Short-Term Health Insurance Can Be A Life Saver
Rising medical costs make individual health insurance a necessity. One accident, one serious illness, or one debilitating condition can destroy a lifetime of wealth. Occasionally, individuals may find themselves temporarily without individual health insurance due to graduating from college, changing jobs, or becoming too old to remain on their parents’ policy.
The solution is short-term health insurance. These policies allow you to purchase individual health insurance from health insurance companies for periods of 12 to 36 months, 12 months being the norm. By investing in affordable short-term health insurance, you are protecting yourself from potential physical and financial disaster.
The Importance Of Health Insurance
Individual health insurance not only provides you with preventative measures such as immunizations and regular exams, but they also allow you to receive early diagnosis for more serious conditions, which makes treatment far more effective. Studies have shown that uninsured individuals are 30-50% more likely to require medical attention for avoidable conditions than those with independent health insurance.
If you’re young and healthy, you may not believe individual health insurance is necessary or worth the money. However, consider that a single emergency room visit averages $3,300. If you don’t have that kind of money to throw around, the cost of individual health insurance looks far more affordable.
Short-Term Health Insurance Gets You Through Transitions
Short-term or temporary insurance policies provide you with coverage during transition periods of your life, regardless of your age. Since these policies are underwritten, you generally must be healthy to qualify. Individuals with pre-existing conditions normally cannot get short-term health insurance. Health insurance companies are willing to provide short-term policies only because they do not expect you to file a claim.
Short-term individual health insurance is generally less expensive than other types of insurance. If you lose your access to a job-related policy or your parents’ policy, you may be able to extend those policies through COBRA, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, so long as certain conditions are met, but even those policies tend to be more expensive than short-term policies. In addition, you must become knowledgeable about your rights and responsibilities before allowing a policy through COBRA to lapse. A lapsed policy causes you to lose many of your rights. You may be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions and you may be ineligible to purchase an independent health insurance policy later on.
Know What You Are Buying And What You Must Pay
Many healthy individuals are able to receive short-term comprehensive coverage for as little as $100 each month. For some, the premium may be even less. The important things to know before signing onto a policy are what is covered, how much you must pay, and any other restrictions or responsibilities the insurance company requires of you.
Short-term individual health insurance does not generally cover preventative care. Short-term insurance is useful in cases that require hospitalization, expensive diagnosis, or emergency care. It is important to understand how your deductible works and how much it is. If your deductible is too high, you will be paying for much of your medical care yourself. If your deductible is too low, it will cause your premiums to increase.
Short-term individual health insurance is an inexpensive way you can protect yourself against serious illness or injury during periods of transition in your life. There are specific limitations to coverage, but short-term insurance is far better than no insurance at all.
About the Author
Christine O’Kelly is a contributor writer for Health Insurance Finders. She conducts in depth research on topics such as short-term health insurance, Student health insurance, group health insurance.
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