It has been said that the first wealth is your health. Indeed, it is difficult to plan your future if health concerns for you or your family are an issue. But plan you must, especially if health issues may impact your quality of your life, either now or in the future.
The planning process starts by transferring as much of the financial risk of healthcare as possible using commercial health insurance. Traditionally, obtaining health insurance was a straight-forward proposition: you purchased major medical group health insurance coverage at work, joined an association to get small group employee coverage or joined an HMO. The impact of sky rocketing health insurance costs is now a major financial problem for employers and families. For example, access to affordable health insurance could influence your ability to change jobs and determine the timing of your retirement before reaching Medicare eligibility. Health insurance planning has become an increasingly important part of the financial planning process, especially for folks considering early retirement.
Consumer-driven health insurance and the advent of the health savings account looks like the wave of the future for both employees and business-owners. The HSA has a number of advantages (and some disadvantages as well) that require a thorough examination of your family’s unique situation to determine if it is a suitable insurance alternative.
Living Wealthy Advisors offers comprehensive health insurance planning and third-party administration services for small group health plans. We partner with independent health insurance professionals to help our clients implement our health planning recommendations.
