Affordable Individual Health Insurance

There are some things in life you simply cannot avoid. One of these is health coverage. It does not matter if you are married, single, or have a large family, you need a health insurance coverage plan for a number of reasons. First and foremost, you never know when something might go down, and you need to be rushed to the hospital. Maybe you break your wrist or get into a fender bender and have to get an MRI done. Regardless of what the issue is, there comes a time when health coverage is imperative. And just imagine if you were facing a serious medical condition. At this point you would be seriously dependent upon a stellar health care plan. It can keep you from going bankrupt.

For single men and women, there are affordable individual health insurance coverage plans. Any time you deal with health coverage, you can expect to get a better deal based on two factors. One is your age, and two is your current health. Therefore if you are 25 and very healthy, you can get an affordable individual health insurance policy without much effort. The key is to take care of your health as best you can, and acquire a good coverage plan at a young age if possible. This way if you break your nose, need to visit a dermatologist, or have to go on for a minor operation, your health insurance will cover you; at least to some degree. It is worth the monthly payment.

A few websites that will help you find out more about affordable individual health insurance coverage are goldenrule.com, aetna.com, affordable-health-insurance.org, and ehealthinsurance.com. Be sure to take a closer look at these helpful websites in order to learn more about current health insurance coverage plans. Even if you are not searching for an affordable individual health insurance policy, it is wise to review these helpful sites. You can additionally learn more about family insurance coverage, policies for married couples, and low-priced insurance plans for individuals with pre-existing health problems. The key is doing your research beforehand.

On the flip side, it makes no sense to avoid decent and affordable individual health insurance plans. If you are aware how life works, then you already know that you will need health coverage when you do not have it. This is pretty much how it always works. Therefore it is prudent to look into a variety of affordable health insurance policies, and make a decision about which one is right for you. This way you will at least be prepared if something does happen. As for parents of children, it is basically imperative to acquire a good health insurance plan to be on the safe side.

Cheaper Alternatives to COBRA Health Insurance

There's no question that COBRA health insurance is a good idea for a lot of people. Under this type of coverage, you can continue paying group rates if you lose your job due to certain "qualifying events". In other words, you'll still be entitled to full medical benefits if you're laid off, fired, or voluntarily resign -- provided that gross misconduct doesn't figure into the equation. In this way, many folks are able to keep their entire family insured no matter what's going on with their careers.

But COBRA health insurance is often very costly, and can put extreme pressure on your budget. If you're out of a job, then chances are you're already scrimping and struggling to make ends meet, so having to shell out several hundred dollars every month to keep your coverage going can be difficult to pull off. That's why cheaper alternatives to COBRA health insurance have become increasingly popular over the years.

There's actually nothing special about these COBRA health insurance alternatives. Most often, they are simply group policies offered by major insurers that you've already heard of. For instance, Blue Cross Blue Shield offers coverage for as little as $4 per day (according to some of their ads), and the AARP also provides members with easy access to cheap policies. The best way to find the right COBRA health insurance alternative for your situation is to spend some time researching the policies and packages available from other top carriers so you can compare features and cost before making a decision.

In addition to checking with other insurers, you might want to consider purchasing individual policies for each member of your family instead of going with group coverage. Sometimes this can yield additional savings, particularly where children and generally healthy adults are involved. Children's policies are pretty cheap to begin with, and if your own medical history is relatively clean, then you'll likely be able to receive some discounts as well. By shopping around, you ought to be able to find far cheaper alternatives to COBRA health insurance, so a little work could end up saving you a couple hundred dollars a month. When it's already a challenge to cover regular household expenses due to a reduced income, then this type of savings falls into the "make or break" category.

If you've recently lost your job due to reasons beyond your control, you'll be given the option to buy into COBRA health insurance. I would strongly urge you to research the pros and cons of such a move prior to making your decision, because these days there are plenty of cheaper alternatives to choose from. The alternatives provide excellent coverage for a fraction of the cost, so they're definitely worth considering.

The Dependent Audit for Employee Health Insurance - You'd better Play Along

You know the distinct feeling you get when you see a letter from the IRS, a letter calling you to jury duty or a bill collector's notice in the mail. Well, here's a new one to dread - an audit from your employer, when they want to know if all the people you include in your health insurance are really your dependents. They'll ask you to provide proof that all of them really are allowable dependents; if your proof comes up short, those members of your family can no longer claim a place in your employee health insurance.

When the powers that be come up with annoying new rules and regulations for us to comply with, we often think of just ignoring them for a while. We can't believe that this new rule should suddenly come and change our lives. It's just that healthcare costs have been rising regularly every year, and employers want to find a way out of it. If they could possibly have an audit cut even a couple of people out of their employee health insurance costs each time that would be great for them. Typically, a company with 10,000 employees will usually find about a couple of hundred people to take out of the plan. At about $2500 a head, the employer goes and saves a half-million dollars. You know how mean those health insurance types can be. They'll cut you off in the middle of surgery if they possibly could. So make sure that when your employer comes up with this demand, that you run about to get the papers that are necessary, on the double.

Not that these dependent audits are new. They've been around ever since the late 90s; but ever since insurance costs started to go through the roof, employers have actually started making use of this little weapon they have in their bag of mean tricks.Two thirds of all companies will be doing that this year to save on employee health insurance costs. To most people, this is nothing more than a minor headache; they do have all they need to prove that every person claiming employee health insurance under the name is actually eligible. But to some people, they will find one or two family members suddenly ineligible; and they will be forced to pay for insurance that could cost thousands of dollars a year. Not only that, the employer will then demand that he be compensated for all he spent covering those ineligible members.

And this is how things have degenerated since the times when your employer just asked you to sign an affidavit that all your dependents were really eligible. Now you have to prove that your wife is your wife, get a marriage certificate, a birth certificate and so on. Most often, employees find that their children who are18 are the ones that get dropped (although starting this fall, that limit will be raised to age 26). There are other potential stumbling blocks as well. If for instance you have a father who is eligible for Medicare, your employer will refuse to cover your father. If your wife has insurance with her job, your employer will refuse to extend employee health insurance to her. They'll ask you to provide proof in the dependent audit of all of this.

If you come clean as soon as possible, it is possible that you will be forgiven, and not asked to pay back costs. And of course, if you delay with their request for proof for the audit, they'll drop the whole lot of you.

Dealing with COBRA Health Insurance after the Healthcare Reform

It's a great source of interest to anyone who has recently been laid off, or expects to be soon one day - will the new health-care reform help you, or work against you? The mandatory COBRA health insurance program - will there be any changes? How much will it cost and how long can you have it?

Well basically the good news is that the COBRA health insurance coverage you always had, you still do; you certainly aren't deprived of anything; but there are certain areas where things get a little better. It's kind of complicated though. Basically, you get your COBRA coverage benefits for any year and a half. The health-care reform originally included coverage beyond that; but they couldn't pass the law with this, and they cut it down to only 18 months.

COBRA health insurance has always been a kind of bridge program. If you are out of a job, it helps you stay on your former employer's coverage until you find a new job. The problem is, you don't get a job as quickly these days as he used to, and 18 months don't seem to last as much. There was this story on the news the other day - a skilled manual worker at a car parts plant in New York was laid off about one year ago. She knows she has until December before her COBRA health insurance expires. Her unemployment benefits will end too. She isn't quite 65 yet, and Medicare isn't an option for a couple more years. She gets by on the payments she gets from her husband's Social Security benefits, and healthwise, her only hope is the community clinic in her area.

For anyone who can afford to buy state government-sponsored insurance, you really need to do that right away. If you have COBRA health insurance on the independent open market, you are guaranteed coverage even with a pre-existing condition. But you need to make sure that you don't let your COBRA expire before you go shopping. Or else, they could deny you coverage because of your pre-existing condition. If you don't have one, you'll probably get a very good deal for being healthy and for being someone coming out of COBRA. The important thing here though is to make sure that you don't let your COBRA expire before you go looking for an alternative.

If the cost seems a little of the high side, you could try to put your cfhild on another plan .Insure your child under your state's CHIP program. If you make enough that you don't qualify for Medicaid, but you're not quite rich enough to buy private health insurance for yor child, you've got your CHIP for another five years.

Remember, if you just had your COBRA health insurance expire, you have opted two months to go before you get your new insurance. If you let your grace period pass by without taking action, it can have very serious consequences for the health of your wallet.

Health insurance costs, rising twice as fast as inflation, are now challenged by the Health Reform Law of 2010

Yes, the cost of health insurance continues to rise every year, currently rising at twice the rate of inflation. Even with fiscally responsible health providers, costs have not been contained. Any major health crisis is costly; the state of the health arts employs technology and medicines that are expensive to build and produce. The cost of research has to be covered, and the dividends investors earn for taking risks on pharmaceutical products in development must be paid. It's thanks to them and the researchers that many life threatening diseases have met their match. While we can expect these costs to continue, the hope is that all diseases humans encounter may be defeated. We do not necessarily have to accept continually rising costs, reflected in health insurance costs and the taxes we pay each year. The Health Reform Law of 2010 that was passed on March 23rd is designed to diminish rising costs.

One of the major factors that raise our health insurance costs is that many citizens, especially the poor, are uninsured. Without insurance, they are not able to get medical treatment at the early stages of their ailment. By the time they do see a doctor, it's at the emergency ward where the cost is highest. Unable to turn these people away, either because of medical ethics or state and federal laws, these hospitals will treat the patient and turn to either the state or federal government for compensation, or increase the charges for people who are able to afford health insurance costs.

It is for this reason that the recent Health Reform Law has, as its centerpiece, universal health care coverage for all U.S. citizens. By helping the poor cover health insurance costs, it will be virtually impossible for a poor person to abstain from getting health insurance from whatever insurer they choose. The law will now subsidize the poor, covering the insurance costs they are unable to cover on their own. 24 million of our nation's poor will be subsidized, with the $350 billion the law allocates to this effort.

Although the law will also prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and will curtail lifetime caps, thus requiring insurance companies to pay for more than they previously did, the increase in policy holders, including those 24 million people backed by the $350 billion allocation, should offset these new expenses. If the poor are now able to seek treatment earlier, emergency room costs will go down, saving even more money. Theoretically, the savings will reduce health insurance costs across the board.

This Health Reform law also stimulates the health insurance industry and may bring down health insurance costs for everyone. An increase in demand and an adequate supply of insurers means insurers will be competing with each other to provide the most robust product at the lowest price. With an increase in competition, more insurers will become transparent. Their administrative costs will decrease as they rid themselves of wasteful policies and procedures in order to price their products competitively.

Other projects are also being explored to reduce the cost of health insurance, and this law should be considered just the first step. What is certain in the debate is that whatever efforts succeed, medical costs will continue to rise. The goal, then, is not to curtail the rise, but to diminish it and keep it under control. The benefit to the consumer is that they will be able to get health insurance and be able to afford it, even if it means being subsidized by the government. Health insurance costs may continue to rise at a slower rate, but the overall health of America should reach an all time high. A healthier America is the true promise of the law, and who wouldn't welcome that?

The United States - finally - puts health care insurance in reach of all its citizens!

The passage of the health care bill on March 23, 2010, has finally made health care insurance available to every U.S. citizen. This astounding fact has brought hope to millions of Americans, and in a time when the character of the United States has been diminished by the shameful policies and practices of the previous administration, when most Americans had lost faith in their nation, the passage of the health care bill has transformed the image of the United States throughout the world. Its passage has also given all Americans a fighting chance to live in health to a good old age, for now all Americans will be able to obtain health care insurance.

Health care in the modern age is at its greatest moment, more than at any other time in human history. Only a hundred years ago, life expectancy was less than 50 years. Thanks to better nutrition and advances in scientific pharmacology and medicine, most of us in the U.S. can now expect to live well into our seventies. Most of us who reach this age will require some medical treatment — we'll fight for every minute we can add to our life. The cost of medical treatment to prolong our lives is usually highest in our later years. Seniors who could not afford health care insurance, or, had been excluded from it because the condition that was doing them in existed prior to their application for insurance. Until the passage of this bill, such unfortunate people had to resign themselves to dying earlier than they would have, had they been able to get the medical treatment they needed. With the passage of this bill, American seniors can now get affordable health care insurance at any time, pre-existing condition or not.

The costs of health for the youth of the U.S. are not as great as it is for seniors. By virtue of youth, the young body is able to withstand the enemies of human life much better than the elderly, but there are always exceptions. Many families will have a child who is born with a congenital disease, such as diabetes 1. The recent swine flu epidemic showed that at any time the young can be stricken with disease at a greater rate than the elderly. Nature is unpredictable; at any time sickness may come, an accident may threaten our lives, even the lives of the young. No one is exempt from these dangers, but with state of the art medical treatments, most can survive, we can be healed, and go on to live up into our seventies. This potentiality, however, was seriously threatened, not because we lacked the technology to cure ourselves or prolong our lives, but because the cost of medical insurance for the young was more than most of us could afford, The child born with a congenital disease could not be insured at all.

This has all changed by the passage of the health care bill of 2010. Now, insurers will be required to provide coverage to anyone, whether they have a pre-existing condition or not. Now, insurers will be constrained in what they charge. For those who are poor, insurance will be available at a low cost with the government subsidizing individuals as needed. Now, insurance companies will not be able to cap coverage. Prescription coverage for those on Medicare who must pay for their drugs after their Medicare costs reach $2,700 and until the costs hit $6,154 (it's called the 'donut hole'), will receive reimbursment for their drug expenses until the hole is closed in 2020. With these measures, and more to come, health care insurance is now available and affordable for everyone.

By 2020 all Americans will be required to have health care insurance. Now that health care is available and affordable to all citizens, be aware that you don't need to wait until then! If you don't now have health care insurance, get it! Your country has made health care possible for you. Be proud your country cares for your life and your health. Such care is what makes a nation great.

The Health Reform Law enables millions of uninsured Americans to purchase health insurance through exchanges

One of the major goals of the Health Reform Law that President Obama signed in March, 2010, was to facilitate accessible and affordable insurance to all Americans. Currently, most Americans working for large corporations will receive a health insurance plan as a benefits option when they are employed. Working with large numbers, the large corporations are able to pull out lower premiums for their employees. Most employees of large corporations find these premium payments affordable and participate. Not so with self-employed individuals or small businesses. They do not have the numbers to get the discounts of larger organizations. For this reason, many individuals and small business owners and employees are medically uninsured.

In the United States, the traditional provider of health insurance has been businesses. Seen as the primary cause of health problems, business was called to provide insurance to employees as early as the days of Teddy Roosevelt. Although business is not the primary cause of human illness (it was so perceived at a time when capitalism was being blamed for everything), business has shouldered the responsibility, viewing it as one of those requirements for doing business in the U.S. that can't be avoided and that could have positive side-effects for the business that insures its people. For one thing, health insurance benefits are a powerful recruitment incentive for those valuable employees that no business can do without. This attraction is quite doable for large corporations, but small businesses, not having the numbers to command lower premiums for their employees, are left out in the cold. They cannot attract those valuable employees because they can't provide affordable insurance.

While the Health Reform Law doesn't aim to make small businesses more competitive with bigger businesses, by providing a way for small businesses to get insurance for their employees at near the same prices big corporations can, the law has given a boost to small business employee recruitment. The intent to create exchanges for health insurance will enable small business to join together in an exchange and so increase their numbers, thereby qualifying an exchange to receive the discounts larger corporations now receive.

President Obama has assured the American public that these exchanges will be built throughout the country. In these exchanges, various health care insurance providers will offer their products at rates only the big corporations are used to seeing. These exchanges will be health care insurance 'marketplaces'. Small businesses won't be forced to take a 'one size fits all' type of plan, but plans that best suit the individual business environment, and its employees. Small business will be further encouraged to purchase health insurance for their employees, with tax incentives that should, combined with low exchange rates, enable all small businesses to provide insurance to their employees at rates comparable to those the big corporations offer.

These exchanges will not only benefit the small business, but the also self-employed individuals. These individuals are currently the largest uninsured group among working people, simply because a single individual has to pay more for medical insurance than a group. Now, self-employed individuals can team up with other self-employed individuals and small businesses to get the low cost, comprehensive insurance the corporate worker now enjoys.

Don't expect to purchase health insurance tomorrow from one of these exchanges. It will take time to get them going. Don't wait to purchase health insurance until the exchanges come. Purchase health insurance now - you may need it. When exchanges take effect, then you'll be able to purchase health insurance at affordable prices.