Health Insurance Information

Health Insurance Audio found on many of these articles Understanding Your Insurance Options (home) Find Affordable Health Insurance Know These Facts! Buying Health Insurance Paying For Health Insurance

Importance of Health Insurance You Simply Must Have It! It's very important to understand you need health insurance. It's simply one product you cannot do without. It very definitely is expensive, and many companies have unfortunately had to drop medical coverage from their list of benefits, making it more difficult for many to be able to get health insurance. You cannot do without it! Not only could a medical emergency wipe you out financially, but you might tend to neglect medical problems you or your family might have because you do not have coverage and that, moreso than a financial downfall, could be a fatal decision. So you definitely need to make certain you are covered. I can't over-emphasize this. My wife and I went years without coverage and were pretty fortunate overall. We would end up with bills in the $5,000 - $10,000 range, but we worked with the hospitals to help make the debt manageable (an important tip as many hospitals will cut you a break if you simply ask them), and we got by. However . . . . . We got finally got health insurance thru my new employment. We paid about $120 a month and the employer paid the balance. When I left this job, I picked it up myself for awhile until I found my next job, using credit cards, then my employer again picked up most of the costs. Well, during that time my wife, who is a diabetic, was hospitalized for over 3 months, almost dying on 3 seperate occasions. The medical bills were unreal and, fortunately, I had insurance. Had this happened 2 years earlier, I don't know what would have happened. Unfortunately a year or so later, our company dropped this benefit. I knew the importance of carrying health insurance now, so I struggled for 2 months with premiums of $1200 a month, until my wife was granted Medicare due to her disability (now in a wheelchair). Even though I was in top health, I could not get a plan I could afford because I did have high blood pressure. I now had to pay $680 a month until I found out I could get health care from the Veterans, as I had served in the army and in Vietnam. I'm telling you all this to press on you the importance of having health insurance. But how do you obtain affordable cvoverage? Believe it or not, affordable health insurance is definitely available -if you know how and where to look. You want the lowest cost per year that will fit your budget, of course. But, even more importantly, you want a company that has a good record for paying without fighting with you on every detail. You may not be able to afford a "Cadillac" policy - but then you probably don't need all the frills anyway. Shopping for health insurance on the internet is the easiest and best way to find affordable health insurance. You don't need a local agent to help you submit the claims for health insurance. The medical provider does it for you. You save money because the health insurance company saves money by not paying the agent commission. This could amount to an 8% to 12% savings to you. All the top health insurance companies are at your fingertips on the internet. Most local agents can only quote you from the few companies that they represent. They may not offer you what is best for you financially or health-wise but only what they happen to have available. Health insurance companies have to be extremely competitive because it is so quick and easy to compare them with their competitors on the internet today. In the past you would have had to visit physically eight to ten agents to do a similar comparison. Most folks just didn't have the time or desire for that. You can change your coverage, deductibles, and payment options with just a few clicks rather than going through the paperwork delay with a local agent (and then finding out he/she made a mistake - more delay). Charging to a credit card means you aren't going to forget a payment and be without insurance. Also, it gives you another 30 days before you actually have to pay. Also, many companies today give an additional discount for "auto-pay". The key, however, to finding affordable health insurance is realizing that the purpose of any health insurance is to protect you from a major financial loss - not to protect you from spending small money on clinic visits and sliver removal. These small expenses may be cumbersome but they generally will not hurt you. It's the $100,000 heart operation that will break you. That's the financial disaster health insurance was originally designed to prevent. Yes, finding affordable health insurance is much easier than most people think. Taking more of the risk with higher deductibles, spending a little time on the internet comparing eight to ten different companies, and deleting coverage that you will not likely need (such as maternity for many folks) will make it very possible to find your own affordable health insurance.