How to Choose the Best Health Insurance Product
Cost of healthcare is rising sharply therefore you should seriously consider getting a health insurance for yourself and your family. If you have never bought a health insurance previously, it can be very confusing to buy a health insurance product. What factors do you think should people consider before buying health insurance. What are the most important coverage provided by health insurance? Do health insurance only provides coverage for common issues or do they provide coverage for major issues such as cancer? Does health insurance provide you coverage for accident related injuries or just diseases? Do they also cover surgeries as well?
Why Health Insurance is Important
A lot of people think that health insurance is not necessary for them because they do not have any illness and their medical bill is very small. However, not getting a health insurance can be a great mistake because you never know what will happen to you. For example, during Corona Pandemic perfectly healthy individuals started dying or become critically. A lot of people were financially affected as they did not have health insurance and had to pay from their pockets. Health insurance provides financial support in unexpected health crises. It can pay for your medical bills including consultation fees, test and examination fees, medicines and surgery.
It is not easy to say whether you need health insurance or not, you will have to evaluate your health issue,s financial conditions, lifestyle, workplace conditions etc to analyze whether you need a health insurance or not. In a surface level, all people might need a health insurance because cost of health care is high and you never know what will happen to you but if you have subscribed to multiple insurance policies, it might be financially challenging to buy another insurance.
As far as I know, health insurance reimbursement work in two methods, one, you will be reimbursed your expenses after you submit your medical bills that you paid with your own money, and two, you don't pay anything and insurance company will take care of the bills, all you need to do is apply for health insurance benefits and submit documents in the medical facilities where you are trying to get health care services. How much money they will reimburse depends on your policy
All individuals have their own priorities, so when you choose a health insurance companies, your preference for the insurance company and insurance policy should depend on your priorities. If you have a family, you need to choose health insurance that gives benefit to the entire family. If you have some diseases or if you are prone to certain family disease, you also need to insure for higher amount. You will have to see what are the coverage and what are the exclusion.
One of the major reasons for health insurance claim denial is incomplete document. if your policy requires you to submit your prescriptions, medical bills and all other health care costs with proof, and if you miss anything in your claim, you might be denied. Sometimes health insurance might exclude a certain type of diseases, and if you try to claim for that conditions, your insurance might also get denied. You should always read policy clauses properly.
How to Choose the Right Health Insurance Plan Through Comparison of Different Plans
Health insurance is very important to tackle the rising cost of healthcare services. Health insurance comes with multiple options and when you are buying health insurance for the first time, choosing the right plan can overwhelm you. There are so many options to choose, and each of these options comes with its own benefit and drawbacks. For example, should you choose to insure with Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) or Preferred Provider Organization (PPO). With HMO, you get medical care only from doctors who are in the network, and with PPO, you can get services from doctors and hospitals in the selected network. Each health insurance plants and health insurance companies has its own pros and cons. For example, HMOs have lower premiums but you can get service from a select network of doctors. PPOs come with more flexibility but have higher cost. Likewise, when you go for high-deductible plans, you will be able to save on premiums but you will also end up paying more for your insurance. You need to balance your cost with the coverage.
How Do You Manage the Rising Costs of Health Insurance Premiums
It is well known fact that every year health care costs go up, you pay more for consultation fees, treatment fees, tests, medicines, etc. When the health care services become more expensive, it is directly proportional to your health insurance premiums. When you have to pay more for your premiums and when your income is limited or have high expenses and cannot pay additional for health insurance premiums, how do you deal with a situation like this? You have a couple of options, one, you have to switch to more affordable plans. These plans have fewer benefits but also put less strain in your pockets. Two, you cut back on your healthcare spending, so you buy plans with less coverage and also pay less for premiums. Three, stop buying health insurance plans and try to buy life insurance plans that also over some coverage against major diseases. For, go for employer-sponsored plans which have cheaper premiums. Five, go for government sponsored plans, which have cheaper premiums but give you access to limited services. How do you tackle the rising premiums for heal insurance.
What Are the Options for Health Insurance for Self-Employed and Freelancers
Even though being a freelancer and self employed is great as you are your own boss and you choose your work schedule, one of the major drawbacks of being self employed is you cannot get the benefits that a normal worker receives from his employer, for instance retirement plans, insurance plans, etc. If you are a self-employed individual or a freelancer, what kind of health insurance do you need to choose, how do you find affordable health insurance, to meet specific needs such as not having stable income? Since you have no access to employer-sponsored plans, what options do you get for your health insurance? One common option is to use marketplace plans, that is buy health insurance plans directly from an insurance company. However, these plants are very expensive. Some common cheaper alternatives are health-sharing plans, high-deductible plan, and Health Savings Account. You can also combine these plants to get better health coverage but your liabilities will also increase. Since freelancers do not earn the same amount of money every month and sometimes it could be less, how do you choose a plan that does not strain you financially?
Universal Health Insurance (Government Sponsored Plans)
You might be perfectly healthy but you never know what will happen to your body, therefore, health insurance is must. Another reason why you need to get health insurance is that health services are expensive and when you have health insurance, your medical bills will be reimbursed, so you do not have to spend your own money. There are different kinds of health insurance and these insurance products are either sold by the government though the health ministry or health department or by private companies.
In our country, the government provides universal health insurance. You can either insure individually or insure your entire family, up to four members. This insurance provide coverage up to $1000 (converted from local currency) of medical bills. However, you can claim universal health insurance coverage only when you are using public health facilities, this universal health insurance does not cover you when you get medical services from private health facility. The policy provides coverage for check-up costs, test costs, and medicines if purchased from a public pharmacy, and even surgery. This universal health insurance available to all citizens, requiring only proof of citizenship.
Does you government provide universal health insurance in your country? What kind of coverage does your universal health insurance provide?
Insurance Against Life Threatening Diseases
Health insurance is very important for everyone. Because of our lifestyle, food habit, pollution in the environment, exposure to hazardous environment, getting diseases are common. As the health crisis rises, the cost of healthcare is also rapidly growing. IT is very expensive to get healthcares services. Therefore, it is very important to get health insurance. This will help you with your medical expenses. Whether you need a surgery or your regular health check up, or medical bills, when you have health insurance, health insurance will cover all costs. You might not have any diseases now but you never know what kind of diseases will attack you in the future. When you get health insurance, you need to check the clauses and see if the insurance policy covers life threatening diseases or not. You should always get health insurance that provides coverage against life threatening diseases like cancer. You also need to see if they provide coverage against sudden outbreak of any pandemic. A lot of people were denied health insurance coverage during the corona pandemic. Make sure this does not happen to you.
Health Insurance for Employees (Employer Sponsored Plans)
One of the major benefits of working in a multinational company, big corporations, or even government jobs is you get employee health insurance. If you positioned in a hazardous working environment, for instance a job that has considerable amount of life risk or accidents, you might get health insurance from your employer. Premiums for this kind of insurance policies are paid by the employer, it is a benefit that your company or your employer gives. You will get covered as long as you work for these companies, if you leave the company, the insurance benefit will be null. Sadly, if you work in small companies, you might not have access to employee health insurance. However, if you work in hazardous working conditions or in a job that has accident risks, your company might offer compensation to workers in case they are injured on the job. Therefore, when you are looking for jobs, always make sure your employer gives you health insurance. This will ease you with financial burden in case something happens to you when you are still a worker in that company.
Does your company provide you health insurance? What kind of financial coverage do you get from your employer?