Ok, this seems like a no brainer but we're trying to make a tough decision. I currently do not have health insurance. My dh is covered through work and starting in July, I can coverage through him. The problem is he pays $1 after employer allowance for insurance. If I were to go on his ins. it would be $44 a wk. after the allowance. He doesn't want to get ins. on me because I never go to the doc. (need to go this yr. for pap and that other fun stuff) and he doesn't want to lose that $ out of his check. My parttime job doesn't have health benefits. I told him I was also concerned that if we wanted another child, I'd need ins. cause w/ out it, we couldn't afford the medical bills. He said we're not having another one. I argued that if we have an oops (not on birth control) we'd need coverage or if something happened to me and I'd need the emergency room. We also need dental ins. I just dropped mine cause I was planning to go on his plan and he needs it for wisdom teeth extraction. I just want him to understand why we need this and what could happen if I didn't have ins. and needed the doc.

I honestly believe from the bottom of my frugal heart that the $44 a week is more than worth it. You are healthy now but you never know what the future holds and an accident or cancer would be catastrophic to your family. If you wait until something happens it will be a pre-existing condition and you won't have coverage. When you're healthy is the time to get good insurance.

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My mother in law and father in law were without health insurance for over 5 years after she lost her job. They didn't think they could afford to pay for it on their own so they just never went to the doctor. During that time my father in law developed a hernia which he never had treated.

When they got insurance again (mother in law finally got enough hours at her part time job to qualify) she started using it right away and went in for her physical. They found out she has breast cancer. My father in law still can't get his hernia treated until October because it is considered a pre existing condition.

Health insurance is so monumentally important! If my in laws had health insurance my father in law's hernia would have been treated well over a year ago and they would have caught my mother in law's cancer a lot sooner too.

You just never know what can happen to you. I'm pregnant right now and there is no way we would be able to handle any of these medical bills without our health insurance. I don't even want to think about what the hospital bill for delivery would be without the insurance! Or if we ever had to use an ambulance or emergency room. Health insurance is just so worth the cost to our family.

Health insurance is so important, and $44/week is not a bad rate. What if you had an accident? Getting health insurance while you are well is also important. Once you have pre-existing conditions, it's difficult to get health insurance unless through an employer. I have two family members that were uninsurable due to pre-existing health conditions.

This is a no-brainer in my book, get the health insurance!

You need health insurance.

I agree with the other posts that health insurance is necessary, though with the rise in health insurance there are many people who feel that it is just too expensive if it's not used (for most of us we can see the benefits outweigh the expense). It's difficult to tell someone well I want it in case I get sick or in case we get pregnant. Though when it's brought up in this regard it's hard not to focus on the "You haven't needed it in xxx amount of time."

I am assuming that it's more expense because it's a family plan not just employee or employee and child. So what I would do first if this was myself is do some brainstorming.

Do you do a budget? If so can you and DH go through the budget to see if this $44/wk is available somehow by readjusting some items.

Another question is do you have the $44 a week from your hours you work that can be used to compensate for the $44 that would be taken out of his check each week, or even half of that. I don't how you do your budgets. I know my mother works part time and that is basically her money to do as she pleases. She doesn't pay bills with it unless the bills is a credit card purchase or a subscription she got. So if this is the case maybe this is a nice compromise. Of course it's not the answer if you use both checks in the budgeting each month.

My overall suggestion is to do some homework on what the costs in fact are for what you need to have done each year. And also identify what concerns you have, leaving out the what if we get pregnant. Such concerns of mine would be flu season (it seems to be getting worse each year, sure you can get a shot but it only protects a particular strain), screenings such as paps, mammograms, etc.

As far as the dental insurance, find out what it costs a year for 2 exams. I don't have dental insurance because I have never had issues with my teeth and it costs much more for me to have insurance than it does to just pay out of pocket. I keep a cushion in case something would come up.

I hope your husband comes around. I full heartedly agree that health insurance is very much a necessity. That $44/wk or $176/month or $2112 a year is nothing compared to a $20,000 hospital bill because you didn't have insurance to cover the cost of a simple surgery.

Good luck.

That's cheap for health insurance. Think of it this way....you can't afford not to at that rate. An accident could happen to you.(I hope it never does, but you never know about some drivers these days). Your dh is wrong to base this decision on "well you are rarely sick".
Could you afford the thousands of dollars it would cost to be hospitalized if something occured? And that would be cheap....if you needed surgery or a longer stay you are looking at massive debt.

You really do need health insurance ESPECIALLY if you feel you can't afford it because that means you can't afford to pay medical bills either (and they are always going to be expensive!). Does your DH ever go out for lunch in the course of his workweek? If so, he's definately got his priorities mixed up if he won't agree to insure the health of his lifemate. Unless you guys are practicing abstinance, there's always the possiblity of an "ooops" baby.

Tell your dh that $44 per week is a lot cheaper than coughing up $100,000+ to cover an illness or injury.

I wish it only cost my dh $44 per week to cover me. My dh has to pay a whopping $750 per month to cover me and my dd. Tell your dh that he's getting off VERY cheap in the health insurance department.

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Every time we start thinking we're the center of the universe, the universe turns around and says with a slightly distracted air, "I'm sorry. What'd you say your name was again?" ~ Margaret Maron

I agree you need ins. 44wk does not seem bad- though on a side note I would call ins co and get quotes for just you and then show it to your husband- you might find a very high dectutable ins that would be slightly cheaper or they might be all way more expensive a month.

We all like to think we never go to the Dr. but it is when somrthing bad really happens we think back and wished we had it.

Also you night want to look for free clinics in your area- were you can go and get a pap done and give a donation to the clinic.