Finding An Affordable Florida Health Insurance Plan
Caught between middle age and Medicare
Finding an affordable Florida health insurance plan when your young and healthy is much easier than finding an affordable plan when your a baby boomer approaching Medicare. With premiums tied to age and health status, a husband and wife in their fifties or early sixties may feel like paying for health insurance is like having a second mortgage.
Even if your lucky enough to have health insurance through your employment, with employers feeling the pain of higher premiums, you may find that you’re shouldering more of the burden. Another common scenerio is either losing your job or having your current employer discontinue coverage. Until any meaningful health care reform kicks in, your on your own. So what are the options?
HSAs, limited benefit plans and discount plans
If you pass underwriting a Health insurance savings account coupled with a high deductible plan could be the answer. There are some potential tax saving involved that could prove to be attractive, but in many cases the premiums are still out of reach, let alone funding the savings account aspect of the plan.
There are also insurance plans available that offer limited benefits. these type of plans are often either indemnity plans that pay a scheduled amount per medical procedure or plans that place a cap on the amount they will pay a provider for a procedure. Although some coverage is better than no coverage, they call it insurance for a reason. If you are paying a sizable premium only to have limited coverage, you may be better off holding on to your money. Plans that pay $200 to $500 per day for each day in the hospital and cap your surgery at a few thousand dollars may not accomplish what you hoped for, and leave you with unpaid medical bills.
There are plenty of discount plans available that claim to cover your entire family for $79.95 or some similar amount. Many claim to have networks were services have been repriced to an affordable level. Getting $10 or $20 off on a doctor visit might not be a bad thing, if you weren’t paying the premium every month. These plans offer no coverage for the catastrophic events.
Option for an affordable Florida health insurance plan
By the time you have reached your fifties or early sixties, you’ve come to realize that it’s not the small stuff that can put you in the poor house, it’s the catastrophic events that are never anticipated. Young people are often more concerned about the co-pay to visit a doctor and less about hospital coverage because they often don’t have the life experience to recognize the truth.
Your best bet is to find a Florida health insurance plan that covers the catastrophic events. Pay out of pocket for the doctor visits, labs and tests. The money you save on a catastrophic-only plan will more often cover your out of pocket costs. Consider a higher deductible to get a lower premium as well as lowering the bar for underwriting if you have some health conditions. Underwriters will be more generous if they believe that their liability will be limited due to a higher deductible.
In addition, make sure that you make a point to have annual check-ups and practice preventive medicine. Even though you are paying out of pocket, if you catch something early, it may cost less in the long run. If you are paying cash for procedures, ask before hand about a cash discount. the medical profession is a business and cash now, verses waiting on an insurance company to pay a claim, may be valuable.
Finding a Florida health insurance plan that is affordable is not impossible. You just need to adjust to the realities. Having coverage for the catastrophic events will allow you to keep more of your money, if the unexpected happens, than a discount plan or a limited benefit plan.
January 8, 2010
Tags: catastrophic health insurance, florida health insurance plan Posted in: Health Insurance
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.