You might want to consider just ditching the failed health insurance "tax" altogether and paying cash for medical services on an as-needed basis because, truth be told, you'll end up shelling out far less money in the long run.

This was the recent experience of a California woman named Caroline who, after receiving a hefty bill for a few simple blood tests, petitioned the hospital where the blood was drawn for answers. What she came to learn is that there's essentially two pricing tiers for medical services: the insurance rate and the cash rate.

Accustomed to just having her medical treatments billed to her insurance carrier, Blue Shield of California, Caroline was shocked to learn that the $269.42 she was responsible for paying out of pocket for the five blood tests she received -- this out of $408 total, the rest of which was covered by her insurance -- was nearly four times higher than the total cost would have been if she had just paid in cash, insurance aside.