https://github.com/jdaymude/SureChoice
Make informed decisions about health insurance.
https://github.com/jdaymude/SureChoice
health insurance
Last synced: 4 months ago
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Make informed decisions about health insurance.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/jdaymude/SureChoice
- Owner: jdaymude
- License: mit
- Created: 2019-06-06T05:52:28.000Z (almost 6 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2019-07-01T14:51:42.000Z (almost 6 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-08-13T07:09:32.069Z (8 months ago)
- Topics: health, insurance
- Language: Python
- Size: 279 KB
- Stars: 3
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE.md
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README
# SureChoice
Understanding health insurance plans can be difficult, and comparing the pros and cons of different plans can be especially complex. This Python script plots your out-of-pocket cost for different plans as a function of total annual incurred medical costs so you can make better-informed decisions about your health insurance plan.
Some plans may be quite cost-effective if your total medical costs are low, but will be extremely costly if an expensive medical event happens unexpectedly. Some scale more linearly. Others cost a lot out-of-pocket up front, but pay off with higher total medical costs. Comparing plans in this way enables you to choose the best plan for your expected medical costs.
## Background and Key Terms
When using this code, it helps to understand a few key health insurance terms:
- _premium_: a fixed monthly payment for being on a plan.
- _deductible_: the total out-of-pocket amount to be paid before insurance covers anything.
- _copay_: the percentage of a total cost to be paid out-of-pocket after the deductible is met.
- _out-of-pocket maximum_: the maximum total out-of-pocket cost before insurance covers 100% of all subsequent payments.
More background can be found in my [blog post](https://joshdaymude.wordpress.com/2019/06/30/surechoice/).
## Installation
This is a fairly simple Python script. You need:
- Any installation of [Python 3.x](https://www.python.org/downloads/).
- The `matplotlib` [package](https://matplotlib.org/users/installing.html).
Clone this repository using your Git client of choice, or on the command line:
```
git clone https://github.com/jdaymude/SureChoice.git
```
## Preparing Plans for Comparison
To compare health insurance plans, you'll need to edit the various costs in `plans.json` (or make your own data file with the same structure). The schema of this file is:
```
{
"info" : {
"project" : "SureChoice",
"author" : "Joshua J. Daymude",
"license" : "MIT"
},
"plans" : [
{
"name" : , # Name of insurance plan
"short_name" : , # Short name of plan to show in plot legend
"description" : , # Description of plan
"premium" : , # Monthly payment
"deductible" : , # Plan deductible
"copay" : , # Plan copay, number in [0,1]
"max_oop" : # Max out-of-pocket charge, or "Inf" if none
},
...
]
}
```
## Running SureChoice
To run SureChoice, use:
```
python3 surechoice.py --data
```
Optionally, one can also use the `--max_annual_cost` variable to define the maximum total annual medical cost to consider. All options can be viewed with `python3 surechoice.py -h`.
## Feedback & Contributing
SureChoice is a very minimal piece of software that could have many improvements (e.g., supporting Financial Savings Accounts). If you'd like to leave feedback, please post an [issue](https://github.com/jdaymude/SureChoice/issues). If you'd like to contribute, please submit your code via a [pull request](https://github.com/jdaymude/SureChoice/pulls).