Unexpected health expenses are always just that—unexpected. No one can predict when they’ll be injured or sick, but you can prepare for those possibilities.

Even if you have medical insurance, severe or long-term medical care can become costly. Deductibles, copays, vehicle expenses, and missed work all add up!

If you plan ahead for unforeseen eventualities, like health expenses, it makes it easier to handle them in the moment. Here are five ways you can save up a comfortable nest egg to better protect your pocket from hard hits.

1. Check Into Your Insurance Options

Health insurance plans can be costly. Unless you can find one in your budget or your employer offers coverage, it’s not always possible to get traditional medical coverage.

There are other types of policies that you can invest in, though. These can help cushion the blow in the event of unexpected emergencies. Depending on where you live and your job, you might be able to get coverage like:

  • An HSA account – Opening a Health Savings Account lets you put aside funds from your income into a pool of money to be used only for medical expenses.

Even though it’s designed for healthcare, it’s still your money. The benefit of an HSA is that now you can claim your investment as a tax-deductible contribution, and if you don’t use the funds, they roll over each year.

  • Supplemental insurance – Full healthcare isn’t always cost-effective if you’re basically healthy and rarely go to the doctor. But emergencies happen and when they do, they can be catastrophically expensive.

It could benefit you to take out supplemental insurance coverage instead of, or in addition to, full healthcare. These plans, like Liberty Healthshare, can help minimize your responsibility in the event of a covered injury or illness.

They don’t cover all the medical costs, but you’ll get reimbursed up to your policy limits, which can help offset the expenses.

The first line of defense in protecting yourself from unexpected medical bills is an insurance policy. But if full healthcare coverage is not cost-effective, there may be other options you can look into.

2. Take Advantage of the FSA

If your employer offers a Flexible Spending Account, or if you are self-employed and can start one, this is a great way to offset medical expenses. Unlike the HSA, though, the FSA doesn’t roll over annually.

An FSA is often used as a way to lower taxable income. You can choose a specified amount to be taken from your paycheck, pre-taxed. This money is then placed into an account that you can delve into when you have copays, deductibles, and prescriptions that have to be paid for.

Another benefit to the FSA is that your employer can match your contributions up to the legal maximum.  Even a little bit from your check adds up and comes in handy when unexpected health issues arise.

3. Start an Emergency Fund

The sooner you start a savings account for emergencies, the faster it will add up. Living paycheck to paycheck can make that difficult. If your budget is already tight, it’s even more important that you have an emergency fund.

There are ways that you can do this without noticing the money is gone. If you use your debit card frequently, check with your bank to see if they offer a round-up program.

In these programs, every time you use your card in your checking account, the change rounds up. It’s then deposited into your emergency savings account.

If your bank doesn’t offer this option or you have to have a minimum in savings to get started and you can’t, there are round-up apps you can use instead.

4. Take Preventative Measures

The best offense is always a good defense! This applies to your healthcare, too.

Even if you’re rarely sick, it’s a smart idea to see the doctor for annual wellness checkups. Get your bloodwork done regularly to try to catch expensive, dangerous problems before they’re too far gone for a simple fix.

Vitamins and eating healthy can add up, but, along with exercise, they’re the number one recommended way to prevent many chronic diseases.

Take your healthcare into your own hands by actively working to prevent unexpected medical problems!

5. Pay Attention to Your Interest Rates

Millions of people have credit card debt, and if you are one of them, it can be hard to get out of it. Adding on medical expenses, or even saving for a nest egg, is difficult when you’re always making minimum payments on your bills.

Once you take care of those mounting debts, though, you can start putting those monthly payments towards your savings instead.

Check into your credit card interest rates and take a peek at your credit score. It might be possible to roll over some of those high rates into a 0% credit card transfer.

If you can’t do that, try to come up with a strategy to pay off your debt. Some experts recommend starting with the lowest balances and knocking them out of the way one by one. Others say to eliminate the highest interest rates first.

Whatever works for your budget is fine, but take control of those credit cards before an emergency happens.

Conclusion

Life can be a series of “expect the unexpected” events, but when a healthcare emergency is one of them, it’s hard to be prepared.

The most important thing is to focus on your health and get the care you need to recover. But when your finances are hit from the expenses, the stress carries over to your body, too.

By preparing ahead to make sure you have a nest egg for unexpected health expenses, you can turn your attention to your body’s needs. Let the doctor advise you on your path to healing and your hard work of saving for emergencies do its job.