believe it would be?  In the land of purple frogs and leprechauns, perhaps it is.

Anyway, if you are just stepping into the world of HDHPs, “let me be perfectly clear” when the plan says it covers “well care” that means it covers your physical.  Now insurance companies are kind of squirrely when it comes to what exactly they cover in the physical, but in my case it was pretty much the visit and the prostate extravaganza.  Extra stuff like lab work and ECGs in my case, were not covered.   But here’s the thing, if you were paying for all that stuff out of your pocket without insurance at all you would probably go into shock if you had to pay the entire nut. 

Even if you have a high deductible health plan, you get the benefit of negotiated rates, which can be pretty significant.  If I had been a contestant on the Price is Right, trying to guess what the cost of the physical was and the cost of the lab work, “the actual retail price” of those babies would have been $1284.90.  But after the insurance discount I paid 104.84 out of my pocket.  For my money, peace of mind and general health, a hundred and some change seems reasonable to me.

So why well care?  Because it’s like basic maintenance on your car, which could prevent serious problems later on.  If you have a High Deductible Health Plan, the insurance discount can make the price of it affordable.  And if you have an HSA you can pay for it from your HSA either now, or let your Health Savings Account grow, and pay yourself back later.

That’s why well care.

Last Saturday, a local hospital sponsored a free skin cancer screening.  Three years ago, I would have never known about it, and if for some coincidental reason, I had, I wouldn’t have given a crap.

 But, when you have a high deductible health plan with a health savings account and then hear the words “free” combined with “health” your ears are likely to perk up like Mr. Spock’s.  Vulcan “A” man!  

 That was me last Saturday.  I went down there and just had a Vulcan great time having my moles inspected by the mole inspector general.  Actually, it was a very nice and competent PA from one of the local dermatology offices who somehow got enticed (maybe it was a Vulcan mind meld) along with about a half a dozen other qualified PAs as  to check out the moles and other skin irregularities of hundreds of total strangers. 

Not only did they check everyone out, but they gave away a ton of free sun screen samples; and I’m not talking the no-named stuff you get at the dollar store, this was the good stuff.  They were also giving away Braves baseball caps to help protect all those pretty faces.  Now who gets that kind of treatment at the normal doctor?  The last free thing my Doctor gave me was a stool sample kit.  It kind of stunk if you asked me.  

Because I have a very high deductible, the opportunity to take care of my health for the low low cost of nothing, is very appealing.  And that in short is a little bit about what consumer driven health care is all about.

It’s about becoming a smarter health care shopper.  It’s about tuning into one’s own body.  It’s about taking control of one’s well care and health care.   It’s about saving money smartly.  Consumer driven health, in my book, is a pretty Vulcan good idea.

So I rolled the by now clearly sick boy into the car and headed for the “Take Care Clinic” about a mile away located in the Walgreens. It is extremely convenient and at 7:00 at night, it was a total no brainer.

Anyway, I checked him in, gave them my Humana insurance card, and in about 45 minutes he’d been diagnosed and the prescription to take care of his strep throat has been electronically sent to the Publix across the street (sorry Walgreens, but Publix filled the prescription for free plus I was able to load up on Gatorade and Popsicles while I was there).

 My only gripe about the process, is that I am not sure exactly what I am going to have to pay for the visit, because, even though I am obligated 100% for the amount, I couldn’t pay it on the spot because Humana can’t, or won’t, tell the clinic what I am supposed to pay. That’s another rant for another day because that little detail adds to the cost of health care and generally chaps my butt. They will send me a bill eventually and I will pay it. In the meantime I will rationalize it as a free loan.

 The above said, the posted price of the visit was $65 plus the cost of the test, so I’m guessing my visit and the strep test is going to run somewhere between $75 and $100 after the insurance discount. As a bonus I can pay for it from my HSA.

 Now if you are one of those folks who has traditional insurance you might be chuckling at your good fortune, because you would have only had to pay the $25 co-pay for the visit. But I am chuckling at you because unless your employer is a saint, you are having some big chunk of $ taken out of your paycheck each pay period to give you the privilege of that $25 co-pay. In all likelihood, your premiums far exceed my $250 monthly premium (which covers my family of 4). So in the end, I most likely paid less.

Now my insurance plan is less than perfect, but I have saved a ton of money over the past 3 years since I moved out from under my former employer’s COBRA plan and into a high deductible health plan with a health savings account. In addition to the premium savings I have received, my HDHP has provided other benefits including the tax advantaged HSA which have made it a good choice for me. In my plan, I pay for what I use, I have coverage in the event someone in my family has a major medical need, and I have a mechanism to save like crazy.

Recently, we’ve been discussing the merits of a new program, My HSA Rewards which is an online shopping program that helps consumers save money on the stuff they buy every day as well as the stuff they buy every so often and put money into their health savings account at the same time.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I helped put that program together, so while I am biased, I am honestly biased.  My background is loyalty marketing and I’ve been involved with, helped build, partnered with, benchmarked, and analyzed some of the world’s most prolific loyalty programs.  So I do have some credibility when I say things like “My HSA Rewards is an extremely easy program to sign up for and use, its value proposition is competitive with pretty much every online shopping program out there, and is the leader in its space.”

The above sounds like a big fat ad, and to some extent it is, but I want to talk for a moment about how I have been using My HSA Rewards for my business.  I am a small businessman who, among other things, helps companies make their loyalty programs better.  In the course of my business, I have had the need recently to purchase travel, computers, printer ink, printing services, wireless services, reference books, and dining. I try to push as many of those purchases through My HSA Rewards.  Some of the brands include Staples, HP, Priceline, Vistaprint, Restaurant.com, and 1,2,3 Inkjets and by using them, in addition to saving money on the purchases themselves, I am approaching $200 in incremental savings into my Health Savings Account.  As the thriftiest guy on the planet, that makes me feel pretty good.

So last week, I ordered flowers for my Mom through My HSA Rewards and in the process put 10% of the cost of the flowers back into my own pocket.  Well, actually better than that, I will get money back that will go into my Health Savings Account.  I’ve written about this a few times, and will keep doing so as long as I am using it as a mechanism to fund my HSA.

If you just landed here for the first time, My HSA Rewards is a program  you can use free of charge to save more money into your HSA.  Specifically, when you make purchases through My HSA Rewards with any of their 400-500 or so online merchants, a % of each purchase is returned to you’re My HSA Rewards account.  When you reach $50 in your account, you can transfer it into your HSA at whatever bank you have it.  Simple.

As for me and my Mom, I get a cash reward and she gets flowers.  I clicked on the Pro Flowers button at My HSA Rewards, but My HSA Rewards also offers 1-800 Flowers and FTD.com, and I have bought from them as well.

So, while you may not be sending Dad flowers for Father’s day, it he is interested in pretty much anything, you can probably find it through My HSA Rewards.  See for yourself how you can help yourself and maybe even make your Dad smile in the process.

How so you ask?  I’ll get to that in a minute.

You might be thinking, this guy is going to put a whopping $300 into his HSA.  Big whoop if his deductible is $10,000, that’s hardly a dent.   But I look at every dollar I contribute in as important, and I look at it from a relative perspective.  In my world $300 is the cost of a couple of visits to the doctor for my kids when they catch whatever is going around that month.  Or it’s the annual cost of one of my kids acne medicine.  Or it covers the difference between what my insurance policy pays for well care (included in my policy) and what the doctor actually bills me for the visit.  So for me, $300 of “found” money is real.

Last summer a program called My HSA Rewards was quietly launched to help folks like me save for my health care expenses.  I joined the program online and then when I need “stuff,” I try to buy as much of it as I can through the My HSA Rewards website.  Every time I buy “stuff,” a % of my purchase is returned to me, and specifically into my, My HSA Rewards account, where I can keep up with it.  When I have accumulated $50 in “stuff” related $s, I click a button and the money is sent to my HSA  at my bank.  It doesn’t matter what bank I use; so if I ever move my account from one bank to another, I can continue to earn $s in the program and transfer the funds into my HSA.

So what is my personal definition of “stuff”?  In the past year, I have purchased a tea kettle, two de-humidifiers, airline tickets, hotel nights, sheets, skin care products, compact discs, restaurant discount vouchers, electronics including a laptop, text books for my kids, printing services, ink for my printer, and flowers for my Momma (twice).  In all, I made 44 purchases for stuff I was going to buy anyway, from vendors I trust, at competitive pricing.  In fact the program has something like over 400 merchants in the program, so there’s a pretty good chance that if you can think it up, you can buy it through My HSA Rewards.     

Total no freaking brainer.  Especially, since there is not cost to sign up. 

Bottom line, I like the program, it is easy to use, and all the little purchases and big support my desire to find more efficient ways to save, and specifically save for my health care.

I was in mid-town Manhattan a few weeks ago and saw a woman in a bright yellow sweat suit walking up the sidewalk.  Plastered across her two bouncing butt cheeks was the word “Pink.”  The First Amendment allows for freedom of speech, so while I respect the woman’s right to draw attention to her caboose, I’m not sure why she was doing it.  I felt like I was looking directly into the sun itself.  My retinas burning, I had to squint in pain and turn away.  I wonder if that was her intent?

Then I saw another woman wearing a different sweat suit.  Hers had the word “Juicy” plastered across it back.  With all due respect, this woman was not “juicy.”  As a guy, when I think of the word “juicy,” generally it is the context of a nice piece of meat smoking on the grill and a cold beer in my hand.  Like the “Pink” lady; this woman was neither “juicy” nor was she a T-bone.  In fact she had a bad dye job, huge sparkly sunglasses, and fingernails that never stopped.  While her nails mayhave been good for back scratching, were she to read this article, she’d probably wouldn’t think twice about using them to scratch my eyeballs out. 

As I ruminate (imagine a cow chewing cud) about “Pink” and “Juicy” I can’t help but think; a sweat suit does not a healthy person make (the voice of Yoda in ringing in my head here).   Although putting on sweats, anticipates a little exercise, I’m pretty sure neither “Pink” nor “Juicy” had that on their agenda for that day.  I also doubt either one of them has ever heard of a Health Savings Account.  My point of all this is that good health requires action.  The action starts with some self-awareness, a little planning, and behavioral changes.

If your modus operandi is to draw attention to big cabooses and bad dye jobs, may the power of “pink” and “juicy” be with you. But (pun recognized) if you are looking to take control of your health in a more productive way, then read a few more posts.  Who knows, you might actually decide it’s ok to work up a little sweat in that suit you’re wearing.

Did you know if you had an HSA established in 2009 you can still contribute to your HSA for the calendar year 2009 and take the full amount of your contribution as a deduction?   Even though we are just 16 days from tax day (on the day of this being posted).  If you are insuring your family, that is $5950 right off the top of your gross income.   So, for example your adjusted gross income was  $40,000 for last year, you coud subtract $5950, leaving you with $34,050 on which you would owe federal income tax.  If you insuring  just yourself, you can still contribute up to $3,000 before April 15 and reduce your tax liability by that much.

So,  if you have an HSA and have not taken advantage of this generous tax deduction, try to see if you can find some money and fund that HSA.  It’s not to late to take full advantage of your HSA’s tax benefits for last year.