Our preparedness for health emergencies is often put in the backseat of things until something happens. Now, it’s an emergency for a reason, and that reason is that it’s wholly unexpected. There’s nothing we can do at that moment, and nothing can prepare us for that, or do we?
Even though medical emergencies happen unexpectedly, there are a few things that we can do to prepare, at least financially. Medical emergencies accrue medical expenses. Just take a look back in 2020, for example. All of us were unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, even though news about it back then was already spreading like wildfires across the globe. Some of us hadn’t heard of the virus until the lockdowns happened.
Of course, we can blame ourselves for that because of our hectic lives, but the point here is no one expected the way things happened. The pandemic is curtailed, but most of us still suffer from its consequences, especially concerning finances. So how do we prepare, at least financially, for another crisis again? Here are some tips.
Create an Emergency Fund
Life-threatening conditions can affect anyone at any time. But, as mentioned earlier, medical emergencies strike at the most unexpected of times. One of the most common medical emergencies is heart disease, specifically heart attacks. It’s also one of the most expensive medical emergencies.
How do we prepare for it financially? Enter emergency funds. An emergency fund is your savings when a medical emergency happens to you or your family. It might be as simple as putting coins in a piggy bank, but you’ll be thankful that you have an emergency fund when the most unexpected happens.
Get Medical Insurance
This is often the preferred way to make an emergency fund. However, you can create two of them at the same time. If you’re a salaried employee, chances are you already have medical insurance taken care of by your employer. However, if you’re self-employed or unemployed, the best thing you can do is get medical insurance.
Depending on the coverage and type of insurance you want, there are a lot of choices you can take for your medical insurance. Also, depending on your insurance, you can save tons from your insurance premiums if you take advantage of medicine discounts instead of copays.
This is because sometimes, discounts from sites like BuzzRX are much more significant than the copay you get from your insurance. Thus, instead of paying more significant premiums because of medicine, you can use the money for your emergency fund.
Maintain a Good Credit Score
This might sound unrelated but having a good credit score in financial emergencies is very handy. How? Imagine if your insurance cannot copay for the medical emergency and you have no emergency fund. How will you get funds by then? That’s right, loans.
Of course, loans have stringent requirements before you can get funding, so you need to be prepared for those. One of the best ways to do that is to have a perfect credit score. With a good credit score, it will be easy for you to get funding for a medical emergency. Not only that, but with a good credit score, you can get better terms for your loans, like lower interest rates, more extended repayments, and a heft borrowing limit.
Separate Your Savings for Medical Emergencies
A medical emergency can happen anytime. Thus, having quick access to your funds should be a priority. While having a regular bank account can do this for you, it’s always ideal for separating your emergency funds from your funds if you haven’t done that already. This is because it will be easy for you to be tempted to use it if you let it stay within that same bank account you use for everyday purposes.
But where should you put it? One of the best ways to do this is to consider investing in cash equivalents. These products operate like cash but grow by earning interest on them. This is very convenient if you want a little boost for your medical funding.
Save Money
One of the best ways to grow your medical emergency fund is to save. You can do this by eliminating unnecessary expenses. While you can’t cut your daily expenses like food, clothing, and housing, there might also be a lot of expenses in your daily life that you don’t necessarily need.
Things like eating out, going to Starbucks, etc., are unnecessary expenses you can live without. If you cut them off of your expenses, you’ll have a lot more that you can drop in your piggy bank.
Final Words
Medical emergencies strike when we least expect them, not to mention that they can be costly. If you want to give yourself or your loved ones the best care without breaking the bank, the tips discussed above are some of the best things you can do for yourself. Remember, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of the cure.
