Getting Health Insurance

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