Welcome to our website about all things related to Inexpensive Health Insurance for all people. We want to provide you with useful information that will assist you in making informed decisions when it comes to your personal and family health insurance needs. In today’s financial environment, with a sluggish economy and unemployment on the rise, every penny counts.
Health insurance costs are rising every year at an alarming rate. Numbers from the National Coalition on Health Care’s website indicate that in 2008 alone, health care expenditures were expected to rise close to 7% (somewhere near twice the current rate of inflation). Even corporations are feeling the bite of rising costs and passing it on to their employees as premium increases – to the tune of 5%. In the US, we spent close to 2.4 trillion dollars on health care in 2008. This is a trend that doesn’t appear to be slowing down in the coming years either. I think we will be somewhere near 4 trillion dollars in national spending on health care costs by 2016. It isn’t just confined to the US either, however, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development we appear to be more inefficient than other countries (examples: Germany, Switzerland, and Canada) based on our national spending as a percentage of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The future of health care in the US doesn’t look good. I think we can all agree on this point. Even with a new administration in the White House, different perspectives on health care from political leadership, and new policies being proposed daily it would be years before we are able to see any real relief from this burden. I sincerely hope that new President Barack Obama can find a way to get both the Republicans and Democrats on the same page and do some good for the American people when it comes to health care policy, but I’m not counting on it. The only ones we can count on are ourselves when it comes to finding inexpensive health insurance.
These are some of the reasons that we decided to start this site. We want to assist in every way we can so you can look forward to upcoming posts that will lay out possibilities, plans, and opportunities for some relief in this expensive arena. If you use all the options available to you from choosing the right lifestyle to choosing the correct health care plan there is a possibility you can see some venues that will allow you to take a route off of the health insurance tollway.
We’ve all seen that one insurance commercial. It quacks me up. But inexpensive health insurance is no quacking matter (ok, I’m done with the puns now). Health insurance plans don’t always cover everything, in fact they usually don’t. So many times it pays to have the extra peace of mind that supplemental health insurance can give you. And there are real benefits as well, especially if you lose your job or are unable to work .
Sometimes supplemental insurance is necessary for those on Medicaid because it doesn’t cover several of the services that many people, especially seniors, might need. These are services such as long term care or in home care or prescription medications. Supplemental health insurance is typically cheaper than a PPO or HMO program but the benefits it provides are reduced as well. Really, you shouldn’t consider supplemental health insurance as a replacement for a PPO or an HMO – that isn’t what it was designed to do.
You need to pay attention to the supplemental need that you are attempting to fill with this type of insurance. You can find supplemental policies for accidents, diseases, and hospital stays. With hospital stays the policy is mainly a reduced type of the previously discussed indemnity policy. The accident policies can cover everything from compensation for time lost at work to covering bills that are due. The disease policies called condition specific can cover anything from a stroke to cancer to a heart attack.
As I stated previously, peace of mind that even in the midst of catastrophe your financial need can be provided is the overwhelming reason to have this insurance. Since it fills the cracks left open by other policies you can use a supplemental health insurance policy to bring down the cost of your main policy as well by focusing on certain aspects of both policies to make sure you have complete coverage at the best possible cost. It can help you attain inexpensive health insurance if you use it correctly.
I thought that we should give you some tips that we use when we are looking for inexpensive health insurance for our friends and families.
1. Shop Around – This tip, of course, is well known. But it is still good advice to heed. In today’s high volume of available data online or otherwise, there just isn’t a good excuse not to find the best deals offered. Make sure you comparison shop with many providers, not just the top three or four.
2. Group Plans – It used to be the only group health insurance plans were available from your employer. This is no longer the case. Now you can find organizations which cater to the self-employed (for example: National Association for the Self-Employed or NASE for short) or to certain demographics of society such as professional organizations or alumni associations.
3. Government Assistance – Not talking about Medicaid here. Many times the state governments will have some health insurance programs available. For instance, Arkansas, under the leadership of then Governor Mike Huckabee, instituted a program called ARKids First which covered all kids under a certain age who did not have health insurance available to them, or whose parents couldn’t afford it. Check and see if your state has a similar program.
4. Government Programs – The federal government has started to introduce legislation to assist US citizens with their health care needs. Although no fix is in place there are some programs that make it easier to reduce the cost associated with health care. For instance you can use a Health Savings Account (HSA – this can be especially effective if you use it in conjunction with a health insurance plan) which allows you to choose a certain amount of your income to be set aside before taxes are taken out (this is known as pre-tax dollars) for the purpose of paying for health care needs. I have one and I love it. I save an additional 30% (because of the pre-tax dollars) when paying for health care needs. You should look into them, they are worth it.
5. Read The Fine Print – Make sure you look at your insurance policy options carefully because you may be able to find somewhere in the plan itself where money can be saved. Maybe you can increase your deductible a reasonable amount to decrease your overall monthly premium (and if you pair this with an HSA you will always have your deductible available to you in an emergency and will save a percentage as well) or maybe there is another option in the plan that you haven’t carefully considered that will help the pocket book.
6. Ask Questions – All health insurance providers provide assistance to help you understand the policy. It can be confusing. This is a situation where there really are no stupid questions, or at least the only stupid questions are those that go unasked. This is also important when looking for other types of insurance. Sometimes you can even get good references to other types of insurance policies by asking questions. You may even find some good life insurance leads to mitigate your risk further. Understanding your policy is key in getting inexpensive health insurance.
These are the tips we use when we are looking for the best deal on inexpensive health insurance. Follow them and you will be on the right track to finding the plan or provider you need.