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For many people, one of the many benefits of being employed is having an affordable health insurance package of some sort offered to them through their employers. Of course, not all employers offer affordable health insurance packages to their employees, nor are they legally required to, but many do. And those employees who do get affordable health insurance packages through their employers? Well, we will just imagine they are quite happy.

Yet, there comes a time in many of our lives when we find ourselves unemployed; and when we are unemployed, we no longer have all of the nice little perks our employers offered us, such as affordable health insurance packages. However, just because we are unemployed and without health insurance packages does not mean we’re going to stop getting sick or injured and requiring those health insurance packages.

Is there a way for the unemployed to get affordable health insurance?

Yes. One option for unemployed people is to purchase a short term health insurance package. Although you must pay for the short term health insurance, which usually last anywhere from six to 12 months, most of them are considered affordable and perfect for those individuals who have found themselves unemployed or laid off.

These short term health insurance plans are designed to provide you and your family with affordable health insurance while you are in between employment. This means they are also designed to offer you many of the same health services your previous health insurance package offered you and your family.

After all, your health needs do not change just because your employment status changes. Many short term health insurance plans offer visits to the doctor, hospital services such as surgery as well as inpatient and outpatient procedures, prescription discounts, dental and vision services, and sometimes even chiropractic care.

If you’re looking for affordable health insurance for the unemployed, begin your search with short term health insurance plans.

Cancer Health Insurance has become a big selling product in medical health coverage. Does cancer insurance provided needed medical coverage or does it duplicate health insurance? Read this cancer health insurance article for information advice.

Cancer insurance has deep roots going long back in the medical health coverage industry. Once there were were 3 or 4 major carriers using it as their leading product. Now around 14 insurance companies promote it heavy, and another 50 write a fair amount of cancer health insurance. The controversy lies in who benefits the most, the insurance company or the insurance buyer?

TIMES HAVE CHANGED

In the good old days a group of agents were recruited under a district manager’s supervision. The entire group would invade a small town. They would start with the local banks and work their way down to the other businesses. It was high pressure selling group insurance where employees had premiums deducted from their pay. For a few bucks a week, employees could be covered against the big “C”. Yes agents actually took their thumb and index finger and formed the big “C” for cancer.

When an agent left, there was always another to take the place. The cancer health insurance company then really made out. Since this was true cold calling there we no lead acquisition costs. Plus on an agent that left, the insurance company no longer had to pay the agent and just sit back and collect the money coming in. The district manager was rewarded fat overrides on the business his group of agents wrote.

Why do so many people buy medical health coverage that overlaps? A one word answer: FEAR. Are there any people that do not have relatives, friends, or acquaintances who have experienced some form of cancer? Plus the cost is right, often $25 monthly or so for a truckload of this and that benefit payments. In reality the cancer health insurance policy provides the buyer with more emotional security than it does financial security.

EXAMINE THE FINANCIAL SECURITY

Would you buy a car for twice its value? Definitely not. What if you never get cancer? This is unlike life insurance where at some point you are going to die and have the benefit paid. Plus you could pay $25 for 15 years, $4,500, and develop skin cancer. You file a claim and receive $1,000. If in turn you had put just $25 monthly into an annuity you would have amassed $5,000 or probably $10,000. This surely would have helped more in giving financial security against any medical health coverage needs.

ADDITIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY BENEFITS

Above were covered some of the ways the insurance company benefits from sales, now look at it by claims. Every year there are health and disability companies filing bankruptcy for paying out more in benefits that they have money in reserve. Do you realize (its public record to verify) that some cancer and dread disease companies are only paying 60% out on claims? Seems like easy math to see who comes out the winner.

If baldness insurance was available it would seem a better bet of collecting back what you paid in. By the way, since heart attacks and strokes are more prevalent, why do waste more money of these plans?

As you graduate college and head into the great, big, scary world, there are probably a lot of things on your mind. First and foremost is finding a good job, then finding a place to live, and then maybe figuring out how to pay back those student loans. One thing that might not cross your mind is health insurance. All of your life, you’ve most likely been a dependent on your parents’ coverage, but that ship is about to sail—if it hasn’t already.

We know what you’re thinking, “Why do I need health insurance? I’m young, I’m healthy, and doctor visits are few and far between. So why pay for something I’ll never use?” Hey, we understand where you’re coming from. But accidents and illnesses happen without warning, even to the strapping young adults such as you. Sure, health insurance is expensive, but not having it will cost you dearly.

First things to know

Let’s get one thing straight, health care in the United States is a nightmare, few will argue that. There are thousands of options when it comes to receiving care and paying for it, some of them good, some of them not so much. When it comes to choosing an insurance policy that’s right for you, confusion abounds. So let’s learn a little more about your options.

There are two essential categories of health insurance: managed care and indemnity plans. Though you’ll pay more for indemnity coverage, it offers much more flexibility than does a managed care plan. Through indemnity coverage, you’ll have your choice of doctor, lab, hospital or specialty clinic. When you seek medical care, you’ll have to pay an out of pocket expense—called a deductible—before your coverage will kick in. Deductibles range from a few hundred dollars up to $1,000 or more, depending on your policy. Also, indemnity plans require a co-payment on medical care; meaning you’ll be responsible for a percentage of the treatment costs along with your deductible. Generally, indemnity plans pay only for accidents or illness; they usually don’t cover preventative care.

Managed care is the complete opposite of indemnity coverage. Deductibles are usually smaller, co-payments are lower, and preventative care is usually covered. Your options, however, are limited. Through a managed care plan, you can only choose between health care providers who are contracted by your health maintenance organization. If you go elsewhere, you pay—the full amount. Since that’s a pretty rough deal, many managed care plans are offering hybrid options that include many of the desirable characteristics of an indemnity plan.

Which way to go

If you find a job that offers health insurance and you’re single, take it. It may not be perfect, but it beats anything you can find on your own. When you sign up through your employer, you’ll probably be confronted with many options. Take a good, long look at them and ask for help from a human resources representative if need be, but make sure you choose the plan that’s right for you. Chances are—if you’re young and healthy— you’ll want a plan with a low premium and higher deductible. Look for a plan that minimizes your out-of-pocket expenses. When it comes to choosing between and indemnity plan or a managed care plan, you may or may not have a choice depending on your employer. Both offer advantages and disadvantages, so make sure to crunch the numbers before committing to one or the other.

Make yourself a deal

Though health insurance is a costly part of our lives, there are ways to save. If you’re self-employed, shop around before you commit to a plan. If you’re under 50 and in good health, insurance companies will want your business, and cut rates are to be had. Also, take advantage of breaks from Uncle Sam. The self-employed can write off up to 45 percent of their insurance premiums. Some employers offer flexible spending accounts, where you can pay for premiums and costs not covered by insurance with cash that isn’t subject to taxes.

If you’re married and your spouse also can get coverage from their employer, weigh your options carefully. It might benefit you financially and coverage-wise if you measure the pros and cons of separate coverage, double coverage, or one of you opting out of your work’s plan and enrolling in the other’s.

Finally, if you’ve been healthy and believe you can get by with minimum health coverage, look into purchasing “catastrophic coverage”. This indemnity policy offers extremely low premiums, but deductibles can be very high—up to $2,500. Coverage is extremely limited to “catastrophic” events, which you’ll need to learn all about.

Health Insurance Scam Alerts

The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) has recently issued a warning to PPO organizations about unauthorized insurers soliciting businesses. What really concerns me about this warning, is that compared to the average consumer, I would expect a preferred provider organization to be sophisticated enough to determine if an insurer is real or bogus. The TDI recounts a study by the US General Accountability Office that over 200,000 policy holders have been affected by unauthorized insurers nationwide. This left over $250 million in unpaid medical claims for the providers and policy holders to sort out.

I would have assumed that individuals had been the major victims, but actually small businesses were hit very hard. So if you are solicited by an insurance agent, you should feel free to contact your state insurance department to verify his or her license to do business in your state. Also make sure you obtain the name of the insurance company your business is being sought for, and check them out with your state insurance board as well. Take this advice if you are an individual, seeking insurance for your family, or if you are a small business owner or representative looking to cover a company.

Avoiding the Bogus

Some warning signs to look for are company names that you have never heard of. One tactic unauthorized health insurers use is to make up names that sound a lot like major companies. Another tactic is to claim to be part of a multiple business group, and thus not subject to state regulation. Now, such things do exist under very specific situations, but you can still check them out with your state insurance department. Of course, the last red flags would be very low premium rates or promises that major health issues will not affect underwriting.

Even some experienced and ethical insurance agents have been duped in recent years. Unauthorized insurance companies use very slick promoters who use all of the right buzz words to solicit insurance agents. The agents may be seduced by the thought of being able to offer their clients a very inexpensive health insurance plan that will accept people with health conditions. Of course, insurance agents should always contact their state insurance board about unfamiliar insurance companies, but just like any group of people, agents can get complacent and be na?ve.

Also be wary of purchasing a health discount plan when you are shopping for health insurance. A friend of mine, who happens to be a fairly sophisticated lawyer, asked me to check one out for her. I called the number, and was greeting by a very cheerful sounding salesperson who explained the benefits of a very cheap (by health insurance standards) plan. I asked five times if the plan was health insurance, and the question was evaded four times. On the last attempt, the salesperson lost his cheer, and asked me if I wanted health benefits or not. Nailed.

Health discount plans may be a legitimate way to save money. However, they are often sold as insurance, and they are not. Unwary consumers will certainly wish they had done their homework, if they buy a discount plan when they thought they had bought insurance, and then actually have to use the benefits!

So you have a preexisting medical condition? And you are looking for affordable healthcare coverage. Right! These are some of the most common health concerns today.

Or maybe you have just moved from one job to another and your new employer does not offer a healthcare plan. Or possibly you lost your group insurance coverage due to some situation completely outside your control. When someone is confronted with these situations and they also have pre existing conditions, this really makes it tough to find affordable health coverage. The main reason is obvious… the risk you impose to the insurer is just too great.

Preexisting conditions involving health are defined and treated differently from insurance company to insurance company. Generally speaking, a pre existing condition is any medical condition that a policyholder had knowledge of, or was treated for, prior to enrolling in a healthcare plan. This really becomes a problem when individuals with preexisting conditions are forced to seek new health coverage because of a change in employment or other reasons. It may only take what looks like a small reason, but an insurer can deny a policy completely or to maybe refuse coverage of the pre existing conditions.

You can find health insurance for preexisting conditions but this may not be easy. There are some insurance companies who will provide you with health coverage; however, most companies will not. Typically the insurance companies do not wish to provide coverage for circumstances that are already known to exist. Let’s be honest, insurers prefer to insure people who are not likely to NEED health insurance.

One way insurance carriers try to discourage people from waiting until they get sick to purchase a health plan is to impose a pre-existing condition exclusion period. What this means is that if you have a medical condition at the time you enroll into or purchase a health plan, the insurance companies can deny all claims pertaining to that medical condition for a certain period of time. So when looking for an individual healthcare policy, the rules governing the pre-existing condition exclusion period can vary widely from state to state. Usually this is limited to 12 months and applies to health conditions for which you sought treatment in the 6 months leading up to enrollment. If you have a letter of creditable coverage you may be able to reduce or completely offset your pre existing condition exclusion period. For example, if you were covered under an individual or group policy before enrolling, you may be able to subtract the amount of time you were covered from the pre-existing condition exclusion period.

The insurance choices for those with a pre-existing condition are somewhat limited. Hopefully you can enroll with an employer-sponsored group health plan. This is your best choice by far but for many this is not possible. Maybe a professional organization such as the Chamber of Commerce can provide you with some health coverage.

Applying for individual health insurance is still a possibility but you will probably meet with some insurance declines before you can obtain acceptable healthcare. If your state has a risk pool then this is something you definitely investigate. Today, Guaranteed Issue Health Insurance is becoming a great alternative as better health plans exist now than just a few years ago.

It really does not matter if they are covered by insurance or not, the total cost of healthcare for someone with pre existing conditions will be high enough to dramatically impact that persons lifestyle. To get the best possible health insurance for your preexisting conditions, you will need to investigate your choices, do your homework and make wise decisions. Only you can judge what is best for your situation.

You can spend your money on high cost insurance plans but you don’t have too. No matter who you are, you could save up to 1/3 to 1/2 off the price of your monthly premium for health care insurance with an (HSA) health savings account.

Missouri Health Insurance Plans

Because 3/4 of us in America only spend $500 per year in medical expenses, a high deductible health insurance plan is a better choice than traditional health insurance. This high deductible insurance plan is joined with a tax-exempt savings account to form complete medical coverage.

This is the plan: You purchase a high deductible health insurance plan which pays for all medical expenses after a $1000 to $5000 deductible. Your new insurance company will automatically set you up a health savings account that you deposit money in each month. The money accumulated in this savings account is used to pay for medical costs until your deductible amount is reached.

A plan like this will usually have up to $300 in doctor visits and prescriptions covered per year with no deductible. Premiums for high deductible insurance plans are substantially lower than other types of health insurance. Next time you’re shopping for health insurance, be sure to look at an HSA plan and see how much you can save.

Health Insurance in Missouri Quotes

One of the best ways to find affordable Missouri health insurance is to go to an insurance quote website and request quotes. Immediately after you complete their short form, you’ll get several low cost HSA, HMO, PPO, and POS quotes while still online. After you have your quotes, you can compare the different policies and see if one will work for you. It’s that easy!

The health insurance market is massive and can be a very confusing place sometimes. There are so many different plans available and it seems that you could spend as much as you want on ensuring coverage for yourself and your family. As we get older, one of our main priorities is often an affordable senior health insurance plan.

With the increase in companies who deal only via the internet, one of the best places to start looking is with one of the well stocked search engines that are available. You may think that anyone looking for an affordable senior health insurance plan would not be up to date with technology. This, it would seem, is not the case. A study carried out in California has reported that seniors spend more time online that any other adult age range! Much of their time is spent in hunting out that health insurance.

If you have a look at the search results for example ‘affordable senior health insurance’, you will be bombarded with offers of help from a variety of companies. Some of these will be the insurers themselves, some will be brokers and some will be agents. If you are unsure about the type of insurance that would suit you best and is within your budget, one of the best solutions may be to use an independent advisor or agent. They will probably charge a fee but do have the advantage of being specialists in the field and having up to date information regarding the rates that the various health care companies are offering. These rates are very changeable, sometimes on a daily basis and can make a big difference to your premiums.

The different types of plans should also be researched. There are a great number of options for seniors when it comes to insurance programs and it can be very confusing. If you are researching the market yourself make sure that you check out all these options including gap plans and subsidiary specialist plans. Medicare has an ‘add-on’ plan which you can subscribe to for example, which expands the Medicare facility through a private health insurance plan. They also have a policy which can be used to reduce any ‘gaps’ in your coverage. This may be a good starting point in your search for affordable senior health insurance and will give you an idea of what is available through the national insurance program.

Although your search may be quite time consuming and you will be hit by the sheer number of possibilities available to you, it will be time well spent. It is important to have good cover as this is a time when you want to be free from stress and worry. Less stress means a healthier life and having organised some affordable senior health insurance is certainly a comfort.

The cost of health care in the United States is expensive and is escalating. A majority of Americans cannot afford the cost of medicines, physicians’ fees, or hospitalization without some form of health insurance. Health insurance is a contract between an insurance company and an individual or group for the payment of medical care costs. After the individual or group pays a premium to an insurance company, the insurance company pays for part or all of the medical costs depending on the type of insurance and benefits provided. The type of insurance policy purchased greatly influences where you go for health care, who provides the health care, and what medical procedures can be performed. The three basic health insurance plans include a private, fee-for-service plan; a prepaid group plan; and a government-financed public plan.

Private Fee-For-Service Insurance Plan

Until recently, private, fee-for-service insurance was the principal form of health insurance coverage. In this plan an individual pays a monthly premium, usually through an employer, which ensures health care on a fee-far-service basis. On incurring medical costs, the patient files a claim to have a portion of these costs paid by the insurance company. There is usually a deductible, an amount paid by the patient before being eligible for benefits from the insurance company. For example, if your expenses are $1000, you may have to pay $200 before the insurance company will pay the other $800. Usually the lower the deductible, the higher the premiums will be. After the deductible is met the insurance provider pays a percentage of the remaining balance.

Typically there are fixed indemnity benefits, specified amounts that are paid for particular procedures. If your policy pays $500 for a tonsilectomy and the actual cost was $1000, you owe the health care provider $500. There are often exclusions, certain services that are not covered by the policy. Common examples include elective surgery, dental care, vision care, and coverage for preexisting illnesses and injuries. Some insurance plans provide options for adding dental and vision care. Other common options include life insurance, which pays a death benefit, and disability insurance, which pays for income lost because of the inability to work as a result of an illness or injury. The more options added to the insurance plan, the more expensive the insurance will be.

One strategy insurance companies are using to lower insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs to the consumer is the formation of preferred providers organization (PPO). A PPO is a group of private practitioners who sell their services at reduced rates to insurance companies. When a patient chooses a provider that is in that company’s PPO, the insurance company pays a higher percentage of the fee. When a non-PPO provider is used, a much lower portion of the fee is paid.

A major advantage of a fee-for-service plan is that the patient has options in selecting health-care providers. Several disadvantages are that patients may not routinely receive comprehensive, preventive health care; health-care costs to the patient may be high if unexpected illnesses or injuries occur; and it may place heavy demands on time in keeping track of medical records, invoices, and insurance reimbursement forms.

Prepaid Group Insurance

In prepaid group insurance, health care is provided by a group of physicians organized into a health maintenance organization (HMO). HMOs are managed health-care plans that provide a full range of medical services for a prepaid amount of money. For a fixed monthly fee, usually paid through pay roll deductions by an employer, and often a small deductible, enrollees receive care from physicians, specialists, allied health professionals, and educators who are hired or contractually retained by the HMO. HMOs provide an advantage in that they provide comprehensive care including preventive care at a lower cost than private insurance over a long period of coverage. One drawback is that patients are limited in their choice of providers to those who belong to an HMO.

Government Insurance

In a government insurance plan the government at the federal, state, or local level pays for the health-care costs of elgible participants. Two prominent examples of this plan are Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is financed by social security taxes and is designed to provide health care for individuals 65 years of age and older, the blind, the severely disabled, and those requiring certain treatments such as kidney dialysis. Medicaid is subsidized by federal and state taxes. It provides limited health care, generally for individuals who are eligible for benefits and assistance from two programs: Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Supplementary Security Income.

Changes to the Health Savings Account rules effective January 1, 2007, are generating new interest in the plans. However, there is still a gap in knowledge with regard to the actual usage of the plans. A recent article on Health Savings Accounts appeared in the Wall Street Journal Online and posed questions about the option of using an HSA as a saving vehicle for future expenses verses using funds in the HSA to immediately reimburse medical expenses. The article implied that it was an either/or choice.

Many HSA users are unaware that the IRS allows HSA investors to be both Savers and Spenders.

As a franchisee of the Entrust Group, we provide continuing education classes to employers, employees, and professional advisors, teaching about the rules related to HSAs and HDHPs. Surprisingly, few advisors and even fewer users really understand how the HSA works.

Contrary to common belief, there is no time requirement for taking HSA distributions for medical expenses. In other words, HSA owners who elect to pay their medical expenses out of their personal funds may, rather than immediately taking a reimbursement for those costs from their HSAs, defer the reimbursement until they really need the cash. In the mean time, the funds continue to grow tax free. The longer the funds remain under the shelter of the HSA, the more they can grow. Today’s eyeglasses can be paid for out of pocket, and subsequently reimbursed by the HSA, the next day, the next year, or 20 years from now. The choice is up to the HSA owner. Thus, if an individual can comfortably pay the expense personally, then there is really no reason to take the money from the HSA. The tax payer is not giving up the chance to take a reimbursement by delaying it. Thus, fueled by additional funds, the HSA may search for longer term, higher yield investments. Our clients, who tend to be longer term investors favor this approach as it allows for more stability in the account balance and potential growth.

Similarly, many taxpayers don’t realize that expenses incurred in excess of the HSA balance may be reimbursed in subsequent years. The one requirement is that the HSA had to have been established prior to the expense being incurred. Unfortunately, the IRS form 8889 doesn’t show these “carry-forward expenses” nor are many tax preparers able to help clients track the expenses that have not yet been reimbursed.

As keeping track of these un-reimbursed expenses is critical to determining how much of the HSA balance is eligible for immediate tax free distribution, our firm has created an “Un-reimbursed Expense Tracking System” to help our clients organize and document their un-reimbursed expenses.

Please contact us for details on the use of an HSA for long term investments or join us for a Webex seminar to introduce the basics of HSA/High Deductible Health Plan combinations. Bill Humphrey, one of the principals of Entrust New Direction IRA in Colorado, (www.NewDirectionIRA.com) has been a crusader for Health Savings Accounts since their creation in 2004. Bill is a Colorado CPA and has worked on developing educational programs for CPAs and health plan users to clarify the understanding and use of the HSA. Entrust New Direction has programs available live and over the internet for HSA users and employers anticipating adopting High Deductible Health Plans for their companies.

Health insurance has been around for five centuries, but it is only recently that it has evolved into its current form. The story of health insurance has now come to a major crossroads.

The story of health insurance might be said to have begun five centuries ago when Hugh the Elder Chamberlen first proposed the concept. It was not until the late 19th century, however, that the current form of insurance first began to develop. The first Insurance Company to offer a contract form of health insurance policy was the Franklin Health Assurance Company of Massachusetts which was founded in 1850. They provided coverage for railroad and steamboat accidents.

This early form of insurance was more on the model of disability insurance. The idea was protection against loss of income and the expenses associated with accidents. Many of the early companies followed this idea offering plans that would protect policy holders from the impact of a serious accident, but not really concerning themselves with routine medical care. By 1866, there were some 60 different organizations providing this type of service in the United States.

It was in 1890, that the idea of “sickness” coverage was first introduced and by 1911, Insurance policies were beginning to take on the more familiar form that included payments for routine, preventive, and emergency medical expenses. In the years leading up to World War II, the programs that would become the Blue Cross organizations first began. This was the golden age of health insurance. Employees were covered by policies that virtually removed all concern about meeting the costs of health care.

However, in recent years, the explosive increase in health care costs has wrought major changes in the health insurance industry. The insurance companies were forced to combat the costs increase by restructuring their policies and increasing premiums. Such things as exclusions and co-payments were introduced in order to try to hold premium costs down. Several innovative insurance plans were introduced and were known as Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO).

There was a time in the history of health insurance when the difference between free government health care and the low cost insurance policy were very minor. Since the health care industry was not regulated, health costs began to soar forcing insurance companies to struggle to provide their services and retain profitability. The industry appears to be at a major crossroads now as it still struggles to cope with the crisis in health care costs. Today, almost 47 million Americans are without any health insurance at all.