Quick Insurance Tips

While you may be able to find insurance coverage for a pre-existing medical condition in certain circumstances and MediGap insurance without pre-existing conditions issues is available in most situations, forcing insurance companies to insure all comers would prove disastrous to our present system.

About a decade or so ago the State of New York forced the insurance companies to insure everyone regardless of their medical history. What happened? Almost all of the health insurance companies serving the non-group market fled the state. The remaining providers were forced to raise their rates beyond an amount that most could afford.

Basically what happened was that sicker people started buying health insurance policies. They cost the insurance companies more than they paid in. This forced the companies to raise their rates. This meant that fewer people could afford to keep their coverage. Those that were already sick squeezed their budgets tighter to keep their coverage when they could. This meant that more healthy people dropped their coverage than unhealthy people did. The companies raised their rates again. This cycle continued and continued.

Guaranteed medical insurance will only work when there is universal health insurance. When healthier people are allowed to opt out of the system, the rates just go up and up.

An insurance premium is the payment you make to your insurance carrier to “rent” your policy. The word “premium” as it applies to insurance is just a fancy word for “rates” or “costs.” You can substitute either word in the phrase “what are monthly auto insurance premiums in nyc?”

An insurance premium may be paid monthly, quarterly, semiannually or annually.

At one time life insurance premiums were collected weekly. This is back in the days of the debit agents. These agents went door-to-door and sold small policies and collected premiums.

Insurance premiums can be guaranteed for the life of a policy as with some life insurance policies. They can also be subject to increase at any time as with some health insurance policies.

The money you pay your insurance company to keep your policy active is your premium. This may be one aspect of insurance that isn’t complicated.

Private medical insurance prices are influenced by several factors.  You may be able to lower your cost for health care by eliminating unneeded coverage, by increasing your fitness level or by shopping around for coverage.

Medical insurance is expensive today because the cost of a hospital stay and the cost of a doctor’s visit are expensive.  The cost of health care rises each year as healthcare providers ask for more, more expensive procedures become available and hospitals charge more for their rooms.  By reducing your insurance company’s costs you may be able to reduce your cost as well.

You may be able to reduce coverage for certain benefits that you don’t need or that are more expensive than they are worth.  Maternity insurance, prescription coverage and dental insurance may be either unnecessary or over priced.  People often pay extra for a policy that includes maternity insurance long after they have had their last child.  Prescription coverage and dental coverage will often have relatively low annual limits.  If so, the amount you would have at risk if you eliminated one of these benefits is the amount of the coverage limit less the cost of the coverage.  This may mean that dropping the added cost is a good idea.  Spend some time looking at the limits and the costs of these benefits and do the math to make sure that they are worth keeping.

Raising your deductible may also reduce your costs. By taking more or the risk, you can often reduce your costs by a lot. In some cases the amount of extra risk you take may be less than the amount of money that you save. Make sure than when you compare your premium savings to an increase in your deductible you multiply the premium savings by the appropriate factor to get the annual savings. Your deductible is probably based on a calendar year. You should compare it with the annualized savings to make an apples to apples comparison.

If you have been charged extra because of a medical condition or because of your weight, you may be able to reduce or eliminate the surcharge.  You should find out what needs to happen in order to get your rate reduced if this is the case.

Often an insurance company will reduce or eliminate the surcharge if you have had a period of time where you haven’t needed treatment.  If your preexisting medical condition has gotten better, you may be able to get your rate reduced.  You may need to lose a small amount of weight or reduce your blood pressure readings by a small amount.  Knowing what requisite numbers may motivate you to do the things you need such as exercise or eat better.  You may be able to save more than just money by doing what it takes to get your health insurance premiums down.

Shopping around is a tried and true practice for saving money on health insurance, cars and many other things.  There is often a large variance in medical insurance prices.  You may find that you can save hundreds of dollars a month by switching to another company or even to a different type of policy that is offered by the same health insurance carrier.

There may be several factors that you have control over that will impact your cost for health insurance and health care in general.  Reducing your coverage in unimportant or unneeded areas, reducing surcharges for pre-existing conditions and shopping around can all help you bring your costs for health insurance down.

You may be paying for coverage you don’t need, have the wrong type of coverage or simply paying too much if you haven’t reviewed your coverage recently.  Your needs change and this may mean that you need more, less or different coverage.  Insurance policies go up and (occasionally) down in price on a regular basis.  The plan that was priced best last year might not be today.  For these reasons, your insurance policies and your need for insurance should be reviewed regularly.

If you purchased your health insurance policy several years ago, your needs may have changed dramatically since then.  You may be ready to have children.  You may have a new child.  You may have a child who is now an adult.  A few years can mean major changes for many families.

At that time, you may have been concerned about your young child’s frequent doctor’s visits.  That child may not bee so young now and you may want to purchase a different kind of policy.

You may have needed insurance coverage for pregnancy then but not need it now or vice versa.  It is costly to pay for maternity coverage and not need it.  It is also costly to need it and not have it.

You may have purchased your plan before the high deductible health plans and Health Savings Accounts were available.  There are significant tax advantages to these programs and you may want to investigate these plans.

Medical insurance companies change their rates about every 12 months.  The policy you purchased three years ago may have had rate increases that are above the average for similar policies.

If your health has improved you may benefit from purchasing a new policy.  If you’ve stopped smoking or lost weight you may qualify for a lower rate.  Some pre-existing medical conditions are viewed more favorably by insurance companies as they age.  Many insurance companies will charge a higher rate if someone has had certain types of surgery within the last year.  If it is now five years and there has not been a reoccurrence, you may qualify for standard rates, but only if you reapply.

You or your family has probably changed in the last several years.  Health insurance rates change every year.  The medical insurance industry changes all of the time.  For all of these reasons, reviewing your coverage and getting current private health insurance quotes is likely to help you save money.

Should you pay for your insurance on your credit card?  Will this make your insurance cost more or less?

Many carriers are encouraging their policy holders to pay via credit card today.  This has both pros and cons.  It may mean that you have coverage when you need it.  It may also mean that you are paying 20% extra for your policies and are getting deeper in debt.

By allowing your insurer to debit your credit card for your auto insurance or health care policy, you may keep your insurance in force longer.  This may mean that an accident or other even is covered when it might not have been. Forgetting to pay an insurance bill can cost you thousands or even millions.  There is definitely a positive side to paying for insurance via a credit card.

If you have a medical condition or have gained weight that you acquired since you purchased your health insurance policy, this can be especially important.  Missing a payment may mean that you are denied coverage or charged extra for the same coverage you had before.

Your health insurance company is not allowed to drop you because of a significant health condition or a state of obesity that you developed since your healthcare policy was approved unless you cancel your policy or allow it to lapse.  If you do so, you can be treated as if you are a new client.  This can mean that you are subjected to medical underwriting all over again.

If you are in the habit of paying your credit cards off each month before any interest is assessed, there no downside to using a credit card to pay your monthly insurance premiums.

However credit is overused today.  How would you feel if you were charged 20% more for everything you buy because of your race, gender or religion?  When we use a credit card to pay, we often pay an extra unnecessarily.

Insurance plans that will charge your credit card by default may be willing to send you a bill in the mail or bill a checking account.  If you are concerned about excess interest charges, you may want to contact your insurer about this.

Most people want their employer to offer health insurance, however if you are a business owner the benefits of employee retention and recruitment have to be weighed against the rising costs of group health insurance coverage. 

Even if you shop around and compare health insurance rates for a small business, you may find that none of the rates are affordable.  You may be forced to eliminate or reduce coverage because insurance carriers cannot keep prices down in this environment.  Doctors charge more; hospitals charge more; pharmacies charge more.  These costs have to be passed on to the insurance company. The insurance company in turn has to pass these costs along to businesses that purchase group insurance.

Insurance costs are rising faster than general inflation, wages and business income.  There is no indication that this will change in the near future.  This leads to a great deal of unpredictability and makes planning a long term budget for your company difficult.

Offering health insurance to employees in an environment where rates rise faster than your company’s income forces you to make difficult choices.  You can reduce the company’s profits and maintain your group health insurance.  You can eliminate health coverage all together and have angry employees and potentially lose key employees.  You can reduce coverage, which may have the same effect.

If you fail to offer health insurance, you may have a difficult time recruiting new employees.  However, by not offering the coverage, you may be able to offer a more competitive wage.  This may offset the competitive disadvantage of being a firm without health care benefits.

This is a win-win strategy for only a small percentage of businesses.  Employees can often purchase individual or family health insurance at a lower cost than an employer can purchase it.  Group health insurance plans in Los Angeles and in many major cities can cost much more than similar health insurance plans offered to healthy individuals.

Unfortunately this strategy is only works for healthy employees who have healthy families to insure.  Many people have preexisting medical conditions that will prevent them from finding affordable health insurance.

For those that can medically qualify for a private health insurance plan a pay boost equal to the amount your business spends on health insurance is likely to be a boon.  However, other employees may be left out in the cold and harbor resentment against the company.

Your business and your employees may benefit from eliminating group health insurance benefits and using some of the savings to increase employee wages.  This can be great thing if your employees are able to purchase medical coverage through a private insurer at a lower price. 

Unfortunately, this will only happen if all of your employees and their families are healthy enough to qualify for an underwritten private medical insurance plan.  One employee with medical issues can keep this plan from working.  This is true of new employees as well.  Therefore, having a stable workforce is also important to making this work.

In tough economic times, business owners have to make difficult decisions.  Today many business owners are choosing not to offer group health insurance to keep their costs down.  Many business are being forced to chose between losing employees or losing money by keeping their health plan. 

What will it cost you to have a medical emergency but no medical insurance?  It can cost you everything that you have worked for.  Finding ways to reduce your medical insurance costs without eliminating coverage can mean that you get to keep your house, your credit and your health.

Health insurance can be very expensive and because of that it unfortunately isn’t an option for many people.  Some, perhaps most of those without coverage can’t avoid it.  Some who technically can afford it are forced to choose between buying health insurance and living in a safe neighborhood or sending a child to college.

If you are not in one of those categories, but are still considering going without health care coverage consider the fact that even in these recessionary times, uninsured or poorly insured sicknesses and accidents cause more people to go bankrupt and to be foreclosed upon than anything else.

There are ways to reduce your costs for health insurance without risking your financial future.  You can find plans that have similar coverage to the plan you are considering dropping that are less expensive simply by shopping around.  You may also be able to raise your deductible.  In so doing you may reduce your coverage and price without eliminating coverage entirely.

Shop for Health Insurance

Shopping around for insurance can save you a bundle.  There is often a wide variance in the price of health insurance policies that offer the same or similar coverage.  Many people fail to shop around for coverage. Many others shop once and never know that the plan that was the most competitive five years ago is one of the most expensive today.

If you need to insure a family, one of these “secret health insurance buying strategies” may help you lower your premiums.

Look at Low Cost High Deductible Health Plans

High deductible healthinsurance plans are often the best for many families.  These plans tend to be much less expensive than low deductible co-pay plans.  You will trade some coverage for the smaller things, but will probably be able to get excellent coverage for the catastrophic medical event.  You may be able to cut your costs in half with a high deductible health insurance plan.

These plans may also help you save on income taxes as well.  Owning a HDHPs or high deductible health plan can qualify you to open a health savings account.  HSA plans are similar to Individual Retirement Accounts or IRAs.

An HSA can also help you spend less on medical care.  A debit card that accesses your HSA funds will allow you to spend pre-tax dollars on medical and dental expenses, and thereby turning a $100 expense into a $72 expense for many Americans.

By shopping around and or purchasing a higher deductible health insurance policy, you can reduce your costs without risking the loss of your home and financial future.  Consider these options before considering dropping your health coverage entirely.

The risk of paying higher taxes with universal healthcare should be weighed against not just the benefit of easing of pain and suffering and extending life, but also the benefits of the tax dollars that might be generated by those who aren’t hampered by the current system.  The person who is disabled today because he couldn’t afford health care when his condition was preventable might be working today.  He might be paying taxes instead of collecting from social security if we had a universal healthcare system.  The woman who today who is shackled to her job because a family member is uninsurable in the private health insurance market might be the person who invents the next great thing.

Better Preventative Health Care May Reduce Our Costs

Although it is true that the poor have access to health care today, the access is biased towards expensive care one might need in an emergency medical situation as opposed to the relatively inexpensive care one might need to prevent that emergency situation.

There must be countless men and women who are currently out of work and on the dole who would love to be working and supporting their families.  Few of us want to be out of work.  Fewer of us want to be sick and out of work.

In many cases the disabled former tax payers had relatively minor preexisting conditions that turned into major disabling conditions.  These conditions were only allowed to become major medical conditions because the person couldn’t afford proper preventative care.  The cost of this care pales in comparison to the cost of losing a tax payer and gaining a “tax eater.”

A Lack of Health Insurance Options May Reduce Innovation

Many people are afraid to leave their jobs because they are afraid of losing their healthcare coverage and slows our economy. This fear keeps people shackled to jobs that no longer fit them.  A person who has the ability and experience to do something bigger may stay at a job because the opportunity to do something else means that they will leave their coverage behind.  This doesn’t happen in the other countries that use a universal healthcare system.

The next Bill Gates or Thomas Edison may be forced to stay in their current job because they have a daughter with Crohns disease or a genetic defect.  They are not going to take the risk of leaving their job and create the next computer innovation or light bulb.  We lose and they lose.

A major innovation isn’t necessary for this to hurt us.  Small improvements multiplied by thousands or millions of workers could be enough to turn our economy around and drive us forward.  If John is forced to stay with a company with no advancement opportunities because of health insurance issues, he can’t work at another company that can use all of his abilities and make that company great.  If the same is true for Jane and Barbara and Dave… we are losing a lot of production due to this forced underemployment that is driven by the current system.

If universal healthcare can increase the number of tax payers and reduce the number of “tax-eaters” we may find that it improves our economy.  By helping those in need we may be helping every American whether rich or poor.

Buying a zero deductible health insurance plan can mean that you pay extra for lousy coverage.  Although this isn’t always true, a zero deductible policy can have other cost shares.  Your monthly premium is likely to be higher than that of a plan with a moderate deductible.  You may also pay more in coinsurance or co-pays.

A health insurance policy that allows its policyholders to go to the doctor or hospital without any money out of their pockets will tend to be overused.  Insurance policies that are overused will cost the carrier more and therefore will cost you the consumer more.  A policy that has a zero deductible and no co-pays or other cost shares will be prohibitively expensive should an insurance company decide to offer such a healthcare policy.

If you would like to have fixed, predictable healthcare costs, the best option for you may be a high deductible health plan with a health savings account.  Believe it or not a high deductible plan may be your best zero deductible plan if your couple it with a health savings account (HSA).

An Aetna zero deductible health insurance policy offered to a Connecticut couple in their fifties might cost them $800 a month.  This plan has no deductible but it has other cost shares.  They could pay up to $7,500 in coinsurance each year.  This is in addition to any co-pays.

A high deductible health plan from Connecticut’s Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield with a $2,500 family deductible might cost the same couple $600 a month.  If you divide the $2,500 deductible by 12 you come up with $208.33.  This means that this couple’s maximum costs when you add their cost shares and their premium together amount to about $810 a month.

For $10 more a month, they get a true zero deductible plan since this plan has no other cost shares.  But wait there’s more… if they have low or moderate medical expenses, they get to keep any of the $2,500 that they don’t spend.  There is still more… they can probably put the $2,500 into an IRA-like account and reduce their taxes.

Being creative with your health insurance policy can mean that you save significant amounts of money on your coverage.

A zero deductible health insurance policy may cost more than it is worth.  However, if you are willing to be creative and look into your options with high deductible health plans and health savings accounts, you may be able to get better coverage for the same or less money.

Optional private medical insurance benefits such as prescription insurance may or may not be worth the extra money.  A bad decision here can mean that you are paying a $100 in extra premiums and getting something less than $100 in value in return.

Prescription Insurance Comparison

There are a lot of companies offering cheap health insurance and prescription coverage.  When evaluating these insurance plans verses similar plans that don’t offer prescription coverage, look at the benefits verses the costs before making a final decision.

Often the prescription coverage will have a low annual dollar limit.  This reduces the value of this benefit.  Typically the base policy limits are in the millions on a health plans offered to individuals or to the self employed. Prescription insurance limits however are usually lower.

You will need to convert the monthly cost into an annual cost to make an easy comparison.

If your Aetna insurance prescription plan has a $5,000 limit and costs an extra $200 a month, you are spending $2400 a year in order to have the potential of receiving $5,000 in return.  In this scenario, the most you can lose by not having this coverage is $2,600.  This is the difference between the cost of the coverage and the maximum benefit you could be paid.

This also means that the insurance company would have to cover $2,400 in prescription benefits in a given year for you to benefit from buying this insurance coverage.  This $2,400 is the cost of the prescriptions after your co-pays or other cost shares are deducted from the cost of the drug.

You may benefit from getting a discounted price from your pharmacy when you have certain insurance policies, however you may get the same discount whether or not you have the prescription rider.  This discount should be factored in before making a final decision on the coverage.

However you may not need a health insurance or prescription rider to get cheap Rx. Insurance isn’t necessary to get prescription discounts. You may be able to get your generic prescription for a few dollars at Wal-Mart or one of the other pharmacies that are aggressively pushing discounted drugs.

When buying insurance or anything else, make sure that you receive a dollars worth of value for every extra dollar you spend.  The cost for prescription coverage sometimes is too high for the benefits received.  However sometimes it is a lifesaver.  It all depends on the price and the benefits.