Ten Weeks on the Meter

You would never prepay a contractor for a full year of work and then not let him on the job site.

You’d never buy a twelve month maintenance contract on your trucks and skip every service appointment. You’d never pay for a software license and leave it sitting in a drawer while your team did the work by hand.

But that’s exactly what most of you are doing with your health coverage right now.

Monday we talked about what you’re about to pay for 2027. Today is about what you already paid for in 2026. Every month this year, a premium came out of your account or your company’s account. In return, you got a pile of benefits. Free checkups. Free screenings. A deductible you may have already burned through. Maybe an FSA balance sitting there waiting.

On January 1, a lot of that resets to zero. Not some of it. A lot of it.

You’ve got about ten weeks left on the meter. Let’s use them.

Before we get tactical, let’s be honest about the real problem. It isn’t the insurance. It’s us.

A Cleveland Clinic survey of more than 1,100 men found that 72 percent would rather do household chores, like cleaning the bathroom, than go to the doctor. Only about half said they get regular checkups.

Think about that. Most of us would rather scrub a toilet than sit in a paper gown for twenty minutes.

And it’s not because we’re lazy. Most of the guys reading this run businesses, lead teams, and handle more pressure before lunch than most people handle all week. We avoid the doctor for the same reason we avoid any conversation that might deliver bad news. If we don’t look, it isn’t real yet.

That logic works great right up until it doesn’t. And the thing about health problems is that the cheap, easy, fixable version almost always shows up before the expensive, scary version. The only question is whether you’re looking when it does.

So here’s the reframe that finally got me in the chair. This isn’t about being worried about my health. It’s about not wasting money I already spent. I’m a businessman. I hate leaving money on the table. Turns out that motivates me more than any lecture ever did.

Most health plans run on the calendar year. That means a few things wipe clean on January 1:

Some plans run on a different cycle, so check yours. Log in to your insurance portal, find the plan year, and find your deductible tracker. Takes three minutes. If you’re on your spouse’s plan, have her check.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

Say you tore up your shoulder in March, or your kid broke an arm in July, or your wife had a procedure. You’ve met the deductible, maybe even the out of pocket max.

Right now, until December 31, the stuff you’ve been putting off costs a fraction of what it’ll cost in February. The MRI on the knee that’s been bugging you. The physical therapy you never finished. The sleep study your wife keeps mentioning because you snore like a chainsaw. The thing on your back your barber pointed out.

In February, every one of those comes out of your pocket until you hit the deductible again. In November, they might cost you a copay. Same care, same doctors, very different bill.

FSAs are use it or lose it by default. Some plans let you carry over up to $680 of unused 2026 money into next year. Some give you a grace period into March. Some give you nothing and the balance is forfeited on December 31.

Find out which kind you have. Then spend it on things you’d buy anyway. Prescription glasses or contacts. A dental visit. Physical therapy. Plenty of everyday items qualify too, like sunscreen, a first aid kit, or a blood pressure cuff for home. If you have a balance, make a list this week and knock it out before Thanksgiving, because nobody wants to be doing this on December 30.

One more thing. An FSA and an HSA are not the same animal. FSA money expires. HSA money is yours forever. If you have an HSA, there’s no year end rush. Let it grow.

Here’s what surprises a lot of guys. A big list of preventive care is free.

Under federal rules, most health plans have to cover a set of preventive services at no cost to you, even if you haven’t touched your deductible, as long as you go in network. That includes things like:

Most plans also cover an annual wellness visit. That’s your physical.

One warning that will save you an annoying bill. A preventive visit is free because it’s preventive. If you walk in and say, “Also, my knee has been killing me,” the doctor may now be treating a problem, and that part of the visit can get billed separately. It’s not a scam, it’s just how the coding works. Two ways to handle it. Ask the front desk when you book how they handle it, or book the knee as its own appointment. Either way, you won’t get surprised.

Here’s the list. Not all of it applies to every man. Go through it, circle what fits, and get it on the calendar.

And yes, if you’ve been carrying something heavier than a sore knee, if your head hasn’t been right for a while, that counts too. Talking to a professional is maintenance, not weakness.

Lists don’t book themselves. Here’s how to knock this out without it turning into a three month project.

Block forty five minutes this week. Call it your health admin block. Phone, calendar, insurance card, and a cup of coffee. That’s it.

Call in this order. Primary care first, because the physical and labs drive everything else and they book out the furthest. Then dental. Then everything else. Ask every office for their first appointment of the morning. You’re in and out before the day eats you, and doctors run on time at 7:30 a lot more than they do at 3:15.

Stack the labs. Most standard labs want you fasting, so book the blood draw for early morning and go eat a real breakfast after.

Bring a one page list. Your medications, your supplements, anything your parents or siblings have dealt with, and the questions you want answered. Hand it to the doctor. You’ll get a better visit, and you won’t walk out to the parking lot and remember the one thing you meant to ask.

Tell the truth in the room. Twenty percent of men in that same Cleveland Clinic research admitted they haven’t been completely honest with their doctor. How much you drink. How you’re sleeping. What’s going on with your mood. What’s not working the way it used to. Your doctor has heard all of it a thousand times. Lying to him is like lying to your accountant. The only person who pays for it is you.

When it’s done, open a note on your phone and write down the numbers. Blood pressure. Resting heart rate. Weight and waist size. Your lipid numbers. Your A1c. Whatever your doctor tracked.

Then do the same thing next October.

You run your business on a dashboard. You know your close rate, your margins, your cash position. This is the same thing for the piece of equipment the whole business runs on. One year of numbers is a snapshot. Five years is a trend, and trends are where you catch problems while they’re still cheap.

Two quick ones before you go.

Book your family while you’re at it. Your wife’s appointments, your kids’ checkups, the dentist for everybody. If you’re the one making the calls this week anyway, make a couple more. She will notice, and she’ll appreciate it more than you’d guess.

Remind your team. If you own the business and offer an FSA or dental plan, send your people a short email this week. “Heads up, unused FSA money and dental benefits reset January 1. Here’s how to check your balance. Use what you’ve earned.” Costs you nothing. Saves your people real money. Shows you’re paying attention. That’s three wins for one email.

“I feel fine.”

Most of the conditions that wreck men in their fifties feel fine for years. High blood pressure feels fine. High blood sugar feels fine. Feeling fine is not data. A number on a lab report is data.

“Q4 is slammed. I’ll do it in January.”

In January your deductible resets, your FSA is gone, your dental benefits start over, and you’ll be slammed with January. The cheapest, easiest window you’ll get all year is the one you’re in right now.

“The doctor’s just going to tell me to lose weight and drink less.”

Maybe. And maybe he’s right. But he’s also going to tell you whether your numbers say it’s urgent or just a good idea. Those are very different conversations, and you deserve to know which one you’re in.

“I don’t want to hear bad news.”

Neither does anybody. But bad news you find in November, while it’s small, is a plan. Bad news that finds you three years from now is an emergency. Every man I’ve ever known who got caught by something serious said the same thing afterward. “I wish I’d gone in sooner.”

Two things, and both take less time than reading this did.

That’s it. Everything else on the checklist gets easier once the first appointment is on the calendar.

And if Monday’s renewal is still sitting unopened in your inbox, RENEWAL is still open. Reply with the word and I’ll send you the audit kit.

Friday we’re going after the money you’re losing in the first five minutes after somebody raises their hand.

Refined. Relentless. Unapologetic.

Marcus