Be very careful before you apply for health insurance. Not all of them are the same. Some of these plans look like they are real health insurance, from a private insurance company, when they are nothing of the sort. You may want to avoid something called Medi-Share, which is exempt from the health insurance regulations that real insurance companies have to abide by.
Not all health insurance plans are created equal. You might remember the controversy surrounding the mini-med health insurance plans that some large corporations, (such as McDonalds), were offering their employees. The mini-med plans are inadequate based upon the standards set by the federal government. Many of the mini-med plans came with a cap, and once an employee went over that cap, then their insurance plan would cover absolutely nothing more for the rest of that year.
The cap was set so low that it could easily have been blown through by one visit to an ER. This would leave the person who had been paying the health insurance premiums with no other choice than to cover the cost of his or her medical care out of pocket, often while still being required to pay the premiums for the insurance plan that would no longer offer him any financial benefit whatsoever.
This is when the federal government stepped in, and started taking a close look at these types of health insurance plans. They put together regulations to prevent consumers from being taken advantage of by their insurance companies. Laws have been set in place that regulate not only mini-med plans, but many other health insurance plans from private companies as well.
However, there are some plans out there that appear to be real health insurance when they are not. The Medi-Share plan does not come from an insurance company, it comes from a Christian “ health care sharing ministry”. This means that it is exempt from the rules that protect consumers from being treated poorly by private insurance companies. There is nothing requiring this plan to follow through on it’s promises to help a customer pay for his or her health care costs. Real insurance companies are required to have enough capital reserve to cover the cost of an unusually expensive case, but there is nothing requiring the Medi-Share program to do the same. There is also nowhere for a customer to turn to if the Medi-Share program decides to refuse to pay for your medical care.
If you are having problems finding affordable health insurance, there are other options out there. If you recently lost you job, you might be able to get COBRA to help you. If you are over age 65 you may qualify for Medicare. There may be a clinic in your area that accepts patients who have no health insurance, and they may be willing to use a sliding scale for billing, based on your income. People who are paying for the Medi-Share program do not technically have health insurance, which may be a problem in 2014 if all Americans are required to buy health insurance at that time.
Image by K Sandberg on Flickr