Your Daily Health Tips

Want to know how to get low cost health insurance from A-rated companies? Here’s how to do it.

Low Cost Health Insurance Plans

The lowest-cost health insurance plans are known as managed health care plans. Here’s a brief overview of these plans:

* HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) – When you sign up for one of these plans you are given a network of doctors and hospitals that you must visit when you’re ill. You pay a monthly premium, as well as a co-payment of $5 to $15 for each doctor visit. This is the cheapest plan because you’re restricted to seeing only doctors within your network.

* PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) – This plan also sets you up with a network of doctors and hospitals. Like an HMO, you pay a monthly premium as well as a co-payment of $5 to $15 for each doctor visit. You may see a non-network physician, but you’ll only receive partial payment for his or her services. This is the most popular of the managed health care plans.

* POS (Point-of-Service Plan) – This plan is a meld of an HMO and a PPO. You’re set up with a health-care network, and you pay a monthly premium as well as nominal copayments for doctor visits. If your designated primary physician refers you to a non-network physician, this plan will pay for your treatment. This is the most costly and the most flexible plan.

Where to Get Low Cost Health Insurance Quotes

The best way to get low cost health insurance is to comparison shop. And the best way to do that is to go to an insurance comparison website. These sites are affiliated with a number of insurance companies who compete to get your health insurance business.

All you do is fill out a simple form and wait to get a quote. You then choose the quote that best suits your needs.

If you have any health insurance questions, the better sites have a chat feature where you can get them answered by an insurance professional. (See link below.)

Where to Get Company Ratings

If you want to make sure you’re dealing with a reputable health insurance company you can get U.S. News & World Report’s Best Health Plans report. This report rates companies based on member satisfaction, access to care, and delivery of preventive services and treatment. You can see it at: www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-health-insurance/topplans.htm.

Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/health-insurance.html or click on the following link to get low cost health insurance quotes from top-rated companies in your area and see how much you can save. You can get more health insurance tips by checking out their “Articles” section.

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Young individuals in Dallas, Houston and throughout Texas are a pretty healthy group in general, but going without health insurance interferes with their access to the health care system, introduces barriers to care when it’s needed, and leaves young individuals and their families at risk for high out-of-pocket costs in the face of severe illness or injury.

With that said, 19th birthdays seem to be a crucial milestone in most Americans’ health insurance coverage. Both public and private insurance plans treat this age as a turning point for coverage decisions. In Texas, young adults who are not full-time students lose their status as an eligible dependent after 19. A full-time student remains an eligible dependent in Texas until age 25.

Further, Texas health insurance regulation states that most private health insurance plans may not condition coverage for a child younger than 25 years of age on the child’s being enrolled at an educational institution. This regulation however does not help every young adult. Self-insured large groups may be exempt from the regulation. And the parents may be simply unable to continue paying a young adult’s premiums.

When young adults lose coverage under their parents’ plans, regardless of age, their ties with primary care physicians may be cut just when they should be forming stronger links to the health care system and taking responsibility for their own care.

These are just a few reasons coverage is so important for young adults:

o Fourteen percent of adults ages 18 to 29 are obese. Since the 1990s, obesity has increased by 70 percent in this age group – the fastest rate of increase among all adults.

o There are 3.5 million pregnancies each year among the 21 million women ages 19 to 29.

o Injury-related visits to emergency rooms are far more common among young adults than they are among children or older adults.

A recent health insurance survey shows that individuals who are uninsured or have less-than-adequate health insurance have their access to the health care system decreased. More than half of young adults, ages 19 to 29, who either were uninsured for the entire year or had a time without coverage said that they had gone without needed health care because of cost. Delinquent care included failing to fill a prescription, not seeing a doctor or specialist when sick, or skipping a recommended medical test, treatment, or follow-up visit.

In addition, uninsured young adults are far less likely than those with coverage to have a regular doctor. Only one-third of uninsured young adults, ages 19 to 29, had a regular doctor, compared with 81 percent of those who were insured all year. Uninsured female young adults had regular doctors at about half the rate of young women who were insured all year. Male young adults who were uninsured had the most fragile link to the health care system; just 21 percent had a regular doctor compared with 75 percent of male young adults who were insured all year.

Many young adults also have problems paying medical bills or are paying off medical debt over time. More than one-third of all young adults, both insured and uninsured, said that they had experienced problems with medical bills: having trouble making payments, being contacted by a collection agency because of inability to pay bills, significantly changing their way of life in order to pay medical bills, or paying off medical debt over time. Uninsured young individuals were the most burdened with medical bills and debt, with almost half reporting at least one problem.

But contrary to popular belief, young individuals seem to value the protection that health insurance coverage offers. The same survey also found that nearly three-quarters of employed young adults accept health insurance coverage when it’s offered, only slightly less than the acceptance rate of workers age 30 or older.

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Affordable health insurance for the unemployed may feel impossible to find, but as long as you know where to look and have determination it is within your reach. Actually, self-employed individuals and individuals who are employed but aren’t offered employer-sponsored group health insurance can benefit from the much of the same advice.

The first step to finding affordable health insurance for the unemployed is to find out if you’re eligible for COBRA. The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) made it possible for individuals who are terminated, laid off, or transferring jobs to temporarily continue to receive group health insurance benefits. So, if you’ve just recently become unemployed for any of those reasons, referred to as “qualifying events,” contact your former employer for more information about your COBRA benefits.

The second step to finding affordable health insurance for the unemployed is to check into purchasing short-term health insurance. Short-term health insurance policies are designed with the unemployed person in mind, so rates are most likely within your budget. They can last anywhere from six to 12 months, so they’re perfect for individuals who are actively seeking employment or another form of affordable health insurance.

The third step to finding affordable health insurance for the unemployed is to contact your state’s department of insurance and request information about subsidiaries for which you’re eligible. Most states provide some form of free or low-cost health coverage for residents who meet certain income requirements. Some states even have special low-cost health insurance plans for people who can’t otherwise obtain health insurance. At the very least, you should find a free or low-cost health coverage program that will provide health care for your children, or assistance with special health care needs (i.e. diabetes, mental health, female health check-ups and conditions, etc.)

A change in your employment status doesn’t mean a change in your health needs. It may take some footwork, but it’s possible to find affordable health insurance for the unemployed.

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