Nowadays, health insurance can make or break a family’s finances. Depending on the amount of the co-pay and how many times you or your family goes to the hospital, it call add up–especially when you add in prescription drug prices as well.
But, a doctor in Lincoln, Nebraska, is helping with this in hopes of spreading kindness in his community by covering all of his patients’ co-pays.
As patients came into the Urgent Care Clinic of Lincoln, they were given a special kindness card and told by Dr. Don Rice that he was going to be paying their co-pays for the visit.
“I think that we have a culture that sometimes forgets that we can have a much better world if we start being kinder to each other,” said Dr. Rice.
The clinic saw nearly 80 patients on Monday and Dr. Rice estimates he took care of $4,000 worth of co-pays.
Your copayment is the amount of money you pay each time you visit a doctor or purchase a prescription drug. It’s a form of cost-sharing with your insurer.
A typical copay for a routine visit to a doctor’s office, in network, ranges from $15 to $25; for a specialist, $30-$50; for urgent care, $75-100; and for treatment in an emergency room, $200-$300. Copays for prescription drugs depend on the medication and whether it is a brand-name drug or a generic version.
According to Blue Cross Blue Shield, the typical amount a patient would pay would be $30 copay for a primary care doctor visit. A specialist visit may take a $50 copay.
“It’s just a nice surprise because nobody likes being sick so it was a nice little feeling to feel like someone cares,” said Marsha Artz.
Dr. Rice says the random act of kindness was inspired by a close family friend, who died from cancer.
“Even though she had two types of cancer, was always giving to other people, so we thought it would be fun to do this in her honor,” said Dr. Rice.
In 2015, employees paid an average of…
… $139 toward co-pays, down from $218 in 2005, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Money spent on co-pays is going down because fewer people have them,” said Matthew Rae, senior policy analyst at Kaiser Family Foundation. Instead, health insurers and plans are using coinsurance to split costs with employees, charging them a percentage of the cost of service, rather than a flat dollar fee.
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