The writers and editors at the Health Insurance Resource Center put the pieces of the medical insurance puzzle together for you in our Health Insurance 101 section, as well as shifting through the best information from across the Internet throughout our pages:
Finding individual health insurance for your family can be confusing. We provide several tools to help you make better choices.
What can you do to provide low-cost protection for your family's health? Here at the Health Insurance Resource Center, we strive to make you a better-informed consumer to aid you in your quest to secure and keep an adequate health plan for your family, regardless of your individual situation.
It sounds dire, but it's essential that you have health insurance for you and your family. More than 60 percent of bankruptcies in the United States are the result of medical bills. Sadly, if you're self-employed, you could be one major illness away from bankruptcy or losing your business.
In addition, over a recent six-year period, an estimated 137,000 Americans died due to a lack of health insurance. They either received too little care or received that care too late.
Medicaid, Medicare or the military. If you are self-employed, or if your employer does not offer health insurance, you'll likely turn to the private market to purchase an individual health insurance plan.
Getting individual coverage is typically more difficult than qualifying for than a group plan offered by an employer; policies are individually underwritten, which means that the insurance company will closely scrutinize your complete medical history.
When they agree to insure you, they are betting that you will pay more into the company in the form of premiums than they will pay out for your medical claims. Therefore, if you already have a medical condition, they may refuse to insure you – or they may put a "rider" on your policy that will not pay for that pre-existing condition.
Because of profit-driven practices such as denial based on pre-existing conditions and rescission, options available to the self-employed and others without employer-based insurance are slim. But there are still options.
First, learn how to manage your risk. Decide how much debt you can manage should a serious illness occur, and consider opting for a high-deductible policy. You'll pay for all your normal medical bills out of pocket and rely on your insurance only in the event of a catastrophic illness.
Another strategy is for the spouse of a self-employed person to take a job at a company that provides medical insurance. Often that job may do no more than pay for the employee's share of the insurance and childcare, but at least you are protected from a catastrophic illness.
A recent Harvard University study revealed that 45,000 adults in the United States die each year because of lack of health insurance plans.
Around 60.1 million Americans will be uninsured by 2020 if we do not adopt strong health care reform.
How Health Reform Can Help Rural Areas
About 35 states offer a health insurance high risk pools for people who have been denied coverage by private insurance companies. In a few places, like Minnesota, these plans are robust and offer an affordable – albeit higher-than-average-price – alternative.