>>Considering all the expenses you are going through for your kids have you considered looking at changing your kupah? IT may be worth while to look at what the costs would be: For example in Maccabi – to move up to Zehav there is a monthly fee for my husband and I and for the first 3 kids after that the rest of the kids are covered.<<
Did I consider either going up to a higher level of coverage on my current health care plan, or switching to a different health care plan that would cover alternative care to some degree? Yes.
My health care plan has discounted prices on alternative practitioners in their network if we sign up for the more expensive monthly plan. (We don’t pay anything for regular visits to standard doctors like a pediatrician, ob, nurses, bloodword; a visit to a specialist is something like 23 shekels a quarter.) I thought this might be very worthwhile considering how many visits we’re talking about with so many children, so I looked into it. I was lucky in that our naturopath has been working with our health care plan for years so I was able to get specific details from her, something I found almost impossible from the secretaries.
(Here’s how the conversation there went: “Can you tell me what the benefits are of having a higher level of coverage? “There are lots of benefits, it’s very worthwhile.” “Yes, but can you tell me specifically what the benefits are?” “You’ll get discounts on different things like some services and medications.” “What medications and services will be discounted, and by how much.” “I don’t know, but the more expensive plan is definitely worth it.” Very difficult to get any hard facts from them to work with.)
The naturopath told me what her price after the 60% discount from having higher level coverage at the clinic would be: 130 shekel for a first time visit, then 90 shekels for subsequent visits. This looked pretty good since I pay 220 for a first time visit. But although the price looked much lower, it doesn’t take into account several factors. Firstly, the clinic visit would be 40 minutes instead of 60 minutes (subsequent visits are 30 minutes each); private visits are an hour and so far she included the second follow up visit for free. Actually, at the last visit for dd11, I was there for an hour and forty-five minutes – she takes more time if she feels it’s necessary. At the clinic we’d pay for each visit and she has to stick to a very strict time schedule that doesn’t allow her to spend more time with people than what is officially allotted. She also said there are aspects of assessment that she doesn’t include at the clinic. And when you pay privately, she’s available by phone or email if you have any questions or concerns. Recently a doctor at the clinic gave us her number and told us to call if there was any issue with the specific child and situation – and then when we called, she got annoyed because it wasn’t during clinic hours!
As far as reflexology, privately she charges 120 shekels for a child per visit, for an hour. It would be 93 shekels for a forty minute visit at the clinic. And of course I’d have to pay a higher monthly insurance fee by at least 200 shekels a month to get the ‘discounted’ alternative services.
For some people having the higher level of coverage is definitely a big money saver, but each person really has to assess how much they’d spent paying out of pocket and how much they’d spend with the higher level of coverage. For us, I appreciate the quality of private care that we’re able to get, and it’s not costing us more to have it.
Avivah
