Okay so there's a few important things to consider before you enroll in any kind of health insurance this year and whether you're thinking about enrolling in your employer health insurance or signing up for coverage using healthcare. It's super important to understand the health insurance lingo and what questions to ask if you want to avoid making the typical expensive mistakes that people make when picking the health benefits that they need.
Health insurance plans are notoriously confusing and when you're really sick and you need to pay for health carers, it's just not the time to figure out that you pick wrong. Deciding on the best health plan for you and your family will depend on your health, your finances, and of course, any ongoing medical needs and there's no one size fits all when it comes to health coverage. Every situation is unique and different. The truth is health insurance and healthcare can be so overwhelming that some people just tune out, sign up and hope they get it right when they need it. I mean something could be better than nothing right, but that's not right. In fact, if you're generally healthy, then statistically speaking, there's an 80 to 90 percent chance you won't use the health insurance this year. So how much of those premiums again? And these health insurance plans are less transparent than a DC politician.
They made up terms like HMO. PPO. LOP. So you need a translator or an insurance broker just to understand what you're paying for and waiting for serious health issues to come along is just not the right time to find out that there's a problem with your health insurance. You also have to realize that rushing into health insurance can have real life consequences for your health and your finances and waiting to get sick to find out how your health insurance works can be stressful and harmful to your health. Many times with bigticcket Healthcare, your choices and providers and procedures will be determined by your health insurance and not you. That is unless you have a medical costsuring plan without all those network restrictions. So here's a few things to know before you pick a health plan.
One question that we hear a lot is Why can't I just enroll in health insurance any time of the year like medical cost sharing? That's because insurance companies don't want people waiting to get sick before they sign up. So they came up with an open enrollment window to protect the insurance company from what's called adverse selection. That would be like buying homeowners insurance the day of the big Flood.
In contrast, you can enroll in Medical costs sharing plans any time of the year. That's because they insulate the community from adverse selection, by phasing in a new member's pre-existing health conditions over a short period of time usually just three years.
This keeps the monthly rates low and predictable which is really attractive especially for people who are generally healthy like you and with insurance. It always comes down to one thing when the feathers hit the fan.
Who will pay and how much? How much will the insurance pay and how much will you pay? The premium is just your monthly cost of insurance, and once you pay it that money is gone. There's no refunds for unused insurance? Wouldn't that be great if they gave you some kind of cash back for staying healthy now, your deductible. COPPA and co-insurance are all additional costs that only come up if you go in for expensive healthcare. For example, with a 6 thousand dollars deductible, you'll pay the first 6 thousand dollars before the insurance pays a dime. Now. Fortunately, most people never hit their deductible. That's because most people are generally healthy. Also, it's worth noting.
Always do your best and never get sick on New year's Eve because if you've met your deductible for the year but your medical condition continues from one year into the New Year, your deductible starts all over again at zero so you could end up paying the whole deductible twice for the same illness. And this is just another example of how medical cost sharing works so much better than insurance.
Because unlike an insurance deductible the initial unshared amount, it's actually tied to the episode of care, not the calendar. So whether it's a weekend in the hospital or a long-term fight against something bad, you only pay the unshared amount one time and the rest of your bills are shared regardless of how long it takes you to get well again. Healthy people are attracted to high deductible health insurance because of the lower premiums, but don't forget to put some money aside for routine health needs too. And if you're healthy and considering a high deductible health plan, you should also consider a lower cost medical costs sharing plan for comparison purposes, of course, with insurance. And until you've met your deductible, you'll be required to pay the cop-ayy amount for each doctor visit, diagnostic test or medical procedure.
The COPAYS is negotiated between your insurance company and your doctor.
Some people choose to avoid cop-pays by signing up for what's called Direct Primary Care memberships. With this new breed of medical provider, you simply pay a monthly membership fee and get unlimited primary care at no additional cost. This new approach to routine healthcare needs also works really great alongside medical costharing memberships. Now co-insurance is a real sleeping bear that only wakes up when your medical bills exceed your insurance deductible. After you've met that fat deductible, then you pay an additional ten to 50 percent of the remaining bills up to the max outof- pocket amount that can be twice your deductible. Co-insurance is just another reason healthy people love medical cost sharing because once you've paid that initial unshared amount, 100 percent of the remaining bills are shared until you get better with insurance. You also have to worry about the insurance network which only matters if you get sick.
And the financial penalty for going outside the insurance network can dramatically increase your out-ofpocket costs. Networks are meant to steer policy holders to certain providers. They make it prohibitively expensive to see non-network doctors, so if you've got a favorite doctor, you should pick your coverage. With that in mind, insurance controls and restrictions are just one more reason that millions of people have chosen medical cost sharing over traditional health insurance.
So they're free to see any doctor they want without being penalized. If you need more help finding individual coverage, there's plenty of health insurance navigators who will help you buy insurance. That is right for you.
Your local health insurance agent can do the same thing buyer beware. These agents can have a financial incentive to push some plans over others if you're enrolling in government-ponsored health insurance. The Affordable Care Act website. Healthcare has lots of information and search functions for getting local help. If you're interested in learning a little bit more about Health Sharing Check Out Our Website Via the Image Below