Reader question:

We’ve just started making enough money so that we can seriously think about taking vacations every year. We’re planning the first one now (way ahead of time), and we’re trying to make sure that we do everything right, because we want to travel internationally and we’ve never been out of the country before. What should we plan for with international health insurance?

Mike & Susanne

Great question.

Everybody knows that they should have health insurance at home just in case something happens, and it doesn’t make sense that there are people who don’t think the same for international travel health insurance. It’s much easier to get into trouble when you’re in a place that you’re completely unfamiliar with. What if you end up driving in England? Accidents would be more likely while you’re getting used to their different driving styles. Getting a travel health insurance plan is extremely important, even if you will only be gone for a short amount of time. Here are some tips.

• MEDICAL EVACUATION.

This is one of the most important features for your international health insurance plan to have. If you just stuck with your regular health insurance plan, then you might get at most $1k for medical transportation, which is great at home, considering that an ambulance usually costs around five hundred dollars. However, if you travel outside of the country, one thousand dollars won’t life light you home, so you’ll need a much higher cap for a travel plan.

There are so many cases where Americans will go to a country and get injured or sick, only to arrive at an out of the way local hospital where their needs might not be met. These customers will then have to be transported via helicopter to a hospital more up on Western medicine, and those costs can come up to as much as $50,000–just for the flight!

You might think insurance isn’t necessary when you go on a cruise, but it’s the most important time to get it, especially medical evac coverage. If you’re on a ship, it costs more to get a flight, and the distance will most likely be longer since in most cases you will be being transported back to the states.

• Expect the unexpected.

I think it’s wonderful that the two of you are planning your trip so thoroughly, but there may be one aspect of planning that you’re missing: the possibility of cancellation or delay of your vacation. You might have your insurance, have your bags packed, your tickets paid, your hotel room reserved and everything, only to come down extremely sick the night before you leave. No one wants to go on vacation with a fever, so this can throw all the plans down the drain, especially it comes during that short one week vacation that you only get one time a year.

That’s why you need trip cancellation or interruption insurance. If you get this, then if something comes up so that you don’t get to go on your vacation, the insurance company will pay for any of those tickets, reservations, and so on that you can’t get your money back for. Same goes for if you have to end up coming home early.

• Terrorism.

It’s no fun to think about all of this stuff when you’re planning an exciting trip, but terrorism is becoming more and more prevalent, even in what are considered the safest areas. There have been many acts of terrorism even in Switzerland, where the crime rates are incredibly low. So anywhere you go, there is the possibility, just as there is if you stay at home.

Normally you can get your expenses reimbursed if the U.S. State Department hands out a warning about your destination country due to terrorist activity. You can also usually get your money back if an act of terrorism has been perpetrated in your country or city (depending on the insurance company) of destination within thirty days of your trip.

• Have fun!

The most important thing about your trip is to have a good time. Having international health insurance will make this easier, making you more secure while you’re away from home and able to know that your health is in good hands. Getting with a company that has a twenty four hour customer service line is the best way to keep yourself happy and comfortable with your plan while you are enjoying your trip.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

There are several safety practices that you should observe whenever you are making a purchase, especially when it is a purchase that can have a drastic affect on your life, such as short term health insurance. One of the main safety procedures to follow is to check the background of the company that you are buying your medical health insurance from. You need to know many things about them before you can determine whether or not they are right for you.

Lots of companies are playing tricks by giving out fake policies to various customers. You think you have great coverage and that your policy is real until you need to use it, when you find out it’s fake and that it doesn’t actually work in your state. There are also health insurance companies who don’t have enough money to provide for you if you make a claim, and have a history of screwing people over before. To find out about your health insurance company, call your state’s office of insurance regulation.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

It may be time for you to get medical health insurance if you no longer have a job that provides you with it, have recently graduated from college, or are no longer listed with your parents’ on their medical health insurance plan. Sometimes, it’s hard to make the right decision about your health insurance in this time, because it’s expensive and there are just so many choices available. It also might be true that you are expecting to get another job that provides health insurance soon, or you already have but you have to work there for a certain number of months before you are eligible to opt in.

When you are in a situation like this, you don’t want to make any big commitments, especially with something as expensive and important as medical health insurance. That’s why if you find yourself in these positions, you should buy short term health insurance. Short term health insurance is a health insurance plan similar to more long term ones, but is given for a period of only 6 to 12 months. Sometimes it can be renewed over and over for up to 36 months.

It might be the case that you just can’t afford the cost of regular health insurance, and thus need another option while you try to get back on your feet to the point where you can afford it again. Short term health insurance is cheaper, so it is also helpful for people who don’t have any current prospects for health insurance, but just need something to hold them over in a hard time.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Reader question:

If I am not a legal resident of the United States, but my child is, then can I stil apply for child health insurance for them? Would I be reported to the Immigration and Naturalization Service?

Gloria

Not at all.

The only thing that the people who run the KidCare child health insurance program in Florida are looking at whenever they are approving or denying applications for insurance coverage is the child. If the child is not a legal resident of the United States, then there will be a problem and the child will not be eligible for coverage. However, if the child has acceptable legal status but the parent does not, that does not come in to play at all.

Even if the parent who is applying for the insurance for their child does not have legal immigration status in the United States, the state of Florida will not report the parent to the Immigration and Naturalization services when the parent applies for child health insurance for their kid. A parent would only be reported to the INS if they were applying for something like cash welfare or food stamps and they are not legal or they have a deportation order out on them.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Say you’re going to be traveling to a country where English isn’t the official language. If you want to be understood and to understand, and don’t want to be completely confused while you’re over there, the least you want to do is learn a few key phrases, right? You might not be able to become fluent in the language over night–that only comes with experience–but to a certain degree you can at least be able to get by and not be lost in a such a foreign place.

The same basic principle applies to medical health insurance. These medical health insurance policies often come full of crazy jargon that is not explained and that you don’t understand, and so it makes choosing a health insurance plan difficult because you don’t understand what it means. There are many kinds of medical health insurance, such as:

• FFS, which means indemnity fee for service.
• HMO, which means health maintenance organization
• POS, which means point of service
• PPO, which means preferred provider organization

All of these plans is very unique and individual, and you should consider all of its features before you make a decision on what kind of medical health insurance plan that you want. The last three are considered to be more managed, and the care for yourself and your family is more organized, although it is also more restrictive.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Reader question:

Who can get temporary health insurance?

Mark

Great question.

One of the reasons that short term health insurance is able to offer its policies at such low monthly prices is because it has much stricter limits on who can be covered under one of its medical health insurance plans. It creates a stricter requirement, and thus those that purchase a short term health insurance plan are part of a pool that has less risk, and with less risk come fewer health insurance claims, and with fewer health insurance claims come cheaper rates.

Usually you can’t get short term health insurance if you are over the age of sixty five. More problems that are similar to the amount of pre-existing conditions come with older age, so short term health insurance companies don’t want to cover people who have the higher risk of getting sick or injured more often. It’s also true that if you applied for a health insurance policy before and were denied, you might not be able to get a temporary health insurance policy.

If you already have a health insurance policy that covers you, even if it’s coverage is very limited, you probably won’t be able to get short term health insurance to pick up the slack. Temporary health insurance plans have several requirements, and you’ll probably have to be within a certain height and weight range in order to qualify. It’s also true that there are several questions that you will be asked about your health history that you will have to answer correctly in order to be allowed to take out a short term health insurance policy.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Reader question:

How much does temporary health insurance cost?

Jack

Great question.

The main reason that a lot of people choose to take out a short term health insurance policy is because it is so cheap. The reason it so cheap is because, well, it is short term and its coverage is limited. It does not cover things like pre-existing conditions and preventive care, so they tend to take on people who do not need those things and that lowers the premium payments for everyone. Most people, then, who have temporary health insurance are healthy and loyal as they only have to have the policy for twelve months. That’s a pretty risk free insured group, and without risk and with very few health insurance claims, costs are less.

If you are married and have two kids and live in Chicago, for example, let’s look at your case. You could be paying as little as three hundred dollars every month for the whole family to get one million dollars of temporary health insurance coverage with a one thousand dollar deductible. If you don’t make any claims, you’ll probably be able to renew your plan for three years until you find a long term health insurance coverage.

If you’re just a single guy and want the same thing, you’re looking at a mere seventy bucks a month.

Where the cost really comes in, though, is when you need to file a health insurance claim on your short term health insurance plan. If you have a one thousand dollar deductible, then your 100% coverage probably won’t kick in until five thousand dollars, and before that you will be co-paying.

A lot of companies that offer short term health insurance plans give you the option to pay either all at once or by month. If you pay all at once, you can get a discount.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Reader question:

How does short term health insurance work?

Mac

Like this.

• It’s kind of like an indemnity plan. What that means is that you are able to pick the doctors and specialists that provide you with your medical care without having to get a referral from within your health insurance plan’s network. They will have to be pre-certified in most cases, so you should understand this requirement before choosing a health care provider.
• There are certain limits, but a good deal is provided for, even some mental care, along with the usuals of things like surgery, diagnostics, and prescriptions.
• One of the major drawbacks of short term health insurance is that it doesn’t cover preventive medical care, which is one of the reasons why it is so cheap. It only pays if you get injured or fall ill while your in the policy period. Anything before or after is not their concern.
• Like a lot of health insurance plans, temporary health insurance doesn’t cover anything that involves a pre-existing condition, which goes along with the only within the insured period idea. This is a bad deal for people who have such conditions, but that’s the kind of limit that you get for opting for a cheap health insurance coverage plan. If you’ve had a condition within the last three years, then you are in most cases out.
• Short term health insurance coverage can actually often be renewed for up to three years, but this comes withfurther restrictions. If you had to file a claim during your first year, you probably won’t be allowed to renew. If you did file a claim and are renewed, whatever you filed a claim for is now an existing condition. That means that if last year you got a gunshot wound in your leg and were covered, this year if you get one in your arm you won’t be.
• Lots of temporary health insurance provides offer a one hundred percent money back guarantee within a month if you don’t like your coverage and haven’t filed any claims.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Reader question:

Who needs temporary health insurance?

Rebecca

Great question.

• People in between one job and the next. It is often the case that you will leave a job or be laid off from a job that provides you with health insurance coverage, and find yourself without that coverage while you are looking for another job. This is where short term health insurance comes in. It is true that COBRA law allows you to continue your coverage from your old company for up to thirty six month until the coverage at your next job kicks in, but COBRA premiums tend to cost a lot and you will probably want to avoid them. Getting short term health insurance will help you avoid those high costs and allow you to be well covered until the coverage from your next job comes along.
• College grads. After you graduated from your college or university, the dream job that you spent all of those years studying for doesn’t just pop up out of nowhere. You have to look for it and try for it, and often it isn’t even available to you, despite your education, until you get a lot more real world experience. You may be forced to stick with a job that is less quality and does not provide you with any kind of health insurance coverage. You can get temporary health insurance while you’re looking for a better job. Also consider getting cheaper health insurance through your alumni association.
• When you’re growing up. If a teenager turns eighteen and isn’t enrolled in school or college full time, they will usually be dropped from their parents’ health insurance plan. Although COBRA laws do apply in this situation, too, it is true that these premiums costs quite a bit and it’s a better idea for the teen to get short term health insurance coverage until they make it into a job that provides them with coverage or get a different kind of plan.
• Miscellaneous reasons. There are plenty of other people who get short term health insurance for plenty of reasons, not just those listed above. Some just aren’t ready to commit to a full time insurance policy.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

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Reader question:

What is temporary health insurance?

Annie

I’ll tell you.

Short term health insurance is a great medical health insurance option for people who are on the road in life but haven’t yet arrived. You may be between jobs, or not have a job at all, or it’s possibly that you are temporarily working for a company that does not provide its employees with health insurance coverage. If any of these situations apply to you, then you might want to consider getting temporary health insurance, which is often one of the cheapest medical health insurance options around.

Sixteen million people in the United States take out a new medical health insurance policy every year, and if you’re going to be one of them this year pay attention. It is possible to get cheap medical health insurance, and you don’t have to get catastrophic health insurance to do it. Not everybody has to pay terrible, high rates to get their medical care covered.

Most of these short-term health insurance plans come with up to two million dollars of coverage, and they are intended for people who are already in good health and don’t have any pre-existing conditions. This type of coverage is good for using to go to your check ups so that you don’t develop anything, or to cover any problems that you may develop during the coverage period.

There are many limits to these temporary health insurance plans, so before you settle on one you should make sure that you understand your plan’s limits and they are okay with you. If that is the case, it is also important to understand that short term health insurance really is very short term. For the most part, policies are taken out month by month and can last up to twelve months, although some companies offer policies that extend to thirty six months.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.