Financial Planning Starts Here! (Part 1)

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It is normal for many people to face mounting health care expenses as they age. Financial planning should always start with adequate provision in this respect for every individual and his or her dependants. Financial planning is normally a trade-off between risk and return, but who would want to take a chance with a chronic or a potentially fatal condition? Therefore, there is no substitute for setting aside a nest-egg that we hope we may never need to use. Young adults and small business owners are most vulnerable to delaying financial planning for future health needs.

A High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) makes sense in this age of growing awareness of how to keep fit and well. We have never known as much as we do now, about preventive health matters. A relative high premium cannot be justified except in cases of rare inherited conditions such as type 1 diabetes. A HDHP makes more cash available for financial planning moves such as stock trading, or even for building up an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). There is always Medicare for old age! However, there is a contradictory view which postulates the establishment of a Health Savings Account (HSA) with every HDHP.

How Future Health Care Options Affect Financial Planning Today

Everyone is not a health care professional, but we all need financial planning. This could be one of the reasons why everyone does not get an HSA as soon as possible, or does not use the full annual limit for adding to this account. Genetics, nanotechnology, new imaging methods, and less invasive methods of surgery, are some of the disruptive technologies that will shape medicine tomorrow. Longevity has always been a marker of economic progress, and people will routinely live to well over 100 years in the near future. Is your financial planning geared for the life span which you expect?

Clinical research in the United States suffers from restrictions that may not apply to scientists in other countries. There are also increasing cases of the US Food and Drug Administration withholding approvals for some medical devices and technologies that have been cleared and accepted in the European Union. You could well like to undergo medical treatment in the foreseeable future, which is not approved, available, or affordable in the United States. India is amongst the countries that have begun to promote health tourism, in which you can combine medical treatment with a beach holiday.

Financial Planning Starts Here! (Part 2)

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