If you’re struggling to make ends meet, you might think you can save a little money by canceling your health insurance policy. While this can certainly save you some money on your immediate monthly expenses, canceling your health insurance coverage or failing to purchase health insurance can have devastating long term effects.
Avoiding Financial Catastrophe
Perhaps the most important reason to have health insurance is to avoid bankruptcy if and when, you develop a major medical problem. The reality is that major health problems like cancer or other serious conditions can cost millions of dollars to treat. If you don’t have insurance coverage in place, you will be stuck having to pay these expenses out of your own pocket. And if you find yourself unable to pay these expenses, you may be forced into bankruptcy or to follow other drastic measures to repay the debt.
Expediting Recovery
When you’re sick or injured, worrying about how you’re going to pay your medical expenses can actually slow down your healing process. After all, the added stress brought on by excessive worry can wear out your body. In addition, you may be tempted to skip certain beneficial medical procedures in order to save money. As a result, you may prolong your suffering, and fail to meet successful treatment. With health insurance coverage in place, you don’t have to be as concerned about finances and you can concentrate on healing instead.
Planning for the Future
Failure to have a health insurance plan in place while you are younger can make it difficult if not impossible for you to obtain health insurance when you get older. This is because most health insurance companies will not provide coverage to a person with a pre-existing condition, a health issue the person had before seeking health insurance coverage.
If the insurance company does issue a policy to someone with a pre-existing condition, that condition may be excluded and the cost of the premiums will be much higher than they would be for someone without a pre-existing condition. If you already have an insurance policy in place before the condition develops, on the other hand, you don’t have to worry about trying to obtain coverage at a later date.
While everyone is aware that the cost of health insurance is on the rise, you truly cannot afford to not have coverage. By shopping around and choosing a policy that only provides you with the coverage you need, however, you can keep your costs affordable while keeping yourself protected.
Discussing your options with a qualified insurance professional can save you grief, worry and money.
By: Steven Klein
Posts Tagged ‘Health Insurance Companies’
Why Having Health Insurance is Crucial
January 14th, 2010Small Business Group Health Insurance
January 5th, 2010
Much controversy exists over health insurance. Debate as to how a health insurance company can maintain its solvency against the cost of maintaining its clients’ health has given rise to conflict. The right to stay fit and healthy is one basic human right that cannot be altered in any way. The argument as to how health insurance companies take care of their own interests continues to remain hanging.
Owning a small business will likely open doors for only a small group of employees. Keeping the best and trusted employees happy requires more than paying them enough money for food and shelter. As an employer, you need to endow your employees with the necessary benefits to compensate for all their efforts so that they can enjoy the rights they have as laborers.
If you are, however, the type of employer who has never considered offering insurance, then, the concept of small group health insurance may be far beyond your imagination. Starting off with a relatively small business limits your capacity to handle financial burdens. Moreover, sponsoring a small group health insurance plan can be very expensive, especially if there are only a few employees under your care.
A small staff covered by small business group health insurance plan is likely to be charged a higher cost by the health care provider. So what can you do as the employer to help ease this situation? For humanitarian considerations, it will be very generous of you to provide your employees with appropriate health benefits. Sponsoring a small business group health insurance can be done in an affordable manner if you know the ins and outs of doing do.
Providing a brilliant healthcare package is likely to add to the appeal of the company and help the company to gain more talented applicants while keeping the experienced ones happy. Take time to browse the net for reasonable premiums of small business group health insurance plans. Remember, you can always save money while compensating your staff. It is just a matter of crossing bridges and making things happen.
By: Max Bellamy
Arizona Group Health Insurance
January 5th, 2010
If you are starting out a business in Arizona and intend to employ people, it makes sense to thoroughly study the laws governing Arizona group insurance. You need to understand state and federal laws as well as individual regulations of health insurance companies in order to provide the best care you can for your employees while also protecting yourself as the employer.
There are some basic elements of Arizona group insurance. If you have a small business in Arizona (if you employ only two to fifty employees during one calendar year), you are not required to provide group health insurance to your employees. But sometimes you need to do this as an added incentive to your hard workers and potential recruits. If you decide to offer group insurance, you should keep two considerations in mind: health insurance eligibility requirements and premium payments.
You should understand health insurance eligibility requirements. As the employer, you are in charge of establishing the eligibility of your employees for health insurance. Most insurance companies offer you guaranteed issue deals that let you and your employees skip medical underwriting.
However, you still have the power to decide who among your employees are eligible for group insurance and who are not. Do you only give group health insurance to full-time employees, or do you include part-time workers? What constitutes full-time and part-time work? How long should an employee have been working for you before he or she qualifies for group insurance? Do you also cover his or her dependents; and if so, to what degree?
You should also consider the premium payments. In Arizona, you will typically be required to shoulder at least 50% of your employees’ portions of the premiums – this is the average percentage that insurance companies impose as an employer’s minimum contribution towards his or her employees’ health insurance payments. You may opt to cover all of your employees’ premiums; if you do so, you will not be required to contribute anything to their dependents’ plans.
By: Eric Morris