Cut the fat, or cut the benfits

So, you have worked for a big company and wham! Your benefits are cut. Companies big and small are doing it all over our country. The larger companies do it to save money and the smaller companies do it to stay alive. With soaring health costs and and companies not offering the pensions, this is taking its toll on companies of all sizes. A third of companies with 200 or more employees do offer retiree health benefits. The smaller company's just can't keep up. If you go to the AARP website you can even see the list of the company's out there that do offer the benefit's we all desire. What does this mean to you? It means it is time to cut your benefit's yourself. You need to downsize. Where everything else in this world is offered to us at super size this needs to get smaller. Why? Because all you need your health insurance for is to cover you for the big things in life, you know, accidents, or critical illnesses. If you want to have a physical, make a deal with your family Doctor. I did, I made him banana bread and he gave me a discount on the wellness check up. Let you health care team know that you do not have this type of coverage and then you will see a drop in the costs. Go to your local health food store for your blood work. My husband I go to "Fruitful Yield" in Bloomingdale, Illinois and we had a $300.00 blood test for approximately $54.00 each! It is time people...you do not need the unlimited doctor visits with the low co-pay(you don't want to go there anyway with all the viruses that there are at the doctors office) or the drug card that allows you to pay $15.00 for your generic medication when you can go to Walmart or Target and pay $4.00...or the wellness physical that has a limit on what you can have done when you can get a complete physical for about $100.00 if you are willing to take a deep breath and say, "no more high paying premiums for coverage that I don't need" and just cut the fat!