Individual Health Insurance Plans

You may have noticed more advertising of family health insurance coverage in the last year or so. Given the current economic environment, many individuals and families are choosing to secure health insurance coverage outside of a group plan. For some, this may be due to being self-employed. For others, it may be less expensive than the plan offered by their employer. For what ever the reason, more and more people are seeking individual health plans as offered by many insurance carriers.

Because many employers have to scale back on expenses, they are changing the benefits being offered to employees. In many instances, it equates to more money being withheld at each pay period. In order to make the health plan less costly to the company, they are altering current group health plans or altering the amount of company contribution. The result is a higher cost for the employee. It may be in the form of a higher premium, higher copays or coinsurance, or higher deductibles. Certain coverage, such as for dental care, may be reduced or eliminated. This leaves the worker with a decision to make.

For some employees, they opt to continue with the coverage being offered by their employer. Those with families are doing more research into health insurance coverage as it would be too expensive to continue with the changed employer plan. There are many individual plans available through well known carriers, and some that are not as familiar. However, it is not impossible to find an individual health insurance plan to fit the needs of your family.

Prior to starting your research, sit down and determine exactly what coverage you need. Do you need it just for yourself? Are you a single parent and just need coverage for yourself and a child? What type of health care expenses do you currently have and anticipate in the near future? How much can you afford to pay (premium, copay, coinsurance, and deductible)? Doing this helps to narrow your choices.

Once you start reviewing health plans, make sure that you understand the terminology. Do not be afraid to contact the company offering the plan and ask questions. Also, you want to find out if certain services are part of the plan, available as a rider, or even available at all through that carrier and don’t forget to ask about dental, vision or life insurance coverage.

If you are self-employed, never had health insurance or recently laid off you cannot afford to not have major medical insurance. Why? Because today’s leading cause for financial ruin and filing for bankruptcy is the inability to pay medical bills. By purchasing a major medical policy you are able to implement a cap on your out of pocket expenses, and have the support of a large organization to subsidize the majority of your medical expenses. To give you an idea of what a burden medical bills and can be, a 3 day stay in a hospital can run upwards of $28,000.

So the question is where are you able to find quality health insurance coverage if you are ineligible for an employer sponsored plan? Today, the web is a valuable resource for finding affordable health insurance options in your area. However, when you begin looking for a plan it is important to shop around for all options. Do not limit yourself to going to a single carrier’s website as it is very likely they may not have the most competitive rate in your area. It is best to use some sort of exchange or quote engine to observe all possible options in your area.

In addition, when trying to find health insurance, make sure that you are signing up for “real” insurance and not a discount program. Discount health insurance policies are dangerous because they do not cap your out of pocket exposure; i.e., you could be paying 50% of a million dollars in medical claims. A dead giveaway for discount programs is membership fees before signing up. Any real insurance carrier will not make you pay a membership fee in order to qualify for their plan. Also, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.