Eric’s Blog

I had to adult the other day. It was difficult. I think becoming an adult was the worst decision I’ve ever made.

I had to decide what dental and vision insurance policies to go with. This has been determined for me the length of my entire adult life. I just called for an appointment or went to the doctor when I didn’t feel well. For the most part, the doctor called me or set an appointment when I needed a shot, or a check-up. Everything was already paid for, and I didn’t have to understand what premiums and co-pays, and catastrophic caps all meant. Someone should have a class for people who have to make these decisions.

I actually had to look up some of the definitions for the terms I listed above. Okay, I’m not a jerk, well…never mind that…what I mean is, I know what a premium and a deductible are. I didn’t know what a catastrophic cap was; I had to look that up. I thought it was a maximum amount the insurance company would pay out. That is incorrect, it is actually the theoretical maximum a customer would have to pay out of pocket for healthcare.

Yeah…I’m a nerd. Seriously, you’re reading my blog and you didn’t already know that? I mean, how many people are so in their own heads they actually take the time to look up words they don’t understand on an insurance company’s website? I’m that guy.

The health insurance was the easy part. I knew we were going to continue to use TRICARE, but we had to dumb down our plan to TRICARE Select instead of Prime-Remote. There aren’t any military treatment facilities around here, so that was sort of a given.

The trouble came when I had to figure out the dental and vision insurance. I went with what we had before, United Concordia, but they had two different types of policies: standard and high.

I wasn’t sure which policy to choose, on one hand, I wanted to ensure I didn’t have to come out of pocked for dental procedures that my family may need in the future. On the other hand, the standard plan was already twice what I had to pay while serving on active duty. I went ahead with the standard plan because I figured we all have fairly good teeth.

For the vision plan, my current optometrist wasn’t listed under the plan I initially chose, so I had to find a plan where I could continue to go to my current doctor. Also, I wasn’t sure if I should get a single plan, or a family plan; I’m the only one that wears glasses or contacts. I found one that listed my doctor and pulled the trigger on the single plan instead of a family plan.

I don’t know, it’s nerve-wracking. Insurance is something you hope you never need, but you’re glad it’s there when you do need it. The gamble is trying to figure out if you can get away with paying the minimum and then never needing anything more than what the minimum covers. I can’t just go in and change things around in a week from now, I’m locked in. I can only make changes if I have a Qualifying Life Event (QLE), or when open-season happens once per year. I hope I made the right decisions.