Benefit of health insurance A cautionary tale In 2012, Amy became responsible for providing her own health insurance. She obtained suitable coverage and paid annual premiums as shown in the following table. Compute Amy's total premiums Except for an occasional minor illness requiring a doctor's attention, a drug prescription, and periodic, routine tests Amy enjoyed good health during those years. Because she had no reason to think that would change, by the end of 2014, Amy was considering dropping her health insurance coverage. After all, she could think of a lot of other uses for the thousands of dollars she spent each year on increasing premiums. Amy decided to pay premiums for another year but planned to take another look at her health care plan at the end of 2015 It Could Happen to You, It Could Happen to Me In December 2015, Amy accepted an invitation from friends to go snowboarding. Amy did everything right: took a lesson, stayed on trails well within her skill level, and maintained an awareness of people and objects near her. Even though she thought it was a bit dorky to wear wrist guards and a helmet, her friends insisted that she take standard and reasonable safety measures Amy was enjoying the day when, from out of nowhere (actually, the woods), came an out of control skier who ran into Amy. Amy was injured and taken to the nearest hospital by ambulance. Amy's injuries included a broken wrist and elbow as well as cuts and bruises. Of biggest concern was the uncertainty of her head injury. Amy spent a couple of days in intensive care. Fortunately, she didn't have a broken skull, but did have a concussion. Surgery was performed to repair the broken wrist and elbow. Since Amy was in good health, her recovery was complete. Amy re to full function in about six months turned Soon after Amy returned home, however, the medical bills for the ambulance, emergency room intensive care, medications, doctors, tests, and other services arrived. Amy also had to have physical therapy for her wrist and elbow. Her total medical expenses were $35,000. It was time to find out if all those premiums paid since 2012 would pay off for just one, albeit dramatic, incident. Overall, Amy's insurance paid 85% of the total medical expenses, thus making her responsible for % of the expenses, or $. Amy's insurance paid $. Her out-of-pocket expenses for the accident of $ plus the 2015 insurance premiums of $ totaled $ .What are reasonable morals of the story? Check all that apply It can beta financially risky to go without health insurance. Think long and hard about the best tradeoff of coverage and cost in a health care plan. Your health can change in an instant. Never leave the house. Don't get sick. Some employers pay [part or all of the health insurance premiums for employees who are enrolled in one of the company's sponsored plans. Assume that during the same time period that Amy paid for her premiums in full that she had, instead, worked for a firm that paid 25% of her premiums for the same coverage. Instead of paying premiums of $ over the years, Amy would have paid $ and saved $. In this case, Amy's out-of-pocket expenses specific to her snowboarding accident would have been______ they actually were because_________
