Did you know September is National Life Insurance Awareness Month? I didn’t until this year. To celebrate, we are covering my top five favorite insurance lessons from Breaking Bad.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t seen Breaking Bad, go catch up on one of the three greatest television shows of all time. Yes, I mean it.
Who better to teach us about insurance than Walter White? If you doubt the important of life and other types of insurance, ask Gus. Or Mike. Or Hank. Or Gale. The list goes on and on.
While we’re going to cover all types of insurance below because they each are keys to protecting your financial future, life insurance is one that people often overlook. If you haven’t reached freedom F.I.R.E. yet with no debt, a paid for house, and enough saved up to quit working tomorrow if you wanted to, you need life insurance coverage if you have a significant other, kids, or anyone else dependent on your income.
Lesson 1: You need health insurance
You never know what life might throw your way, but the ambulance isn’t going to abort once they pick you up after you’ve passed out. As fast as Walt tried to claw off that oxygen mask and turn that bad boy around in the pilot episode, they weren’t about to let him leave until he was fully checked out at the hospital. Which is a good thing because, turns out, he had cancer.
A lot of people think health insurance is a waste of money. Why pay hundreds a month when the cash pay option is cheaper? While this works out in years where you are the Walter White pre-pilot episode, Walt’s journey with cancer shows that sometimes, life kicks us in the teeth.
Over 50% of debt collections are medical bills, and medical debt factors heavily into bankruptcies. If you don’t have at least some kind of catastrophic coverage in place for critical illnesses and hospital stays, you could find yourself deciding to cook meth just to stay alive.
Lesson 2: HMO plans suck
I’ll be the first to admit I’m biased here. I suffered through a HMO plan for the first time in 2022. Not having any other option in my employer-sponsored plan I was required to take was a huge factor in why I changed jobs this year.
When you have an HMO health insurance plan, make sure you understand your coverage. A lot of tests and procedures – including the facility and external testing laboratories – may not be covered even if the doctor performing or ordering the testing or procedure is. Trust me, I know. Learn more about my medical bill woes here.
With HMO plans, you have a set primary care provider you have to see. If you try to see someone else, they aren’t covered. If you don’t set a PCP officially, they aren’t covered. And if you try to see a specialist without a referral or have a procedure without prior authorization, guess what? That’s right: you’re not covered. Double check everything before you go or do anything. I still have PTSD from the nightmare that was my first colonoscopy, and it wasn’t just the prep, it was the weeks of trying to align the GI doc, the facility, the procedure, and then the denial claim from the insurance on the lab tests.
Lesson 3: Make sure you have proper car insurance coverage
You never know when someone might dart out on a red light and beam you in an intersection. Or, if you’re me, you back into a cart corral in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Or, if you’re this guy, when some raged-out chemist might decide to retaliate.
Lesson 4: Consider cash pay
Even if you have health insurance, cash pay can sometimes be cheaper, especially if you’re on a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) to take advantage of an HSA. If you have a high deductible you never hit, it doesn’t hurt to ask what the cash price is. Often, you can get a discount even over the negotiated rates because doctors hate dealing with insurance companies as much as patients do.
Just make sure you get in writing ahead of time what the discount is or a prepaid statement showing you’ve paid in full prior to your visit/procedure/etc. If you’re like me, you’ll have the cash-pay facility change their billing company in the middle of your payment reconciling and will have them hounding after you for three months for a balance you already paid. Or, if you’re like Walter White, you’ll have sticker stock when you realize the cash discount is still more than slinging small bags of blue crystal pays without scaling your production and distribution.
If you’re on an HMO, this is also a way to get services you might need or want that aren’t covered. Again, ask me about my colonoscopy sometime. I dare you.
Lesson 5: Slip and falls happen
If you want to know the importance of disability insurance and life insurance, look no further than poor Ted Beneke. This guy really didn’t want to pay the IRS, but he never could have expected how his life would turn out when he decided to fudge his books. Life can kick you while you’re being held hostage by some ambulance chasing attorney’s grunt men (that Slippin’ Jimmy was related to Ted Beneke’s slip and fall wasn’t lost on me).
Walter’s cancer proves this too.
And let’s not forget Hank. You could end up recovering from a gun shot wound screaming at your wife about gems.
Worker’s comp only covers you for work-related incidents, and it often doesn’t come close to covering your entire usual paycheck. Without disability insurance, a tough financial situation can easily become a dumpster fire. And without life insurance, your family could end up losing their home – and their new car lease – as well as their loved one.