Tuesday 12 October 2010

Filling In The Gaps In Your Health Insurance Coverage

With the steep increases in the cost of health insurance, many families have begun choosing high-deductible health insurance plans as a way lower their monthly expenses to make ends meet. In exchange for paying lower monthly premiums, the plan requires that the clients pay for the first $1,000, $2,000, up to $10,000 of medical expense before the insurance steps in and begins providing coverage.
While lower monthly premiums are welcomed by all, there are some downsides. First off all there is the risk that you would have to come up with thousands of dollars in the event of a serious illness or accident. With the recession, homes that have negative equity, and high unemployment, most people do not have the cash on hand it would require to pay for the deductible.
Secondly, your health insurance policy cover may have hidden exclusions which can create gaps in coverage. In an effort to reduce expenses, some health insurers have excluded certain conditions and circumstances. Some of the areas that could be excluded are:
Car accidents with uninsured drivers. Sadly many people are injured every year due to auto accidents and it seems that the worst drivers almost always have no insurance.
Accidents that occur during school hours or on school or church related outings.
Mental Health. This has long been an area that is underserved by health insurers, yet the number instances of being diagnosed with a mental condition are growing rapidly.
Death. Health insurance policies rarely have any provision to pay out if an insured person dies. This can strike home particularly hard if a child dies since most kids do not have insurance. Conventional thinking is that only people with financial obligations need life insurance but if a child dies money might be needed for counseling for the other children and the parents, as well as to pay for funeral costs.
An increasing number of families are covering their high deductibles and these excluded risks by adding inexpensive supplemental insurance policies to cover accidents, illnesses, and small life insurance policies to cover final expenses. There are many different types of policies available from many companies and you can easily go online and research your options with an independent online insurance agency. The cost for this type of coverage is inexpensive because the risk of these events occurring is low. Insuring against that low risk though, could make all the difference in the world to your family.

38 comments:

  1. nice way to fill in the gaps

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  2. Starting a family, health plans getting more complex to choose from. I mean by myself I'd go for any of the lowest options available but with my son I have to carefully think. Great post.

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  3. they're sneaky buggers dem insureance people

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  4. totally worth to get those little gaps covered

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  5. I had awesome health insurance thought the company I was just fired from... fucking bitch HR

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  6. Honestly, and I know I'm going to take some heat for this, I hands down prefer the (nearly) universal health care I receive as a Canadian.

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  7. I just got new insurance, this is full of good info, thanks.

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  8. wow, i didn't know such methods were possible!

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  9. something to think about, thanks for the info.

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  10. good info, this stuff is very important

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  11. thankfully i dont need to worry about health insurance :P i think im gonna follow this :)

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  12. My family has high-deductible health insurance, it sucks. My co-pay is huge, so I avoid going to the doctor unless I absolutely have to.

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  13. was gonna TL;DR but ended up getting through it, and it is actually quite a good read! :D

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  14. Good information, this is something that worth thinking seriously and slow.

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  15. Some really hardcore stuff :O

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  16. I always tend to just piggy back off a company or my dads for now.

    But this'll come in handy when that doesn't pan out.

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  17. Nice info, but I don't know how can that work in my country.

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  18. pro tips =D

    Cool little post, please check out my Razer Lycosa review on my blog =D

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  19. Wow this is awesome information, definitely worth a second look!

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  20. wow that is great info , you know a lot more than my lawyer

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  21. I'm glad I still have my parents taking care of this for me, but I can't imagine what it's gonna be like doing all of this on my own. Reading your posts is giving me some idea though, hope it will all help when the day comes that I'm paying myself

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  22. I'm also glad I live in Europe.
    Free universal healthcare <3..
    Neat little trick you got here tho!

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  23. glad im from ger so no need for protips in health insurance ;)

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  24. never thought about getting a second policy

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