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Your Life May Depend On The Right Health Insurance
Making the investment in health insurance can mean the difference between being able to provide medical care for your loved one or sinking into debt and losing everything over a serious illness or accident. This article can help demonstrate the importance of insurance and how easy it can be to get.
When considering a health care insurance plan from your employer, consider any lifestyle changes that may have taken place, that would effect your rate. Circumstances such as getting married, having children and being diagnosed with a disease may effect your rates. It may be smarter to check with other providers to see if they can provide a better rate.
If you find yourself without medical insurance, you can still get medical care, but you will be paying for all of it yourself. To keep costs in line, use walk-in clinics, county health services and talk to your personal physician. Many will charge a bit less or work with you to set up a payment plan.
Make sure your health insurance is not being "grandfathered" in. Some companies do not have to provide the new changes required by law, because they have been in business for a very long time, or they know someone higher up. If your policy is one of these, start looking for a new company.
If you are the sole proprietor and only employee of your business, you may be able to negotiate group health insurance rates in some states. In this case, you would be considered a "business-of-one". If you are self-employed, in need of health insurance and just cannot afford private insurance rates, be sure to ask your insurance agent if your state offers this option.
Check your health insurance policy to make sure your spouse gets the same coverage you do. Some insurance companies will only provide the same coverage for your spouse if you pay a much higher premium. Search for a policy that offers you both the same benefits, for a price that you can afford.
When and if you get a follow up call from the insurance company keep your answers simple and to the point. Don't give any additional information unless asked. You aren't protected by privacy rights with the follow up call and your call may be recorded, so think before you speak.
Never enroll in a health insurance policy by paying with cash. You want to have a good solid record of what you paid and when you paid it. Paying with a check or a credit card is going to be the evidence that you need if anything should happen and you have to go to court to prove when you started your policy.
Avoid replacements to health insurance plans. Some alternatives to health insurance plans offer very specific coverage. While they might cover anything from cancer to Ebola, they are mostly useless to you. Save the money you would be throwing away on them. Just buy a proper health insurance plan, when you can afford it.
To find the most cost-effective health insurance policy for you and your family, think long distance. Look at how much your health coverage cost for the last year in total, including co-pays, dental, vision, prescriptions, and deductibles. Use these numbers as a base for figuring out what the best policy would be.
When getting ready to change health insurance policies, be aware of your costs when it comes to eye-care, too. This is just as important as other types of medical care. If you wear contacts or glasses, you need to know how much they cost you a year. Also, keep track of the prices you pay for lens cleaners and other related supplies.
When you find out that you are having a child, you need to contact your health insurance company. It is important to have your child insured before they take their first breath. This way you can be certain that if anything happens that requires medical treatment, you're certain your child has the coverage that they need.
Whether you pay all or just a portion of your prescriptions, or you have a Health Spending Account to cover those purchases, you want to look for a deal when buying your pills. Check out pharmacies at either major discount retailers, or membership club stores, as their prices will often be very low.
In preparation for changing health insurance policies, you need to take into account all of your medical care costs. This is especially true if you have a medical problem that requires renting or purchasing medical equipment such as oxygen tanks click here or wheel chairs. Figure out these expenses, both with coverage and without.
A Health Spending Account allows you to invest some of your pre-taxed earnings in a way which allows you to spend the capital or the earnings on medical costs. All money deposited to the account is tax-free unless you withdraw it for non-medical spending. Check what the federal limits are for you before you start depositing.
When moving to a new state you need to find out if there are any laws where you now reside that might affect your health insurance coverage. For example, the age of your dependents may cause them to lose coverage on your insurance. Also, whether or not your child is enrolled in school could affect their coverage as well.
If you are seeking health insurance, consider any pre-existing health conditions and exclusions before choosing a policy. Some policies may not cover medical expenses related to a pre-existing condition, even maintenance medications. Because these expenses can mount quickly, it may be worthwhile to consider a more expensive policy with fewer exclusions.
On your insurance application, make sure that you're only answering the questions that are asked of you. You do not need to delve into any more detail than what the health insurance company requires of you, so try to avoid volunteering any unnecessary information. They know enough about you already.
If you are dissatisfied with your health insurance company, and the customer service office gave you no satisfaction, bring your complaint to the consumer affairs division of your state's insurance department. This division can investigate the problem and can offer help in finding a resolution for your complaint. Sometimes getting a state agency involved can get the insurance company to cooperate.
As you can see from the powerful tips included in this article, the health insurance maze is not as complex or as daunting, as many people believe. It's time to stop wondering what to do and start using this advice to deal with the important purchase of good health insurance.
People with disabilities left behind by telemedicine and other pandemic medical innovations
Divya Goel, a 35-year-old deaf-blind woman in Orlando, Florida, has had two telemedicine doctors' appointments during the pandemic. Each time, she was denied an interpreter.
Her doctors told her she would have to get insurance to pay for an interpreter, which is incorrect: Under federal law, it is the physician's responsibility to provide one.
Goel's mother stepped in to interpret instead. But her signing is limited, so Goel, who has only some vision, is not sure her mother fully conveyed what the doctors said. Goel worries about the medical ramifications — a wrong medicine or treatment — if something got lost in translation.
"It's really, really hard to get real information, and so I feel very stuck in my situation," she signed through an interpreter.
Pandemic-fueled shortages of home health aides strand patients without care
Pandemic-fueled shortages of home health aides strand patients without care
Telemedicine, teleworking, rapid tests, virtual school, and vaccine drive-throughs have become part of Americans' routines as they enter Year 3 of life amid Covid-19. But as innovators have raced to make living in a pandemic world safer, some people with disabilities have been left behind.
Those with a physical disability may find the at-home Covid tests that allow reentry into society hard to perform. Those with limited vision may not be able to read the small print on the instructions, while blind people cannot see the results. The American Council of the Blind is engaged in litigation against the two dominant medical testing companies, Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics, over touch-screen check-in kiosks at their testing locations.
Sometimes the obstacles are basic logistics. "If you're blind or low-vision and you live alone, you don't have a car," said Sheila Young, president of the Florida Council of the Blind, pointing to the long lines of cars at drive-through testing and vaccination sites. "Who can afford an Uber or Lyft to sit in line for three hours?"
One in 4 adults in the US have some sort of disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though barriers for the disabled have long existed, the pandemic brings life-or-death stakes to such long-running inequities.
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