Health Insurance and Bankruptcy
Did you know that half of U.S. bankruptcies, affecting 2 million people annually, were attributable to illness or medical bills? As we continually look for answers in regard to handling todays health care crisis, it is important to look outside the box with the items that are under our control as a consumer of health care.
We currently have 47 million people with out health care and 9.3 million of the uninsured are families earning more the $75,000 per year. This alone is a very clear indication that many people that could very easily afford health insurance just do not buy it because that they feel it is to expensive and they would rather just take the risk. Although some of these uninsured may not be eligible for a private health insurance policy through a major carrier, most are. Not only are they, but if they chose the right policy they would actually be very surprised at the cost. I went on the website, http://www.healthinsurancechaser.com/, and instant received rates with multiple major medical carriers and I was able to speak with an agent that explained the plans to me. I found that a 40 year old couple with two children living in Cincinnati, Ohio would pay $200.55 monthly for a policy that would offer the family coverage on 100% of preventative and wellness benefits (Free Pap Smears, Mamagrams, Well Child exams, physicals, colocnoscopies, etc) from the first day of coverage and would cover 100% of all claims over the choosen deductible. When working through the policy with the agent we found that you would be paying almost as much for the preventative services each year if you didn’t have the policy, as you would for the policy with the free preventative services.
One disturbing item that we did find was that three-quarters of those bankrupted by illness were insured when they first got sick. Most of the medical bankruptcy filers were middle class; 56 percent owned a home and the same number had attended college. In many cases, illness forced breadwinners to take time off from work — losing income and job-based health insurance precisely when families needed it most. Now you ask, how can that happen? Becasue most people have their insurance through their employer, when they leave that plan the only portability that the plan has is potentially COBRA; which provides certain former employees, retirees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates. This coverage, however, is only available when coverage is lost due to certain specific events. Group health coverage for COBRA participants is usually more expensive than health coverage for active employees, since usually the employer pays a part of the premium for active employees while COBRA participants generally pay the entire premium themselves.
Therefore, the cancellation of coverage when illness causes job loss have augmented the financial risk for those with insurance. In addition, if you were unable to do your job due to health concerns, odds are you would be declined individual coverage due to your condition. For this reason it is beneficial to get individual coverage when you are healthy and own your insurance personally; not through your employer. You also may find that your employer may compensate you for waiving off of the group plan in the amount that they would have been contributing and in many situations you may still be able to have your employer deduct the health insurance premium from your pay check.
Hopefully, you realize how important having health insurance is, but have also realized how important it is for you to be involved in your health insurance decisions. Under our current system employer sponsored plans are a great benefit for employees, but individually owned health insurance is an assett that should not be taken lightly and should be used to protect yourself and your family from the possibilty that an illness could drive your family to the financial devistation of bankruptcy.
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