How to Track Your Medical Expenses

Every year of my adult life since 2009 I have met my out of pocket maximum on my medical insurance. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you don't have severe medical problems or you have an HMO.

I want to make it clear that I am well aware of my priveledge to have and have had medical insurance since graduating college. I don't know the numbers of uninsured Americans, but if you are one of those then my heart goes out to you. I don't know how you do it, let alone survive.

However, this post is about tracking your medical expenses in the hopes to get a nice tax deduction and $$$ back from the government.

How to Track Your Medical Expenses
I'm not going to get into the merits of HMO vs PPO suffice to say that if you have no medical problems get the HMO, if you have legit medical problems, Type 1 Diabetes, Chrons, or like me, Adhesive Arachnoiditis, you want the PPO.

Why? Well, after I meet my deductable, then I start paying a percentage of each visit or procedure. Once I reach a certain amount spent out of my wallet, I don't have to spend any more and the insurance picks up everything at 100%.

I'll save the nitty gritty of HMO vs PPO for another post.

Since 2016, I know I've done a diservice to our finances by not tracking what we are spending medically. Even though I reach my out of pocket maximum that doesn't include perscriptions, and now other things can be covered by FSA's like massages and acupuncture.

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I need to take advantage of this in 2019 and start now with writing down monthly expenses.

I have alotted a page in my bujo next to personal expenses for this, now the tricky part is filling it in, or in my case, finding the time and energy to fill it in. Shame I didn't think of this when I was setting up my bullet journal in December.

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