How to Purchase Affordable Individual Health Insurance
Everyone has different health insurance needs and when shopping for the best health insurance plan for your situation it is important to be realistic about what affordable health insurance really is for you and how much value you will find in your individual health insurance plan.
Each year there are over 1.5 million personal bankruptcies and over half are attributed to medical bills and illness. Therefore, we can see that health insurance is as much a personal financial planning aid as it is a means to cover incidental medical bills. In addition, over 75% of the people that filed for bankruptcy were actually insured at the beginning of the illness, but then nearly half lost coverage by the time they actually filed for bankruptcy.
Because group health insurance plans are not portable beyond the 18 month COBRA period and the majority of families are unable to afford the COBRA premiums, we can see the importance of owning your own individual health insurance plan personally and not relying on your employer’s health insurance options.
You need to ask yourself a few questions as you begin your search for affordable individual or family health insurance:
- How much can you afford to pay each month in premium? Be realistic because you need to know that you can afford to pay for the plan and it remains in force for when you need it.
- How does each type of plan work with my current medical usage lifestyle? Is an office visit copy or prescription co pay important to you or are you looking for a plan that covers mainly wellness and catastrophic services? Make sure you find the appropriate plan, not just any health insurance plan.
- Do you feel you know enough about all of the health insurance carriers and a health insurance plans that you can make a competent decision as to which plan is right for you? For instance in Ohio there are roughly seven major health insurance carriers and each carrier has roughly 40-50 health insurance plans. Do you know the differences in and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plan and Humana or Medical Mutual of Ohio plan?
Health insurance can be very confusing, but the best advice I can give is to work with a broker that represents all of the health insurance carriers in your state and takes the time to understand your situation. Unless, you take down the wall between your family and your agent and open up to them about your current health insurance situation and life circumstances you are cheating yourself.
If you are looking for health insurance in Ohio and would like to begin the process of finding the proper individual health insurance plan for you and/or your family, the first step is to go to find a broker, like Chaser Insurance Group at http://www.healthinsurancechaser.com/, that can provide instant side by side quotes from carriers like Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, United HealthCare, Aetna, Humana, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Assurant and American Community. Then speak with your unbiased agent to tell them about your situation and determine what is best for you health insurance planning needs.
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