Recent legislation means there will likely be an increase in the number of people shopping for health insurance. Insurance companies are sure to compete fiercely for their share of this new market by offering some very attractive packages. Health insurance is a complex contract put together by company lawyers focused upon maximizing profits. Many insurance companies do have compassion and respect for patients and operate with positive customer service attitudes. On the other hand, there are some companies that make claims of service or promises they have no intention of keeping. This article will try to expose some of the pitfalls the shopper might encounter when buying individual health insurance.
Low prices are always attractive in any purchase but consumers have learned that the lowest price does not always indicate the best value. Extreme low rate health insurance plans sometimes use hidden rules to keep costs low or simply offer very limited coverage. People who expect to get something in return for the premiums they pay must be careful when basing their decisions on low price alone. Even before legislation brought new customers into the market, insurance companies used innovative and often unscrupulous ways to limit benefit payouts.
The most effective cost control was based on finding and avoiding those patients who were expensive to cover. The horror stories about insurance companies dropping people who were diagnosed with expensive-to-treat conditions are common. Persons who had pre-existing chronic conditions were regularly refused coverage. Smokers, overweight people and those diagnosed with depression were routinely denied. These practices vividly demonstrate the lack of compassion that most insurance companies operate with.
Over the years insurance companies have created many ways to limit coverage. Health maintenance organization and preferred provider organizations were set up to let the insurance companies negotiate for lower cost services from providers. The heath care providers agree to accept lower payments for services and the insurance company agrees to require patients to use the contract provider. This can be a problem if the contract provider is out of the patient’s area or offers sub-standard care. The cost of choosing another provider can be a much larger co-pay or complete denial of coverage.
Health insurance plans are available with a very wide range of deductibles, coverage limits, payment plans, and many other options. There is sure to be some standard coverage level established to meet the government requirement. If the buyer’s intention is primarily to meet the legal requirement he must make sure the policy he chooses actually qualifies.
The idea behind requiring insurance coverage was to dilute the insurance companies’ roster of high-cost insured people with a larger number of low-cost healthy people. This should allow the cost of insurance to be lower for everyone. In the past, young healthy people rarely paid for health insurance for themselves and only purchased health insurance when they began families. The most successful insurance companies will have a higher ratio of young clients. Buyers can expect companies to implement progressive rates based on age, marital status, unhealthy lifestyle or other criteria.
The growing health insurance market is certain to bring out new insurance companies with varying degrees of integrity. Buyers must be cautious and suspicious of new companies making outrageous claims or having super-low rates. Aggressive companies can find hundreds of obscure ways to deny payments and a buyer might find himself paying for an essentially worthless policy.
Try to get a written copy of the policy and read it before making a commitment. Do some online research into a company’s reputation for paying claims or denying coverage. Research will help the shopper make informed decisions before buying individual health insurance.
In recent months, the discussion of how and where to obtain individual health insurance plans has been in the news. Buying individual health insurance is one way to get medical and drug insurance coverage.