When You Need Short Term Health Insurance : Health insurance review 2008

When You Need Short Term Health Insurance
by Earl Cronin

Do you know how valuable health insurance can be? Are you aware of how much trouble you will be saving yourself from if you get an insurance plan today? Having health insurance means that your insurance company will be helping you pay for some of the expenses you may incur when you require medical attention. Some insurance plans take care of your hospitalization, your treatments, and also the medicines you will need.
Other health insurance plans cover for a certain amount, so you can go for regular doctor visits and checkups. If you will require tests as instructed by your doctor, health insurance should help you out. One of the benefits that working individuals receive from their employers is insurance. Most companies include their employees under a group health insurance plan.
What if you are unemployed, or if you recently resigned from your company? Will you still be insured? Unfortunately, you will not be included under the group health insurance plan as mentioned before. Of course, you will still need to be insured, because you can never tell when you might be in need of medical help. Then it is about time that you get short term health insurance for yourself.
Also, if you were a student, and you have been under a student health insurance plan during your four years in college or in the university, you will also need short term health insurance. When is this required of students? Some student insurance policies only cover the amount of time they spend in the academic institution, or a short period after they graduate. When this student graduates, and he or she is still looking for a job, he or she might not be covered under student insurance anymore. He will then need short term health insurance as well.
Short term health insurance is a very flexible policy to apply for, because you can determine the terms of your plan, may it be for a few months up to a year. Employees who are on strike from their company might also need short term health insurance, aside from graduated students or resigned employees.
Short term health plans are often geared toward the more healthy, and with a higher deductible you might find it useful in providing piece of mind during times when you're between employer sponsored health plans. People not on the top end of the healthy spectrum might find it more difficult to find coverage, or to afford it if a carrier is willing to offer a policy.
Many people find short term health insurance to be a less expensive alternative to COBRA when they are between jobs. It is always a great idea to do comparison shopping and do a side-by-side evaluation of your COBRA policy with a short term health policy. One of the more noticeable differences in the coverage is the deductible, which is often significantly higher for the short term health plan, so people between jobs often consider the short term policy as a means to save money but still be covered in case of a major medical event.

Basic Types of Health Insurance : Health insurance review 2008

Basic Types of Health Insurance : Health insurance review 2008
by Peter Kenny
Health care insurance can be confusing even for those who have some experience with it. For those who are new to it, it can be downright unfathomable. A good place to begin learning more about the issues behind health care insurance is with the basics.There are, generally, two types of health care insurance: indemnity and managed care which is often referred to as HMO.Indemnity health care insurance is also known as "fee-for-service". This type of insurance will offer the most flexibility because it allows you to pick your own doctor, clinics, hospitals, etc. The downside is that it will cost a good deal more than the managed types of health care plans. These added costs may be reflected in the premiums that you pay, but they will certainly be reflected in the out of pocket costs that you have to pay when you go for care. For many people, the out of pocket costs can make indemnity health insurance a non-option.In addition to much higher out of pocket cost you will also be required to pay an annual deductible, which can range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. This amount must be paid before the insurance will even begin to pay.Once the annual deductible has been paid into your account, the insurance company will then pay a portion of what is owed. You will normally have to make a co-payment of around twenty percent or so, and the insurance company will then pay its eighty percent. If the doctor or other health professional charges high rates to begin with, you may end up paying a higher rate because the insurance company will normally pay only what it considers to be "usual and customary" fees for the service.Generally, indemnity health care insurance covers only illness or accidents, and does not pay for preventive care such as flu shots or birth control medication or devices. Depending on your policy, it may or may not pay for prescription drugs or psychotherapy.Managed care can be thought of as the opposite of indemnity care. With a health maintenance organization (HMO), your deductibles are often smaller than with other plans. In some cases, there may not be any deductibles at all. Co-payments are almost always fixed and kept low. Most preventive care, drugs, and mental health treatments are covered but you should always check on this.The downside to managed care health insurance is that you must choose from doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers who have contracts with your HMO. In other words, you cannot simply go to whomever you want. Also, you are limited to receive only those medical services authorized by the plan that you have. If you use non-authorized providers or receive non-authorized care, your insurance will not pay any portion of the bills.Because many people did not like these restrictions, managed care has begun to evolve to include hybrid plans that blend HMOs with some of the features of indemnity health care coverage.One example is the Point-of-Service plan. If you are under a point-of-service plan (POS), you can keep your overall costs low by using a network of doctors and hospitals that have contracts with your insurer. If you decide to go outside the network that has been set up for the plan, you will have to pay an added deductible as well as higher co-payments for the services rendered.

Finding The Best Low Cost Health Insurance : Health insurance review 2008

Finding The Best Low Cost Health Insurance : Health insurance review 2008
Helen Hecker
You may not be able to afford an expensive policy - but you can eliminate the frills that you don't need. The death rate in any given year for an individual without health insurance is twenty-five per cent higher than for someone who has insurance. If you have always had a health insurance benefit wherever you work and especially if you were a state or federal employee and now have to buy your own, you may not be able to afford the level of coverage you had at one time.Finding the best low cost health insurance is easier than most people think, especially now that we are able to go online for information and quotes. There are many individual and family health insurance plans available today in the US. It's important to know what to look for in a good insurance plan.There is health insurance for every budget. As with any type of insurance, it is always a gamble, that is, gambling that you'll take out more than you're paying in and your insurance company is gambling that they will pay out less.In the old days you had to physically visit ten agents to compare insurance rates, which was very time-consuming; getting low cost health insurance quotes online is fast. It's a fact that because the uninsured are sicker than the rest of us, they can't get better jobs, and because they can't get better jobs they can't afford insurance, and because they can't afford insurance they get even sicker.You can easily charge your payments to a credit card for online insurance which means you aren't going to forget a payment and ever be without insurance and gives you another 30 days before you actually need to pay. Also you don't have to tap your bank account as we've always had to do in the past when credit cards weren't accepted. One nice advantage of buying insurance online is you can change your coverage, deductibles, or payment options with a few clicks of the mouse rather than going through a paperwork delay with a local agent. So finding the best health insurance is easy to do online.Children who don't have health insurance are less likely to receive medical attention for serious injuries, for recurrent ear infections, or for asthma, for example. Heart attack victims without insurance are less likely to receive angioplasty and other procedures. The death rate in any given year for someone without health insurance is twenty-five per cent higher than for someone with insurance.Although it does increase your risk, one way to lower your costs is to set a higher deductible. If you're in good health you'll likely come out ahead, barring an unforeseen accident, etc. Another way to lower your cost is to eliminate the coverage that you'll not likely need such as maternity coverage. Also there are several providers that offer cheap health insurance with low cost premiums for single people also. But, more importantly, you want a company that has a good track record for paying claims, without fighting you on every little detail. You want to avoid having to face a $100,000 open heart surgery without having any insurance.The market for health insurance plans is very much developed in the US. With a bit of online research and understanding on your part, you can easily get insurance for a lower cost. With the rise of medical insurance costs, most people look for low cost health insurance premiums that will ensure quality medical attention at the time of need, but still at a price they can afford. You should be able to find a lower cost insurance plan that meets your medical requirements as well as your financial situation.Insurance companies have to be very competitive because it's quick and easy to compare them with other companies on the Internet today. There are many low cost options available too. For people without pre-existing conditions or other complicating factors, a simpleinsurance plan with a high deductible may be the way to go. So the best way to get free low cost health insurance quotes is to go online.

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