Hmmmm…
The easy answer for most people is yes. But just like everything else, you get what you pay for and their are no “deals” to be had.
The biggest thing to watch out for are insurance policies that offer copays for doctors office visits and prescriptions that have a low price.
Why?
Office visits are cheap (relatively speaking) usually costing somewhere between $50 and $80 a visit – a practice in Southern California even made their medical costs easily available.
A broken leg can cost you $10,000 – $20,000 including the hospital visit, ER physician costs, follow-up visits, X-ray/MRI’s etc.
So an inexpensive plan with copays usually has very high cost sharing for hospitalizations, surgeries, etc. Some even have limits on the total amount they will cover for every time you visit the hospital or have a medical event.
Do you really want a health plan that gives you a $35 copay for an office visit but ends up costing you $10,000 when you have a real medical emergency?
This is all another good reason to use an agent.
Agents do not cost you a penny. That’s right – the premium you get from an agent will be the same as if you went to the health insurance company directly.
They represent lots of carriers.
And a good experienced agent knows the pitfalls of the plans and can help you make an informed decision on which medical insurance quote to buy.
Happy Hunting!
Did you decide you want to use an agent?
I hope so, because you can avoid a lot of mistakes if you did.
But how do you find and pick a good one?
Well, a good place to start is by getting a quote at Benepath ;-), or you can check out the National Association of Health Underwriters or the Independent Health Insurance Association. But seriously, there are a few important things to consider when selecting an agent:
How much experience does the agent have? Personally, I would not work with anyone who has not been doing this for less than one year or at least who works directly with more experienced agents. There are two reasons for this. First, most people (over 80%) who start in the insurance business don’t make it past the first year. So, anyone who makes it past the first year is more likely to be around when you need them. The second reason is someone with a year’s experience has been able to see enough of the good and the bad of carriers in your area to have good judgment about the options for you.
How knowledgeable is the agent? – Just because someone has been in the business 10 years does not mean they are a professional. You want to ask questions that give the agent an opportunity to demonstrate to you that they know their trade. Ask them to tell you the pluses and minuses of the different carriers in your area. Look for details and not just generalizations.
Does the agent represent all the major carriers in your area? You want to make sure the agent represents the major carriers in your area and you know who they are. If you don’t, just read the billboards as you drive down your local freeway… Stay away from agents who only represent one carrier. These are captive agents and their job is to represent the company they work for and to sell you their policies. Maybe their program is the best for you, but in most cases and independent agent can represent that carrier as well. You want an agent who can provide you with multiple health insurance quotes and give you side by side comparisons of the benefits and price of each plan.
Ask them about their process for helping you pick the right plan. There are literally over 1,000 possible plans to choose from when you add up all the various options, copays, deductibles, etc. They should have a good answer for this question; one that lays out a serious path for matching you up with that right health plan.
Now pick up the phone and start asking some good questions.
Happy Hunting!
Before you buy a policy, you have to pick the health insurance plan to buy…
Too many people are trying to do this by themselves, thinking they can pick a health plan as easily as choosing a brand of peanut butter. More often than not, they end up very dissapointed with the results.Makes sense, but it just isn’t that easy.
My advice is to carefully choose an insurance agent and work with them to find the right coverage for you at the best possible price. Doing this is free and you directly benefit from the agent’s experience and expertise. Remember these men and women are doing this as a job and most insurance agents who sell individual health insurance focus on that market, meaning they are not really doing many other things than working with people like yourself to find health insurance.
So, they know which carriers pay their claims timely, they know which carriers have quality policies without lots of loopholes, they know which carriers have the best provider networks and so on. They also know the experience of their customers as they always get the call if things go wrong.
In future blogs I’ll give you some pointers on picking a good agent and on buying a policy yourself if you really don’t want an agent.
Happy Hunting!
Finding quality health insurance is never easy, unless you have no health problems, aren’t overweight, and don’t smoke. Basically its easy to find health insurance if you don’t need health insurance.
So, if like most Americans, you or someone in your family has some minor health condition (ADD for kids, high blood pressure, overweight, etc) you will go through a process of getting health insurance quotes with the best rates, then going through underwriting and finding out that either:
You are going to pay more than you originally thought for the same coverage, or
You will get a policy at about the same price, but it will have riders that exclude or limit coverage for your health condition
What are you going to do about it?
You essentially have three choices.
Accept the increased premium or policy riders – This is usually the best course of action because now that you have gone through underwriting, you will have to disclose this to other carriers you try to get a better deal with. Ultimately, you will most likely end up with the same result.
Look for another carrier – If you were offered a policy with riders, you may be able to find another carrier who does not rider policies and only increase premiums. Then you can decide if you want to pay the higher premium or accept the limits on your coverage. If your condition is severe, many states have programs that offer guaranteed issue coverage – but it can be very expensive.
Reject the offer and continue to go without health insurance – This is a very poor option as even though you may not have been provided with the coverage you want, you do have coverage and a broken leg can cost up to $20,000. So, it may not be perfect, but it certainly will protect you and your family from financial difficulties due to unforeseen medical expenses.
Of course this is all a short term problem until the guaranteed issue provisions of health care reform go into effect in 2014, but until then you will need to manage with what is available.
Happy Hunting!
Currently rated 4.5 by 2 people
New viruses take their toll physically and financially. Be prepared to deal with new medical problems by having affordable health insurance.
Lately it seems like every time you turn around there is a new bug making its way around the world. Some of them may be treated with existing medicines; some of them may not. Either way, if you wind up getting sick and need a lot of doctoring, and if you don’t have affordable health insurance that covers your needs, you may have a problem on your hands.
Let’s face it, if you come down with something new and difficult to treat, you will likely be paying out more money than you have budgeted. That’s due to the nature of our expensive health care system. Even if you do have a high deductible, you’re going to be in a pinch financially. What are your options? The main option is to find affordable health insurance that offers the kind of coverage you need. Start by working out your budget first and then working out what you need. With list in hand, hit the Internet and start searching for health insurance quotes.
Once you’ve found a few sites that you like and that are professional and up-to-date in their information, ask for quotes and then compare them with others you have. Go for about three or four quotes to get an idea of what is out there. Pare down your list to show you the affordable health insurance quotes.
Next, you comb through what each of those affordable plans offers. For this you may need to speak directly to a health insurance agent. Write out a complete list of things you want answered and go to town asking them all. It’s important that you know that what you may get is what you need. Once you have found a cost match, your benefits are very important. Be careful here because some of the quotes may look enticing financially, but don’t offer the cover you need. So, read the fine print.
Weed out what is not suited for you and keep going until you have a quote that offers good benefits and it works with your budget; something you can manage financially. While this might seem like a daunting process, it does pay off in the long run with the thing you needed the most – affordable health insurance.
Clelland Green is with Benepath.com, a leader in providing health insurance quotes. Benepath provides individuals, families, and businesses with affordable health insurance quotes in just a few mouse clicks. To learn more, visit https://www.benepath.com.
While a policy may be inexpensive, it may not be what you need. Check that out first and ask questions when you don’t understand why a policy is less expensive, but won’t suit your needs. An experienced health insurance broker will have the answer for you. For instance, the policy might onlyhaveminimal drug coverage and no cover for hospital stays, and you are asthmatic and need drugs fairly often and have the occasional hospital visits for attacks. That kind of policy would not work for you.
Ask for up to six quotes and then spend some time with them and figure out why the premiums are different. In some instances it may depend on your age, your health or whether or not you have pre-existing conditions. Typically, when you ask for quotes online, use the same information withevery company when you fill out the online forms. If you don’t, it gets even more confusing.
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
While you might be understandably angry with the health insurance company that denied you health insurance coverage, it isn’t the insurance company making up the rules about who gets accepted and who gets denied. That is done by the state department of insurance, and every state has one. They are the people who set the rates for insurance companies to do business in the state and don’t allow insurance companies to take too many high risk policyholders.
This entire time people have been thinking it’s the insurance companies themselves denying coverage, when really, insurance companies are bound by the rules laid down by the state department of insurance. What does this mean? It means that in order for insurance companies to stay in business, the rules need to state that they don’t take high risk policyholders or they won’t be in business for very long.
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
If you’ve visited a website and seen quotes that list something called the “preferred rate” it means that would be the price a person in good health would pay for a health insurance policy. If you have pre-existing conditions and are not in good health, you do not get the preferred rate. In fact, depending on your condition, you may be shelling out up to 50% more than the preferred rate to even get insurance – if the health insurance company agrees to insure you. If you want reasonable health insurance, stay in good shape, eat right and do all things in moderation.
There are other options such as approaching a larger company. Larger firms all underwrite differently and they may just take you, provided you pay a higher premium. If this doesn’t work, ask a health insurance agent about your state risk pool.
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
If you want to keep your workers happy, offer health insurance plans, either bundled together or standard.Today, many larger companies who have had to downsize are looking for ways to compensate their remaining workers. Health insurance plans are a good place. Thebest way to offer health insurance plans is to group them together with other worker benefits or offer them as standard for working for you.
Generally speaking, health insurance plans are good for a larger company with many employees. They also offer a whole lot of benefits, not the least of which is the tax benefits. Another benefit to the employer is it gives them clout in bargaining with the insurance provider because they’re buying health insurance policies in bulk.
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
This will make sense if you stop to think about it. If you are way overweight, have diabetes, do drugs or are a regular drinker, you certainly won’t be getting the OK for a health insurance policy. These types of behaviors are risky and high risk consumers are considered risky business propositions.
You’ll notice we mentioned risk at least three times in that last sentence. This is because an insurance company is a business and to stay in business, the companies don’t insure people with high risk habits because it costs them money.
The fact is you only get health insurance if the insurance company feels you’re a good risk. That means that they are betting they won’t have to pay.
out too much on you over the years.
This isn’t to say you might not get insurance, but if you do, your premiums will be really high and the coverage might not deal with your particular health issue(s).
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
