Right now, health insurance coverage is on the minds of many people. Millions of people in the U.S. are uninsured and the number is increasing instead of at least tapering off. But those who are insured through their employer should keep certain factors in mind.
Health insurance coverage through employers does have its bad side. People tend to get excited about having health insurance from their employer, but they don’t realize the true cost of what their employer is making them pay. It used to be that employees were able to get either free or low-cost employer-sponsored group health insurance as a benefit for themselves, spouse and/or children. But nowadays, less and less employers offer health insurance and the ones that do are steadily shifting the cost on to the employee to make them pay for most of it.
If you look at your payroll check, have you noticed a larger amount of your gross income being taken out for medical insurance? If you have a spouse and/or children, you can be paying anywhere from 50 to 100 percent of the cost for insuring them. But many employees are not aware of what they can alternatively do because their employers won’t tell them. Naturally, most people want to make sure their spouse and/or children have some coverage. Did you know that your employer’s group health insurance cost would severely increase if their employee’s “healthy” spouse and/or children left the company’s group plan? That’s something they don’t want to share with you for obvious reasons.
Health Insurance Coverage through your employer is contingent on many things:
- If you’re laid off, you can only continue that coverage if you pay for COBRA which is cost-prohibitive for most people and it only lasts for 18 to 36 months. What happens after that if you or a family member is in the middle of getting treatment for something?
- If your employer changes insurance carriers, you have no say-so in it which means there’s a possibility that they’ve gone from a PPO to an HMO plan (or vice versa). Potentially, your doctor or hospital might no longer be within that new network. That can definitely cause problems if you or a family member is undergoing treatment during that transition.
- If you get fired, they no longer have to offer you medical insurance. So you, your spouse and/or children will all of a sudden be left with no health insurance at that time.
- If you decide to change jobs and start working for a different employer, they might not offer health insurance at all. That’s very common these days. Or if they do, you could possibly have a waiting period from six months up to a year before you become eligible for it. This leaves you and your family vulnerable during that time period.
We’ve been so conditioned to believe that if we don’t have coverage through our employer, we’ll just be without coverage. But with the ever changing climate of health insurance, you don’t have to accept that anymore.
Solution. Take the initiative to look into an affordable individual/family health policy and educate yourself on the various available plans. These plans allow you to have real health insurance coverage because it’s not tied to your job. After you’ve been accepted and as long as you continue to pay your premiums, you’ll pretty much have a guaranteed-renewable policy. You’ll also have access to a network of medical providers to choose from or you can go outside the network if necessary.
What’s sadly true is that insurance carriers aren’t too keen on advertising individual health insurance coverage because it attracts “unhealthy” individuals who ultimately will have their application rejected. Carriers having too many rejected applications on their books can incur regulatory headaches; so it’s easier for them to just not go there at all and avoid potential problems.
Now that you have a better understanding of insurance coverage through employers, what about those of you who can’t afford COBRA because it’s too expensive, or perhaps you are self-employed or working for a company that offers no medical insurance at all? Well, you need coverage too, right? It’s very important that you know where you can get it from, how you can qualify and what to look for.
For those with pre existing conditions, there is a guaranteed-issue health insurance plan that’s HIPAA compliant that you should learn more about.
Nadine House is a licensed health insurance agent focused on helping people make informed decisions regarding their health insurance coverage situation. If you would like to see and know more about what’s available to you, visit http://www.HealthInsuranceCoverageInfo.com.
