Unexpected expenses: causes, impacts, and management strategies

Unexpected Expense

A common unexpected expense that plagues millions of Americans annually, are unexpected medical expenses. While this can be obviously financially devastating to the uninsured, it can also be very costly to people with medical insurance as well. Many of the medically insured are often denied compensation for medical related expenses due to the insurance companies not covering certain items. Such items include pre-existing conditions, not going to an insurance company approved physician, having a procedure performed that isn't approved, or visiting an out of network provider in a case of emergency. Unexpected medical expenses are the number one factor in personal bankruptcy filings and destroy the financial vitality of millions of families every year. It is not enough to just have insurance anymore. Individuals must be familiar with the terms of their coverage, work with their providers, and plan for situations that may not be covered under their medical insurance policy.

U.S. Health Care

The health care industry in the United States should be of interest to anyone who lives there and expects to visit a doctor anytime in their lives; which is effectively everyone. A lot of the public dialogue in the media claims that the U.S. health care system is the best in the world. Furthermore, the U.S. spends more on healthcare per capita than any other nation in the world; nearly double any other country. However after conducting a little research it is relatively easy to find claims that the U.S. does not in fact have the world's best health care system; or anything close in fact. Furthermore, the U.S. system represents the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't have some provisions in place to provide some kind of coverage to all of its citizens.

Despite the enormous costs imposed upon Americans, the results don't seem to justify the expenses. Currently the U.S. ranks in the high thirties on some grading criteria such as infant mortality, adult female mortality, and overall life expectancy. The overall performance of the health care system is ranked somewhere around thirty seventh in the world in terms of overall performance excluding the financial considerations.

Conclusion

It is critical for every U.S. citizen living under the current health care system to realize the strengths, weaknesses, and risks that they will face when turning to the system for unexpected health care expenses. Since the potential for financial disaster under this system is incredibly real, it behooves anyone to prepare for the unexpected expensive well ahead of time. Even though the costs are enormous and the outcomes, on a whole, rate well below the average for industrialized nations, it is reasonable to speculate that not everyone necessarily has such a bad experience.

An individual or family plan should be created with addresses unexpected expenses that may arise from either emergency or non-life threatening conditions. Being familiar with the limitations of your plan is basically the only preparation that may be able to help someone in an emergency situation. However, many times under conditions that are not life threatening, individuals may have more options than they realize. One thing that can help protect you is to verify and request a written notification regarding any questionable procedure that may be performed from the insurance company ahead of time.