NOTE: The following information applies to conditions prior to the new health insurance legislation passed in March 2010. No doubt, changes will be necessary once everyone understands the impact of the legislation.
When it comes to health insurance, many people don’t exactly know everything that there is to know about the subject. That only stands to reason, it is not something that is easily understood because of its complexity. For instance, when you visit the doctor you may be asked to pay something that is called the “co-pay”, and other times you may not have to do anything at all depending on your plan. Let’s look at some of the ways that health insurance is paid for.
Often times, your employer will sponsor your insurance and you only have to pay what is known as a “co-pay” or co payment. The co-pay is a set amount that is determined by your insurance company when you receive covered services. This is a significantly smaller fee than you would be paying without the co-pay. Many companies offer this type of payment option because it is easier on the employee to pay this way.
You may consider opening what is known as a Healthcare Savings Account (HSA). This will assure that you always have a location in which to retrieve payments for various medical expenses. The HSA is a pre-tax savings account where a portion of your pre-tax income, determined by you, is deposited into an account automatically. Since this account comes from your paycheck pre-tax, that means it will lower your overall taxable income. This means you are saving money in terms of taxes and saving lots of money towards your overall health care costs.
For certain disabled individuals and those above the age of 65, Medicare is also another way to pay for health insurance. While they will not pay all of your healthcare expenses, they will pay for most of them. Medicare, however, doesn’t cover prescription drugs and nursing homes. It is important that you check the different types of restrictions that may apply. There are low-cost prescription discount cards that have been proven to save people who require costly medications on a regular basis over 50% of what they would have been paying without any health care.
Paying for health insurance doesn’t have to be complicated as long as you understand just what is going on in terms of where you stand with your plan. Discuss any questions you may have about the plan before committing to one. While one plan may be right for many people, it does not always mean that it will fit your specific needs.
When people think of health insurance, they think of traditional health insurance, with office visits, co-payments, and prescription drug coverage. However, such health insurance is not always available. Perhaps you are transitioning from one job to another; or maybe you are employed part-time or with a temporary agency that does not offer full health coverage; or you might be attending or just graduating from school. In these situations, traditional health insurance is sometimes not available. If you are unable to afford traditional health insurance but would like some coverage in the case of an accident or emergency, short-term health insurance is your best bet.
Short-term health insurance fills the gap in health insurance coverage that may come about for a number of different reasons, including those listed above. The idea of short-term health insurance is built into the name – it is a short-term solution offering short-term coverage, with the expectation that at some point, you will begin or resume traditional health insurance coverage. It is designed for those who would like some coverage in case of accident or injury and covers only emergency or serious medical expenses, such as x-rays, ambulance fees, intensive care, and a certain amount of hospital care. Though policies vary, these are often standard in short-term health insurance coverage. However, short-term health insurance does not cover regular physician visits, nor do they cover pre-existing conditions. If you are looking for this sort of coverage, you should consider obtaining a traditional health insurance policy or looking into other options.
Short-term health insurance costs vary greatly; you will have a monthly premium, ranging anywhere from $25 to $100, depending upon the plan’s coverage and deductible, which often begins at $250 and can increase to $5,000. Most policies these days also offer a reasonable pay-out amount (often one or two million dollars). Policies allow you to choose coverage for specific lengths of time, from 30 days to 90 days or six months, but almost no short-term policies extend past one year.
How do you find short-term health insurance? It is not as difficult as it may seem. A simple Internet search will yield a number of companies that offer short-term health insurance coverage. Searching online will also give you the opportunity to compare different companies and different plans. Just be sure to research each of the policies carefully to understand your maximum pay-out as well as deductibles, coverage, and other terms of the agreement.
Before 1993, consumers wishing to participate in their own healthcare and proactively get medical testing to keep apprised of their health had very little options: talk with your doctor about ordering tests that insurance was unlikely to cover, go to an overcrowded medical clinic that did not order many testing options, or go to a hospital and convince them that you required emergency testing for a condition that you had no signs nor symptoms. As one can imagine, none of these options proved very viable. It was finally in 1993, with the birth of online medical testing, that the door was finally opened.
The first type of companies to offer online medical testing were those specializing in STD testing. As HIV fears rapidly spread through the community, and with cases of STDs quickly rising, people were no longer satisfied with an annual medical checkup that only focused on their age and a standard physical. Alternatively, consumers began regularly seeking STD and HIV testing through companies that offered this service affordably, quickly, and anonymously. While most insurers required a doctor’s visit and visible symptoms in order to okay testing, consumers could alternatively search online to find any one of thousands of completely confidential std testing centers. The cost for this testing were less than a doctor’s co-payment and associated lab fee more times than not.
The number of individuals seeking such private medical testing are now estimated in the tens of thousands per year, and those figures don’t look to be declining any time in the near future. Accessibility is not the only reason this type of testing is growing: medical technologies, such as DNA testing, are also rapidly increasing and are offering consumers more options than ever before. Paternity testing, cancer screening, heart screening, and other health related tests are now offered openly to the public. More than at any time in history, people now have the ability to assess their own predisposition for many life threatening conditions that can show up later in life.
Future healthcare regulations may make some people think that private medical testing will no longer be necessary, but most experts disagree. Cost containment is going to be absolutely necessary to keep a nation’s medical costs from skyrocketing, so the level of testing offered by future medical plans might actually be decreasing, instead of increasing. With a continued focus on health and self advocacy, it looks like private medical testing will be an invaluable component of any of the proposed new healthcare regulations.
Regardless of the manner in which you get tested, experts agree that it’s crucial that you do. Early detection is critical for any type of medical condition, and waiting until you are showing signs or symptoms may be too late.
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