Health Insurance For Families
Health insurance is always a popular topic. No matter your age group or your situation in life it is important. Perhaps it is an important topic because it involves expenditure of our hard earned money. Even if we are retired, it is about spending the limited funds available during retirement.
It has been stated that the leading cause of bankruptcy is medical bills. The interesting twist to this is the fact that these people reported that they did have health insurance at the beginning of their illness.
When we hear stories like this we know why some people don't believe insurance will help them. The truth of the matter is that health insurance is changing. There has been an understanding or belief for decades that health insurance meant that you never had to pay for anything except a small co-payment. Health insurance is changing. The mere phrase 'health insurance' does not guarantee that even the bulk of your medical costs will be paid. There are the preverbal loopholes, through which the families with health insurance can and do fall through. This has created the phrase underinsured.
There are a few basics to understand when selecting health insurance. While you cannot change the industry, having an understanding of the scope of health insurance is essential when making selections. There are two aspects to the process. First, how much you will pay for the health insurance and second, what your health insurance coverage will be. That is it. All we have to do is figure out those two things. Sounds simple, however the difficulty is the extensive variables. We will cover these as we address these two aspects of the process.
The Cost
The cost of health insurance has increased, unfortunately at a rate that is twice what inflation has been for the same time period. What this does is require families to make difficult choices. The options are to keep the same level of insurance at a higher cost or to lower their coverage to keep the cost the same. If the cost rises the extra money has to come from the family budget from somewhere. If the coverage is reduced, this could leave the family liable for excessive economic disaster. This is not an easy decision. One that has to be weighed with all points considered. Many employers have decreased their portion of the coverage for employee's health insurance. However, the standard is typically 80/20. That is 20% paid by the employer and 80% paid by the employee.
After all the cost for premiums has been weighed against the possible additional cost for lower coverage then we also have to factor in the increased co-pay. Many prescription drugs also add additional cost to health insurance and coverage or lack thereof.
The Coverage
The cost of health insurance is directly related to the coverage being offered. Logically the more you pay the more coverage you receive. When the health insurance premium costs are lower the insured's coverage is less, resulting in more out of pocket expenses for the employee. This is the information about the health insurance coverage that needs to be examined before the final selection of a health insurance provider and plan is selected for a family.
There are ways of adding to the standard health insurance. If you have a family and have children in a public school in the United States of America, usually the school will offer, at the beginning of the school term some sort of accident insurance. That is something that will assist with medical bills if the medical attention needed is an accident. For young children many times that is what is needed. There is also major medical health insurance that you can purchase. Those policies offer a high deductible policy at an affordable premium. It is the major medical that can put a family in bankruptcy. When we say high deductible that is relative. To some the high deductible might be $1,000 and for some that high deductible might be $5,000. The higher the deductible the lower the payments usually are for the coverage offered.
We have one word of caution for you about health insurance. If you find yourself in a situation where you have a great deal of out of pocket payments re-evaluate your health insurance needs and when the next open enrollment comes up you might want to consider different coverage to better meet your needs.
The bottom line is that every family is different with different finances and different medical needs. Health insurance selections are, however, something that can be addressed to allow the family to be insured and covered to best fit everyone's needs.
