Cashmonkies Frugal Blog

With everything on the wise today, Medical cost can really hurt your budget. If you have no insurance or just really high co-pays, then you should find ways to cut some of your medical expenses. My husband has insurance through work, but to add me or the kids, it would cost us a few hundred bucks a month, plus really high co pays. We can’t afford that. Since we are such a large family on one sole income, my kids were eligible for state insurance. I pay 10 bucks a month for my kids, and they have no co pays. I am the only one in the house who has no insurance. Most of the time, that’s okay, I don’t get sick. But things happen. So how do I save money on my medical care?

Ask for freebies
This is the best out there. I have been going to the same doctor for years. When he comes in the room, I say upfront. I have no insurance, and can’t afford much. He’s willing to work with me. When I need meds, I ask for free samples. When he has them, he will load me up on them. Most of the time, I wont even need a prescription because he has giving me the full amount with free samples. If he has a few, that works to, it gets me going, and it helps me see if I can adjust to the meds without wasting money only to find out, these are not the meds for me.

Dental Work
If you need Dental work done, this can be expensive. Even if you have dental insurance it can be expensive. About a year ago, I had a lot of work done on my teeth. My teeth were in really bad shape from not having insurance and not having enough money to go. Once I got married, we added me to my husband’s dental plan. That was a lot cheaper then his medical plan. I still had to pay around 3 grand out of pocket, which we charged. If I would have gone to a dental school, I would have paid half that amount. The drive was too far though for the amount of appointments they required. With three kids, it’s hard to drive a few hours each way for a lot of appointments. If you have a dental school, I would suggest going there. These are students who are in their 4th year of dental school, and they are 100% supervised by an Official Dentist. You can find Dental schools by going to www.ada.org

Generic Prescription
If you can get generic, then do that. These have the same ingredients as the non generic meds do, just a whole lot cheaper for you. Most of the time, there is a generic brand available for around half the price. A few meds will have no generic brand, but for those that do, you should use it.

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